Nope, not to worry, this isn’t another Go Fug Yourself diatribe. This one is about swimsuits.
At Reclusive Leftist, Dr. Violet Socks posted this photo with the caption: “If you wear this bathing suit, no one will know you have a vagina.”
And I admit it made me laugh. Dr. Socks says the photo came from this site, though I can’t seem to find it at the linked page. It certainly fits in thematically, though. (Based on the clothes and head coverings I would haved guessed that Lydia of Purple is a Mennonite, but her site says: “No, we are not Mennonite nor raised Mennonite. However our second married daughter and her husband attend the Mennonite church he was raised in.”)
Last Thursday’s Washington Post contained an article by Robin Givhan called “Ultimate Coverup” in which she mocks “WholesomeWear” swimsuits, a few of which are pictured below:
And yes, they are odd looking and don’t seem like they would be very comfortable to swim in. And there is definitely something downright creepy about the idea of a man “requiring” his wife or daughters to wear swimsuits like that. And I’m very sympathetic to Givhan’s view that:
WholesomeWear may appeal to certain people of faith, but it also raises many lamentable body issues with which women grapple. Most women dread buying a swimsuit. The occasion is fraught with irrational feelings of inadequacy. Women often joke that they would wear a muumuu to the beach if they could. The truth is there’s nothing to stop them from doing just that. But they know the cure for their insecurity is to let go of cultural expectations and their own skewed self-image. The answer is not to hide the body but to cheer for its ability to swim laps or just sedately float — in a bit of form-fitting, aerodynamic nylon and Lycra. That’s not immodesty; that’s confidence.
Okay as far as it goes, but women probably choose “WhosesomeWear” swimsuits for a variety of reasons. Some no doubt do so because of requests by patriarchal spouses or fathers, or due to general Christian nutjobitude, but others may have damaged bodies, or damaged psyches. A person who gets tired of fielding questions about noticeable scars may quite reasonably prefer to cover them. A rape or sexual harassment victim may quite reasonably prefer to hide her curves. Some people need heavy duty sun coverage for health reasons. Shouldn’t feminism leave room for that?
Jill at Feministe posted an endorsement of Givhan’s article, and some of her observations and the comments that followed are a little troubling. She wrote that she “went through a phase in adolescence where [she] always swam with cut-offs and a t-shirt over [her] swim suit.” Then she had a “self-esteem breakthrough” which is wonderful for her, but how about a little compassion for the women still swimming in cut-offs and t-shirts, which sound even less comfortable in the water than the pictured swimwear? As one Feministe commenter noted: “To be fair, I can understand the attraction for wetsuits and coverups for fat people. I haven’t been to the beach in a suit for five years, it’s just too damn embarrassing.” That commenter also observed:
Somebody on another site made the point similar to the one at the end of the article – if you’re the only one at the beach in one of these when everyone else is wearing two-piece or one-piece suits, you’re going to attract a good deal of attention, which is the opposite of modesty.
To this, Zuzu reponded:
Well, that’s the point, isn’t it? Make everyone aware of how MODESTMODESTLOOKITMEEEEI’MMODEST you are?
Well, maybe. But some women who wear revealing bikinis may also be trying to get people to look at them too. So what? If a woman was criticized by a newspaper reporter for wearing an attractive bikini, stentorian cries of “sister shaming” and the like would ring out. Why is this any different? Zuzu added: “Me, I don’t really wear swimsuits in public, but when I do, I throw a pareo and maybe a linen shirt over the thing and I’m both covered and not attracting undue attention for sticking out. Plus, I’m less likely to burn.” Meaning, I guess, that her style of covering her body is perfectly fine; it is only other women’s alternative approaches to the same end that should be ridiculed. Even worse, here’s another comment from the Feministe thread:
I sent the Wholesome Wear link to a friend of mine and he came back with this,”If I ever see someone with that on, I’m gonna holla at ‘em on full mack daddy mode. I love irony.”
Hopefully that is just a joke, because the idea that women who are already so uneasy for whatever reason about showing their bodies that they wear bulky “swimdresses” to a beach or lake or pool are going to get publicly harassed by some judgmental asshole is really disturbing. After this experience last year I’ve been avoiding swimming in the ocean. I’ll be at a beach resort next week for a conference and I may very well stick to the shores in tee shirts and shorts or drapey sundresses. If you don’t like the way I look, move your eyes in another direction.
–Ann Bartow
Update: Below is a nice beachy photo from a Yahoo News story entitled: Temperatures hit upper 90s coast to coast (welcome to my world, y’all):
Ann, I don’t see what your problem is with criticizing “modestwear” that’s designed to draw attention to the modesty on display by being cumbersome, ugly, and entirely not blending in.
You know, the very opposite of actual modesty.
Did you click the Duggar link for the illustration of the point I was making? Do you see how dressing one’s daughters in identical sack dresses with giant collars to be sure that everyone sees how modest and godly one is is the exact opposite of modesty? That it’s a way to draw more attention to the body so one can preen about one’s self-denial and submission to God and the male authority in the family?
The woman wearing a bikini to draw attention to herself at least isn’t in denial about what she’s doing, and she’s not trying to make some statement with her clothing about what a modest person she is.
My issue is this: I don’t think you can look at a woman on a beach and have ANY IDEA why she is wearing a bulky swim dress. Maybe she is some phoney retrograde hypocrite. Or maybe she has a disfiguring skin condition. How about we just leave her in peace?
This sounds like another one of those unspoken conversations you linked to a few posts ago. A woman wears one of those WholesomeWear swimming costumes, and some other women (like Zuzu) hear her saying “MODESTMODESTLOOKITMEEEEI’MMODEST (and you’re a filthy slut)!” A woman wears a bikini, and some other women hear her saying “SEXYSEXYLOOKITMEEEEI’MSEXY (and you’re an ugly prude)!” Whereas a man, whatever he chooses to swim in, may be subject to various aesthetic judgments, but is much less likely to be assumed to be making any sort of statement, let alone a hostile one.
I agree that “there is definitely something downright creepy about the idea of a man ‘requiring’ his wife or daughters to wear swimsuits like that.” And somehow I suspect that the creepy part isn’t the swimsuit; I think it’s probably the requiring. (A man who insisted that his wife or daughters (especially his daughters) wear revealing swimwear would, I’m pretty sure, be at least as creepy….)
Very interesting analysis! I see plenty of men swim at beaches and pools in huge baggy swimtrunks and giant baggy tee shirts, but somehow I don’t think anyone worries about whether they are making a “modesty” statement. I also see men in tiny tight Speedos, and I never think about whether this means they are slutty. Do you? :>)
A comment from Dr. Violet Socks via e-mail:
“I understand and agree with your comments about judging women, so I just want to point out that my post wasn’t a standalone joke. It was a reference to the previous post ( http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/?p=326 ) about a Christian godbag who says that women must keep their”secret gardens”hidden at all times by wearing modest dress.”
Just to be clear, I wasn’t trying to say that anyone who wears these suits or otherwise covers up at the beach deserves to be mocked. My problem is with the marketing of these suits as “modesty-wear,” and with telling women that our bodies are shameful. I take no issue with whatever individual women choose to wear when they swim.
Jill,
You said things in your post like: “these suits are just plain ugly” and “I do hate to make the obvious association, but what other infamous article of clothing does this sound like?” and you referred to them as “cumbersome, tent-like suits” and you said “They look like the unfortunate offspring of an ill-fitting housedress and Jeff Spicoli’s wetsuit. And from what I can tell from the website, they are marketed entirely to white people. White people who also enjoy wearing stupid hats.” Which I read as mocking. You may believe that mocking the suits is different than mocking the women who wear them, but I’m not sure that is a meaningful distinction here.
You also said this:
“Smirking because you’re wearing an ugly bathing suit for a stupid reason (and inexplicably wearing it with reading glasses sitting on your head), or feeling bad for you because your control-freak husband/father doesn’t like your body they way God made it and thinks you’re a temptation to sin, is not the same thing as persecuting you.”
So I did interpret your comments as “tak[ing].. issue with whatever individual women choose to wear when they swim.” I never for a minute thought you would heckle people at the beach, though. I agree with you that the people running WholesomeWear sound really awful. And I agree that in a better world, there wouldn’t be a market for their products. But for women who are currently swimming in cotton tee shirts and shorts, or avoiding swimming altogether because they are uncomfortable about putting their bodies on display, these suits actually have something positive to offer.
Like you, I’d almost rather swim in a snowsuit.
Making no comments on WholesomeWear itself, not all women who practice some form of modesty in theor dress are doing so because their fathers or husbands are making them. The Orthodox Jewish women I know embrace modesty as empowering and as one of their duties to God, and while I don’t necessarily agree with them, I would never presume to belittle their informed decision.
Also, to assume that the function of such a suit is to be More Modest Than Thou is again to ignore Orthodox Judaism. If there’s one thing Judaism is clear about, it’s that the requirements of Jewish life, including kosher and modesty, are for *Jews.* Non-Jews are neither held to these standards nor judged for not following them.
Just something to consider.
Two recent cartoons that seemed apropos:
– Frazz, July 22
– a cartoon by Haefeli in the July 24 New Yorker