A Man What? Call it what you want - shapewear, bodywear or support boxers - guys are going for girdles

(Winston-Salem Journal) - When Jeff Lewis had trouble buttoning his trousers recently, he didn't go on a diet or hit the gym. He reached for a new device: "bodyshaping" underwear. Basically, a girdle.

"It took an inch-and-a-half off my waist," said Lewis, a 26-year-old events coordinator in Phoenix. "It gave me an instant ego boost."

While men's underwear makers go out of their way to avoid the "G-word," a growing number of labels are launching elasticized "shapewear," "bodywear," "support boxers" and other beer-belly-constricting undergarments for men. Men are starting to ease into the idea.