Swimwear

Here at the Gold Coast where we now live, a sporting club recently got itself in trouble with some patrons.  Located near the beach, the place is popular for its contribution to the ‘hospitality industry’.  It’s well patronised at meal times – and there‘s always a goodly crowd of people enjoying their lattes, cappuccinos and smoothies, complete with snacks.

So why the fracas?  Well, the club decided that women wearing just thong bikinis were no longer welcome.  Some accused the club of being out of date and appealed for them to lift the ban.

Our family spent some ten years in the relative isolation of regional New South Wales and I must confess that coming back to the coast was a bit of a culture shock – particularly at the beach when it came to what is euphemistically called, ‘women’s swimwear’.  It seemed to me as if something in the water caused swimming costumes to shrink.

So what’s the problem?  A number of things.

First, consider the Bible’s history of clothing.  It began in Genesis 3 with fig leaves stitched together to cover the embarrassment of human nakedness.  That quickly changed because when God had taken Adam and Eve to task for their disobedience He made them more adequate clothing from animal skins  So at the very least we must conclude that in a fallen world the Lord didn’t want us running around naked.  But that doesn’t solve the question of just how much skin and how much of our anatomy we can show off at a beach – or in a public dining room.

A second issue is human selfishness.  That’s evident in the view that says: “It’s my body and I’ll show off as much of it as I want… and if I am banned from eating in just a string bikini then my rights are being infringed.”  Such selfishness ignores the fact that skimpy swimwear is not only designed to maximise our all-over tan but it’s also designed to look sexy.  That probably applies as much to men’s “budgie smugglers” as it does to women’s thong bikinis.   So why do people want to look sexy?  Isn’t it mainly to secure the attention of the opposite sex?  That may raise questions about where sexual abuse begins.   I applaud the decision of that sporting club.  It’s one thing to avoid focusing one’s eyes on a woman’s buttocks at a beach; it’s another thing when those same buttocks are right in front of you at the next table in the dining area of a sports club.  A similar argument applies to male costumes.

But there’s a further problem.  A friend, lamenting the lack of modesty at our beaches, added, “And it’s not just swimwear either; so many women’s tops show far too much cleavage.”  He and his wife had spoken to their daughters and granddaughters about these matters and had encouraged them to purchase more modest apparel.  The women in their family pointed out how difficult it is these days to purchase modest clothing.  Many women’s clothing shops are trying to outdo one another as to who has the sexiest clothing.

In fairness I must also raise one other matter: there is a certain relativity involved here.  Let me illustrate that in two ways.

In 1943 designer, Paula Stafford, shocked conservative Queenslanders when she appeared on the beach at Surfer’s Paradise in a two-piece bathing suit she had designed and made.  Twenty years later when I was on the beach as a teenager, two-piece bathing suits were fast becoming the norm and the bikini had established for itself a place on Australia’s beaches.

The other example of relativity was a discussion about these matters back in the mid-1970s.  An elderly parishioner made the point that when he was a lad, women still wore full-length dresses reaching to the floor.  He said, “In my teenage years, us boys would get excited if we got a glimpse of a female ankle.”

Please, let me be clear – I’m not a prude who wants women at the beach to revert to the ‘neck-to-knee’ bathing costumes of my grandmother’s generation.  My concern rather, is that some modesty is appropriate in public places.  It’s worth remembering that a lack of modesty also aids and abets the sexual objectification of the opposite sex.  It puzzles me therefore why feminists are not speaking out on these matters.  And of course for Christians there is, from a biblical point of view, the obligation to ‘be our brother’s keepers’ and not to put a stumbling block in front of others.

John Westendorp
2MaxFM 22/3/2026

Also of interest:
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