Bikini Season / Women are like Chocolate Cake - Merge

[Shina]

Today some of my FB friends were ripping on this spectacular piece of fundie writing.

Basically she wears a tankini because seeing a woman in a bikini is like being taunted with chocolate cake while you're on a diet. Or something equally stupid. Nothing particularly new here, but it's still infuriating in the typical fundie "women are objects, men are horny pigs" way.

She'd really suffer at the beaches I go to. Toplessness is totally a thing. BOOBIES EVERYWHERE!!

:nenner:

madeinhisimage.org/the-bikini-question/

[argypargy]

So she doesn't wear a bikini to save the poor mens?? Give me a break. Men can control themselves.

I wear a bikini because it makes me feel good. I work my ass off to stay fit, so I like to wear things that show it.

[OkToBeTakei]

I wear a tankini, not to save the mens from my delectable body :P But because I like them. I'm all about the putting on my shorts ready for lunch without having to get changed.

Those 'modest' fundie swimsuits creep me right out. Like wearing a wedding dress to do your weekly shop. I swear they would get more attention than the speedo men and boobie ladies.

Naked babies and sun hats. My favourite thing. Fundies would hate that :(

ETA. No idea what she is talking about. My tanks look nothing like that. Knickers and a vest thing, you can see some belly *GASP* What IS she talking about?

[Azelma]

Haven't read the article, but I've gotta admit that that blue polka dot suit in the beginning of the post is hella cute. I've wanted that one for awhile now, but so expensive!

[Trynn]

I personally call it "Burka Beachwear." (I run with a fundie lite group sometimes, so when I want to go swimming with them, I have to go in oversized shorts and a t-shirt.) I think it's horrible unfair.

[Dinorah]

I wear bikinis because a) I hate the feel of wet one-pieces (and I'm not willing to "sacrifice" my comfort) b) every female around wears a bikini at the beach these days, even little old ladies. Bizarrely enough, men manage just fine to go about their business, swimming sunbathing, reading papers, listening to music, eating ice cream, playing with their kids, without the atomic lust explosion that you'd assume this situation would create.

[NurseNell]

May is melanoma awareness month. Bikini, tankini, one piece doesn't matter, just remember to use lots of sun screen and reapply every 2 hours. Melanoma is no laughing matter, it's an aggressive cancer and chemo doesn't work well.

Also, melanoma isn't just a skin cancer. You can get melanoma inside your eyeball. Wear sunglasses. If you haven't had a recent dilated eye exam get one. Redheads/blondes, fair skin, freckles, and blue/green eyes are risk factors for this rare orphan cancer.

[Jinger Jar]

My family covers head-to-ankle in the sun. We're all blue-eyed blondes who burn, burn, burn, and my husband has had a couple of funky moles removed from his back. Poolside the girls and their dad wear long-sleeved swim shirts and swim tights, and I wear a burkini. And we have matching sunhats. And if that isn't enough we slather sunscreen on the bits that are exposed.

I'm sure we're been mistaken as a fundie or Muslim family at the pool. :lol:

[OkToBeTakei]

May is melanoma awareness month. Bikini, tankini, one piece doesn't matter, just remember to use lots of sun screen and reapply every 2 hours. Melanoma is no laughing matter, it's an aggressive cancer and chemo doesn't work well.

Also, melanoma isn't just a skin cancer. You can get melanoma inside your eyeball. Wear sunglasses. If you haven't had a recent dilated eye exam get one. Redheads/blondes, fair skin, freckles, and blue/green eyes are risk factors for this rare orphan cancer.

Go tell Whiner lady Nell. Her tan is freaking me out!!! Shade and sunscreen are your friends.

[AllisonWndrland]

May is melanoma awareness month. Bikini, tankini, one piece doesn't matter, just remember to use lots of sun screen and reapply every 2 hours. Melanoma is no laughing matter, it's an aggressive cancer and chemo doesn't work well.

Also, melanoma isn't just a skin cancer. You can get melanoma inside your eyeball. Wear sunglasses. If you haven't had a recent dilated eye exam get one. Redheads/blondes, fair skin, freckles, and blue/green eyes are risk factors for this rare orphan cancer.

HOLY HELL. I had no idea that melanoma can occur on places other than skin. I feel really stupid typing that, but I truly had no idea. I always thought it was just skin. I have fair skin, freckles, and blue eyes, as do my daughters. Need to get them some sunglasses! Thank you, Nell!

[Freed]

Someone on my FB feed posted that today. Instant unfriend.

[honeyinthesunshine]

So she wears one piece swim suits, right? So it's the stomach bit she finds 'immodest' right? Maybe it's me, but I just don't get it.

If these specific (seemingly innocent, at least in my mind) body parts are causing those around her to 'stumble', what does she do if there's a foot fetishist at her swimming pool? A chin guy sunning by the bar? An elbow man relaxing in the hot tub? Because really, if we're to follow this bizarre logic to its conclusion, and us ladies really are solely responsible for the thoughts of the men around us, what are we to do?

I suggest that, in the interest of saving the souls around them, these women simply cut the bottom out of a pop up camping tent and wear it as swimwear instead. In fact, scratch that, just wear a pop up camping tent everywhere. It's the only really modest option. Sure, it's near impossible to walk in, and you can't see anything, but modesty is a sacrifice, right?

Edited to add that this is even more modest than wholesome wear, because if a gent is giving you the side eye, you can just sit still, and he'll think you're a dwelling! He'll still view you as an object, just not one he wants to have sex with! Huzzah! You can even store a few of your seven hundred kids inside! It's an idea that just gets better and better!

[louisa05]

HOLY HELL. I had no idea that melanoma can occur on places other than skin. I feel really stupid typing that, but I truly had no idea. I always thought it was just skin. I have fair skin, freckles, and blue eyes, as do my daughters. Need to get them some sunglasses! Thank you, Nell!

Sunglasses protect against more than just melanoma. UV exposure to your eyes can lead to earlier onset of and increase the growth of cataracts and can damage the cornea. My aunt spent summer after summer on a boat on lakes without sunglasses and now has severe damage to her corneas.

Because I have a family history of early cataracts and have a small one already that will likely need to be removed before I am 50 and have extreme photosensitivity due to a hereditary retinal condition, I wear sunglasses outside at all times year round. Our culture tends to view sunglasses as a fashion statement/summer accessory. That is wrong.

[pirouette]

This showed up on my Facebook too. It's horrible stuff-- not quite as blatant as the "if you wear short skirts, you deserve assault" line, but it's the more palatable, less offensive version of that mindset to make the whole idea seem more reasonable to the average person, I think. It took a while to convince one of my friends that this wasn't well-executed sarcasm.

On the bright side, I got to teach some friends a new word: "defrauding." :lol:

(edit for misplaced apostrophe)

[erunerune]

I saw this on FB too -- her entire argument makes no sense and smacks of smug legalism. Calling her refusal to wear a bikini a "sacrifice" made me *headdesk* so. hard.

Her modesty rules are ridiculous as well, since it's really splitting hairs to say a bikini is immodest and a one-piece isn't.

Further, anyone who's ever been to a nude beach knows that it's the people who are *wearing clothes* who are standing out and drawing attention to themselves (because only voyeuristic, uptight pervs would wear clothes on a nude beach I think is the logic). So social norms & any concept of modesty will always be relative regardless of what fundies keep trying to convince people to think.

[Childless]

Today some of my FB friends were ripping on this spectacular piece of fundie writing.

Basically she wears a tankini because seeing a woman in a bikini is like being taunted with chocolate cake while you're on a diet. Or something equally stupid. Nothing particularly new here, but it's still infuriating in the typical fundie "women are objects, men are horny pigs" way.

She'd really suffer at the beaches I go to. Toplessness is totally a thing. BOOBIES EVERYWHERE!!

:nenner:

madeinhisimage.org/the-bikini-question/

I'm on a diet and I wouldn't look twice if someone was eating chocolate cake in front of me. After not having it for awhile, you no longer crave it or find it distracting. Same goes for women in bikinis. After you've seen enough of them, you no longer find them distracting and rarely think about them while at the pool/beach. In fact, I think most people would find someone in wholesome wear more distracting than a woman in a bikini.

[RachelB]

I saw this on FB too -- her entire argument makes no sense and smacks of smug legalism. Calling her refusal to wear a bikini a "sacrifice" made me *headdesk* so. hard.

Her modesty rules are ridiculous as well, since it's really splitting hairs to say a bikini is immodest and a one-piece isn't.

Further, anyone who's ever been to a nude beach knows that it's the people who are *wearing clothes* who are standing out and drawing attention to themselves (because only voyeuristic, uptight pervs would wear clothes on a nude beach I think is the logic). So social norms & any concept of modesty will always be relative regardless of what fundies keep trying to convince people to think.

Agreed. And she's not even wearing a one-piece. A tankini is a two-piece, albeit one with more coverage. It is weird to see a fundie complaining about immodest beachwear while wearing something my not fundie but shy mother will never be persuaded to buy and wear because it doesn't offer enough coverage (though two-pieces are a boon to us long-waisted people, IMO).

[oil]

I guess it I'm the only one here who wear a bikini to get the guys to look at my bod. :lol: Yes, they look, so may be if she went to the beaches I go to, its a good idea for her to cover her skin. The guys WILL look. Yeah! 8-)

[NurseNell]

HOLY HELL. I had no idea that melanoma can occur on places other than skin. I feel really stupid typing that, but I truly had no idea. I always thought it was just skin. I have fair skin, freckles, and blue eyes, as do my daughters. Need to get them some sunglasses! Thank you, Nell!

It's OK, until I got it in my eye I didn't know either. Mine is on my retina. You can even get melanoma where the sun doesn't shine. A friend's mother died of vaginal melanoma. I had a sinus tumor they thought was a melanoma, it turned out to be a different cancer.

Make sure you and your daughters always get a dilated eye exam. It can't be visualized within the eye without dilation. It's rare, 5 - 6 cases per 1 million people but if you're one of the 5- 6 it's a big deal as it is very deadly. It's even rarer in kids but we've had kids between 7 and 18 on our ocular melanoma list.

[NurseNell]

I guess it I'm the only one here who wear a bikini to get the guys to look at my bod. :lol: Yes, they look, so may be if she went to the beaches I go to, its a good idea for her to cover her skin. The guys WILL look. Yeah! 8-)

When you have melanoma you have lots of doctors looking at your body. :cry: My dermatologist is seeing more teens and young adults with melanoma, she said it is very sad.

[OkToBeTakei]

When you have melanoma you have lots of doctors looking at your body. :cry: My dermatologist is seeing more teens and young adults with melanoma, she said it is very sad.

I think wearing a bikini and being on the beach responsibly regarding skin is ok. I adore the beach. I never go out between 11 and 2 even in bloody Scotland on a sunny day. Shade and re-applying suncream regularly can make all these enjoyable and safe.

Australia is the benchmark for sun care. Not to labour the shitty Scottish weather but our schools follow the same Aussie rules. Some skin types for sure are more at risk (did I mention Scottish? :lol: ) But some are luckier. Still better to err on the cautious side.

Regarding flaunting it? I love to see all shapes and sizes being at one with their bodies on a beach. Fuck you fundies.

Guys can look and so can girls. Only those taught to think enjoying the human form is perverse will think it is wrong.

[NurseNell]

I think wearing a bikini and being on the beach responsibly regarding skin is ok. I adore the beach. I never go out between 11 and 2 even in bloody Scotland on a sunny day. Shade and re-applying suncream regularly can make all these enjoyable and safe.

Australia is the benchmark for sun care. Not to labour the shitty Scottish weather but our schools follow the same Aussie rules. Some skin types for sure are more at risk (did I mention Scottish? :lol: ) But some are luckier. Still better to err on the cautious side.

I agree.

[pirouette]

For some reason, the website is no longer working for me. Anyone else having this problem?

But a while ago, I went poking around there to see what sort of group was publishing this (and then realized I was going to be late for something so I couldn't post about what I found.) It's a religious organization that's dedicated, I shit you not, to helping women who are victims of (among other issues) sexual assault. Their mission statement says something about transforming victims into survivors, and starting a safe dialogue about women's issues.

Somehow I don't think that the victim blaming (there are a lot of ridiculous issues with the blog post, but the victim blaming seems the most troublesome) is exactly what their target audience wants to hear.

[oil]

When you have melanoma you have lots of doctors looking at your body. :cry: My dermatologist is seeing more teens and young adults with melanoma, she said it is very sad.

Yes that's sad. The melanoma is a concern here too. Sunblock and beach after 4 oclock is the helper. The only people who do beach before 4 pm are tourists. I do what I can to prevent, and in the while I enjoy the body views on the beach. The fundy was saying true, tho, a lot of people like to look at bikinis, so if she doesnt like it shes smart to cover her skin.

[freesarah88]

So I clicked on the link and it said "We are making updates to the Made in His Image Website!" Damage control, anyone?