How Will You Use Your Beauty?

I stumbled across this interesting video about the bikini the other day, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. While I admire Jessica Rey's lecture and her interesting solutions (Rey Swimwear is inspired by Audrey Hepburn. There are bathing suits named "Sabrina" and "Holly"! Brilliant), I don't know that I agree with her assessment on the bikini. She describes a study that essentially says the men view women more as objects than as people when they wear bikinis, and this leads to her ultimate question of "How will you use your beauty?" Do you want to be objectified? Do you want to be seen in a human light? I like her questions.

I'm not, however, crazy about her opinion on bikinis. Mostly because I happen to like wearing them. When you're stuck in racing suits all summer, all day, all year for swimming, a bikini is like that big slice of chocolate cake at the end of a long, only semi-successful juice diet. It lets you breathe. It lets you move. And, oh my gosh, you won't get the dreaded circle tan on your back and the pasty stomach that makes you feel a little bit wider in comparison to your ridiculously tanned arms and legs. You need to go to the bathroom after a swim? No need to wrestle with that tight, clingy spandex thing. Up and down and out of that disgusting place before you can feel too freaked out.

Wearing my bikini circa 2008 after a long summer swim season.

I've grown up loving the little suit, and feeling my most comfortable in my navy and white polka dot bikini. Of course, right now, I have no desire to put on a bikini with the way my weight has skyrocketed in the last year, but I still love it. And I don't love it because I want to appear like a sexual object to the opposite sex. And I also don't wear it because I think it makes me seem sexier/prettier/hotter/etc. I wear it because it makes me feel comfortable. The only time I prefer a one piece to a bikini is when I go off the high dive or swim in a particularly wave-y ocean.

I do think it raises an interesting discussion about the idea of nudity and modesty. Modesty is nice, and I love clothes that are typically described as "modest," but I don't think nudity has to be the polar opposite.

What do you think? Definitely watch the video! If anything it makes you think a little about what you wear!

xoxo,

Samantha Elisabeth