The Bikini: blessing or curse?

[danlo]

Well that blows it for me!

[matrixman]

Great. Now you guys have turned Infelice against me, too.

Excellent post, Peven. Yes, it's a complex and confusing issue, what with the conflicting messages about beauty and diet we see around us. You're pointing out the obesity problem, which is definitely becoming a health crisis. I was expressing my concern about the opposite problem - women wanting to be super-thin to the point of being skeletal because their peers and media imagery tell them that they're fat. I imagine it's very difficult for many women to feel happy about their bodies, especially when on a daily basis they must confront images like the ones posted above. (Likewise, I'm sure many men - I'm no exception - feel resentful of images of perfectly handsome male models in advertisements.)

I don't deny the superficial attractiveness of carefully constructed images of beautiful women. The important question is: given a picture of a woman in a bikini, does the bikini empower the subject, or does it imprison the subject? Is she empowered as a symbol of liberated sexuality, or is she imprisoned in a standard female body stereotype that does not and cannot allow any flaw to show?

I look at something like Lucimay's avatar pic of Keira Knightley in warrior garb and I deem it to be more inspiring than (what I consider) mere vacuous swimsuit poses. Luci's pic of Keira is attractive in a much more honest, urgent and meaningful way to my eyes than the languid images of girls in bathing suits. Keira's arresting attractiveness in that picture comes paradoxically from her defiant stance. She oozes sexuality, but it is her own, not the submissive kind expressed in the contours of swimsuits that (usually) beg for male approval. That she is in warrior costume enhances the effect - she is Valkyrie, adopting traditionally male iconography as her own. Keira is attractive on her own terms, on her own ground.

Keira, in that image of defiance and charged sexuality, represents an idea of femininity whose worth is not dependent on the ability to fit into a swimsuit.

[lucimay]

'zactly what he said.

[matrixman]

Why, thank you, Lucimay.

That was, of course, the puffed-up, serious essay.

The beer-and-nuts version: Maybe I just like warrior babes.

Since this topic is in ruins, I've got nothing much else to say.

[Fist and Faith]

study after study shows that people who are lean, who eat a diet consisting of 1,500 calories a day...

*double take* Say what?? That's breakfast!!

Whether or not a woman chooses to be imprisoned or empowered by a bikini is her own choice, but it can be either. They can either be terrified as they wait to see if they'll get approval or ridicule, or they can say, "Now give me your money, you clowns!" If I was a woman, I'd move a few hundred miles away, make a ton of money as a stripper, then move back. A fool and his money are soon parted, and there's no better definition of "fool" than a man when a woman with little or no clothing is in sight. Ladies, we're begging you to take advantage of us!

[Infelice]

Daily calorie intake is dependent on sex, age, height, weight, normal activity level.

1500 a day would cause me to lose about 1 kg+ a week and thats with just light activity.

healthfitness.com.au/calculators/calculate_fitness.html

Theres a calorie calculator at the bottom of this page.

Fists definition of fool is pretty spot on.

Why bother having a bikini in the first place?? All it does is just add more clothes to the laundry basket.... I find that imprisoning.

[Marv]

i should be having 3374 calories a day according to the web site. but at the moment i'm actually on a diet of about 4000 calories a day and it still takes me a while to recover if i go for a hard run or swim.

[Damelon]

Why bother having a bikini in the first place?? All it does is just add more clothes to the laundry basket.... I find that imprisoning.

Is it imprisoning because the laundry has to be done, or you find wearing the bikini so?

[Fist and Faith]

Let's hope both reasons. More incentive to not bother with it at all.

[Worm of Despite]

I would say the bikini is a blessing, though I've never tried one on.

[Spring]

Let's hope both reasons. More incentive to not bother with it at all.

:haha::haha::haha::haha::haha::haha::haha::haha::haha::haha:

I agree.

[Infelice]

Is it imprisoning because the laundry has to be done, or you find wearing the bikini so?

Any household chore is imprisioning and takes away the freedom of the one having to do the chore. Im an advocate for less household chores therefore, less laundering of clothes .... so wearing less clothing = less clothing to wash, less time spent on dirty laundry = more free time for being less imprisoned.

does that make sense to anyone. Maths was not one of my strong points

Neither was logic.

[deewilldo]

living on the beach i see alot of bikinis and will never stop a woman from wearing one, Its their choice, ant the whole anorexia debate, MY opinion thin women in bikinis look ordinary, fit girls look good, and curves are where its at, BUT hey if a fat middle age man, with a hairy back can wear speedos to the beach anyone can wear a bikini,

[Damelon]

Any household chore is imprisioning and takes away the freedom of the one having to do the chore. Im an advocate for less household chores therefore, less laundering of clothes .... so wearing less clothing = less clothing to wash, less time spent on dirty laundry = more free time for being less imprisoned.

Your logic sounds fine to me.

[Fist and Faith]

Absolutely! Infelice, you underestimate your ability to see the solutions to life's problems that are staring others in the face! I salute you and your birthday suit!!!

[dANdeLION]

Any household chore is imprisioning and takes away the freedom of the one having to do the chore. Im an advocate for less household chores therefore, less laundering of clothes .... so wearing less clothing = less clothing to wash, less time spent on dirty laundry = more free time for being less imprisoned.

does that make sense to anyone. Maths was not one of my strong points

Neither was logic.

But, truthfully, there is no true freedom, not for any of us. Consider this; in gaining fredom from chores, you now increase the risk of being imprisoned by boredom. But, if one keeps the chores, the routine, if you will, then one becomes a prisoner of habit, like I am with my current habit of trying to sound intelligent while making really pointless arguments for some arcane reason that even I cannot fathom, no doubt the blame of an uncaring nanny when I was a lad, or perhaps simply due to the ingestion of too much Benny Hill as a child...it's a vicious circle, really. But, at least my laundry's clean, the trash is taken out, the dishes washed, etc. Now if I could just muster the guption to dust, my lair would be spotless

[Avatar]

Glad to see that folks have been managing to sneak in a couple of serious posts into here. Good ones by Pevan and MM especially.

The question of whether women feel empowered or imprisoned by wearing a bikini (or by the perceived need to wear one, if there is such), can only be answered by the woman herself I guess.

I think that Dee's final point is a very telling one insofar as it comes to whether people should wear them though.

Fist & Infelice...

--A