User:Hodgdon's secret garden/Visible penis line

Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley (1798) by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson; the bulge of the subject's penis is clearly visible through his pants.

A visible penis line is a common colloquial term (sometimes abbreviated VPL) for the outline of a man's protruding penis visible from underneath his clothing. Euphemisms sometimes associated with visible penis line include, but are not limited to, the slang metonyms bulge, going commando, and package.

Trouser fashions adopted to either avoid or accentuate this effect include various cuts creating a bagging of material around the groin area by tailored pleats. Tight-fitting knited pants also noted for this effect, such as bike shorts and swim briefs. Men who have large penises are known to avoid (or occasionally to adopt) sitting in open-legged fashion to avoid (or else to perpetrate) the exhibition of this condition.

Some scholars believe that the tight-crotched, pale trousers of the eighteenth century, such as those introduced by the era's (and subsequent eras') formative arbiter of men's fashion George Brummell, were designed to copy the style of dress in classical statuary and so can be thought of as aligned with the Classical Revival in architecture.

See also

• codpiece
• moose knuckle
• slang
• Sticky Fingers