Irony in "The Wife-Beater"

In "The Wife-Beater", the author, Gayle Rosenwald Smith, illustrates irony within the opinions of women based on their attraction to the shirts:  "Some articles quote women who felt the shirts looked great, especially on guys with great bodies (529)".  This quote shows that women like wife beaters in general, but they like them even better on guys with great bodies.  This means that they like them enough to wear wife beaters themselves.  This is an example of irony in this essay because before Smith states this quote, she also states:  "The undershirts also attained popularity at wet T-shirt contests, in which the wet, ribbed tees accentuated contestants' breasts (529)".  This second quote is stating the fact that these shirts are almost degrading towards women.  The tone of the writer's voice through this quote makes it seem like this statement should be very comical, such that people get a laugh out of women wearing these and the audience being able to see through their shirt.  This is degrading towards women because they are almost naive to it in a sense that they don't realize how much it diminishes their quality of a strong woman.  There is a hint of irony between these two quotes.  Connecting these two quotes shows that there is irony present since the first quote explains woman's liking of wife beaters and how they think they are an attractive piece of clothing, while the second quote shows this sense of degrading women by explaining that wife beaters are popular at wet T-shirt contests in which everyone can see through them.  This irony shows that women are foolish for liking wife beaters since they are degrading towards women, based on the example of their popularity at wet T-shirt contests.  Therefore, Smith uses opinions from women in her essay in order to demonstrate irony between the women's opinions and the fact that wife beaters are degrading towards women.