A month or so ago, I randomly saw a friend’s post on Facebook that got me thinking for weeks and urged me to finally write this.
It was a video titled, “Actress Jessica Rey: The Godly Truth About Bikinis”. It was basically a Christian talk by the actress, Jessica Rey, about how bikinis are shaping our minds and bodies in terms of the socially constructed standards of modern beauty.
As she had mentioned in the video clip and as narrated by fashion historians, bikini was the term coined by Louis Réard to describe a new kind of beach costume being worked on by fashion designer Jacques Heim in 1946. The term was taken from “Bikini Atoll”, one of the series of islands in the South Pacific where the testing of the new atomic bomb took place. With its “very revealing” nature that time, the term bikini was used to create much stir and surprise among people similar to that of the reactions to the atomic bomb that hit Japan the previous summer.
Jessica Rey also talked about what women, then and now, wore on the beach or pool areas. She admits wearing bikinis before but eventually switched to more modest swim wear as inspired by the legendary beauty and fashion icon, Audrey Hepburn. She argues that women don’t have to wear skimpy clothes just to look and feel beautiful or sexy. She introduced her own creations of beach wear that are as charming and lovely as bikinis but are surprisingly stylish and modest.
Although this was posted in relation to the Christian faith, I still believe there are a lot of underlying issues and pervasive social pressures among women associated with a seemingly trivial thing such as bikinis.
I was never a fan of bikinis. I don’t mind other people wearing them but not myself. Well, don’t get me wrong, I’ve worn a bikini top before although those times I was still confined within the comforts of my friend’s company. But that’s as far as I went. I admit that I wasn’t confident with my own body before. I’m obviously petite and my vital statistics doesn’t necessarily scream “beach bod”.
As a teenager I didn’t actually dream of having a 36-24-36 body but I admired girls who were flattering in bikinis or swimsuits. But being 18 and finally reaching 20, a lot of changes happened not just with my body but with how I perceive it, and as pathetic as it may sound, compared to the bodies of other girls my age. I’ve learned in school, among my peers and mentors that the “inside” is far more important than the “outside”. But no matter how many times I hear this or tell this to myself, I still couldn’t help but think about insecurities and why some are better or better-looking than others.
It was only a few days ago that I understood everything I used to question and finally found the answers I surprisingly found within myself.
*University of Princeton Study
After watching that short clip of Jessica Rey, I tried to search for the study at Princeton University about men’s perception of scantily clad women that she had mentioned. Upon further reading, I found out more details about and finally decided that it was time to write about it.
Psychologist Susan Fiske, along with other researchers at Princeton University, conducted a study among 21 heterosexual male volunteers. They first took a test that scores people based on different types of sexist attitudes. They were then show pictures of both fully-clothed and skimpily-dressed men and women. The brain scan results showed that “when men are shown pictures of scantily clad women, the region of the brain associated with tool use lights up.”
The results also showed that there was an absence of activity in the part of the brain that usually responds when a person ponders another’s intention and a lack of activation in the social cognition area of the brain. These results revealed that these men see women as “sexually inviting, but they are not thinking about their minds”.
Furthermore, the study showed that men were also more likely to associate images of sexualized women with first-person action verbs such as “I push, I grasp, I handle,” as compared to the association with the third-person action such as “She pushes, She grasps, She handles”, with fully-clothed women.
*Objectification of Women
Although it has been recorded, argued and continuously debated on, the idea of the objectification of women is now finally clothed in scientific basis. It is now more than a feminist idea or an argument in the pervasiveness of double standards in our societies; it is a scientific fact that is both appalling and contemptible.
Everyday is still a struggle for a lot of women and everyday, each one of us, man and woman, unwittingly continues to live in this shadow of inequality and deeply-rooted social constructs on gender and sexuality.
My point is, many people, feminists or not, are fighting to create this ever longed for equality. There is inequality not just because of its long history, people’s obstinacy and disregard for it, but because there is something wrong in our culture.
I believe that there are a lot of things that the government and the society can do to prevent this but I also believe that we, as women, should also play an important role because we can and we should.
After watching Jessica Rey’s video clip and reading up on the Princeton University study, I asked my friends why or why they wouldn't wear bikinis. Most answers I found trivial but every conversation boiled down to their bodies.
*Obsessive Beauty Culture
There is always this insane pressure and judgment among women in the realm of society’s obsessive beauty culture.
I remember reading this story about a person who took a picture of a woman with excessive facial hair and a huge turban, posted it on Reddit, saying very offensive words towards her physical appearance. Apparently, the woman in the picture learned about this and commented that she was a Sikh with the belief that they should not alter their physical appearance – thus never cutting their hair and tying it in a turban. It was amazing how calmly she took the words and explained her beliefs. The person who originally posted the picture eventually apologized.
This kind of thing is just one of the innumerable ways that shows us how easily people can judge others and in turn, how others might perceive themselves based on these judgments and imposed standards.
Women have painstakingly endured different kinds of physical and emotional pain because of this obsessive beauty culture. Why would you give yourself excruciating amount of pain just to maintain a bikini line or keep those flabs from flapping away? Why has vanity become so obsessive that we let our bodies and self-esteem suffer just to be able to be called "beautiful"?
I am not saying that it is bad to look good. The question I want to ask is why do these things?
I believe that women can wear whatever they want and do whatever they want to do. But these should not be worn or done because of what others might say but because we embrace who we are and are proud of it.
I’ve seen this blog criticizing how women try so hard at having a beach body for the summer and so she posted this very humorous but meaningful picture:
*Stop Trying to Impress
I have nothing against people who wear bikinis but I hope they wear this with confidence, whatever body type they have. I hope that they wear this not because they want to please men but because they are pleased with their own bodies. I hope that they wear bikinis for their own unique and beautiful bodies not for others to praise or envy them.
I hope we go on diets not because we want to fit in a corset or be someone’s date. I hope we go on diets because we want to be healthy. I hope that we don’t always have to be what we see from the obsessive beauty culture in our society.
I used to be insecure of my body but now I’ve learned to embrace it. I know it is hard for some, especially for those who are big-boned, naturally large, or have health problems. But we are beautiful not because of what others say but because we accept our own beauty, whatever form it may take.
All I am saying is that we should learn to take care of ourselves and be confident without spending too much money, time, and without compromising our individuality for something that has no bearing on the quality of our friendships, our employability and our worth as a person.
We are not objects. We are human beings. How can men perceive us as such if we, ourselves, do not believe that we are beautiful the way we are – fully-clothed or scantily-clad, size 4 or size 14, fair or copper-skinned? We must learn to accept our bodies and feel beautiful because, in essence, we all are.
*Of Modesty
On a more personal note, I am happy to have stumbled upon Jessica Rey’s video clip. Religion aside, I feel a bit ashamed of how my values were compromised by the desire to fit in, to be liked. But with that video clip, I was reminded again of modesty that my Mom has always been telling me ever since I was a kid. She would tell me that some of her students would wear make up or dress up in very skimpy or flashy clothes but end up having nothing to say or answer in class. As cliché as it may sound yet again, but what is inside will always be more important than what can be seen on the outside.
And in light of recent events, I am both overwhelmed and ecstatic about the announcement that there will be no swimsuit competition for this year's Ms. World pageant. As stated in the article published in the New York Times:
“It has been misunderstood by some people that Miss World is a beauty competition focusing on the physical attractiveness of a woman’s body,” the organizer, Hary Tanoesoedibjo, an Indonesian media tycoon, said.
“This is absolutely misleading,” Mr. Tanoesoedibjo said, adding that the pageant is also about “inner beauty, which includes intelligence, manners and achievement.”
Just like Audrey Hepburn and all the confident and “beautiful” women out there, I hope I would never forget modesty and grow old covered in wrinkles and unflattering elderly symptoms but still as elegant, principled and dignified as I can be.
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