Recently, I read an article written for this very website called To Girls Wearing "Cheeky" Bathing Suit Bottoms, Please Stop. As soon as I saw the title come up on my Facebook stream I knew that it was most likely something that was going to annoy me, if not completely piss me off. Well, my intuition was right, which is why I know am taking it upon myself to write this rant about why this article is wrong and perpetuates sexism in our society.
First, of, this author proclaims to be "a female who cares about her body and self-image" and states that she is surprised by how little values women today still have. Now I know what you are thinking, this sounds like it is straight out of a 1950's headline shaming women for wearing bikini's, but no this was written in 2017.
Then the article begins to talk about how seemingly bathing suit companies have forgotten that women are around "families and children" during the summer and shouldn't be in these cheeky bathing suits. After reading that I immediately thought about how instead of shaming women for wearing something they want to wear, we should be teaching society not to be uncomfortable with the female body. The author says that these swimsuits do not teach younger generations "about having self-respect or dignity in themselves," but I think it is exactly what it teaches them. I think it teaches younger generations to not succumb to age-old societal pressures that are insured to diminish women and make us feel uncomfortable with our own bodies. But hey maybe she is right, a little bit of ass cheek probably means she doesn't deserve respect or honor.
The next part of her beautiful shaming of women comes wrapped in the beautiful question that is: "BUT do you often see men roaming around in a speedo to attract attention?" To which my answer is yes, and who cares if it is. Thankfully we are in a country that has freedom of self, and if a person wants to do something just for attention, then that is totally acceptable. Also even if mean are not wearing speedos men are still shirtless most of the time. Now, this is when I ask myself if a little bit of skin on the booty is really so offensive but all of a man's chest is ok. But hey, I'm sure that men's skin has to be of a different material or something to not make it so inappropriate, right?
Now the sexist cherry on top of this booty fueled sundae is: "think of yourself as a parent, would you want to see your daughter flaunting "her stuff" in a bathing suit that barely covers anything while boys flock to her every side? I think not." This sentence is something that has been years in the making. It is laced with statements like "boys will act like boys" and "she was asking for it." It perpetuates the idea that girls wearing a certain thing are asking for attention for men and also the idea that women shouldn't be the ones to seek out men. Cause obviously if a girl is wearing a bathing suit she is flaunting her stuff, and not just trying to avoid tan lines. Clearly.
The moral of the story is that regardless of whether a woman is wearing a thong bikini or a one piece or pants and a shirt she deserves the same type of respect. A person's clothing does not decide whether or not they deserve dignity, but rather their actions and words. So to all the beautiful ladies reading this, and the handsome men, wear whatever makes you happy at the beach this summer and be 100% you. Nothing else matters.
