So, it’s not really beach season yet but if you were planning on picking up a new bikini for a winter getaway anytime soon, maybe you should go with one of these numbers instead.
Or maybe not.
WholesomeWear is “a modest line of clothing for ‘wherever’”. They’re launching with their swimwear (which looks suspiciously like the hideous grey tunics girls wore at my primary school until they scrapped the dated looking things in the early 90s), because “the need for modesty in swimwear is greatest.” Is it though, really? Is this honestly something we need in our lives?
Of course, it’s only being marketed towards women, because “modesty” is not a word that ever gets associated with boys. No company would ever suggest that a man bearing his pecs on the beach is in any way unwholesome, but a woman showing a quarter-inch of skin means she’s down for anything.
I also think this is an interesting piece of anti-sex backlash. Because no one, in any era, has ever worn this much clothing to go swimming. Even those funny 1920s bathing suits weren’t this wretchedly ugly.
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10 comments
It seems absolutely ridiculous in a Western context, but I remember in Grade 5 when my class went on trips to the community pool for gym class and my Muslim friends who had recently moved to Canada from Pakistan wore clothes into the pool because they couldn't find a reasonably modest swim suit.
By clothes, I mean long pants and a long-sleeve shirt. Somehow I think these suits would be more suitable than cotton sweatpants and a long-sleeve T-shirt.
And say what you will about some Middle Eastern customs regarding female modesty, there are also just some girls and women who don't feel comfortable wearing teeny weeny bikinis.
Posted by Cassandra Jowett
February 26, 2009, 8:31 PM
Hahah, it's hard to get too upset by this sort of thing. I doubt, no matter how hard the weird neo-Puritans push, that anyone is actually going to wear these things. It's clearly a tiny company aimed at a tiny group of people, and it certainly isn't going to take back the beaches from the loose women.
These picture scream for some sort of LOL cat type text. "Victorianism, UR doing it wrong"
Posted by Michelle
February 27, 2009, 10:27 AM
Yeah, I was probably a little hard on them. They are pretty tiny and harmless. And I know some women aren't really comfortable in swimsuits and bikinis, but their whole modesty-is-a-virtue bit irked me.
Posted by Cate
February 27, 2009, 11:37 AM
Meh. That's troubling, but I get troubled every time I have to go find a new, good swimsuit. Instead I encounter racks of bead-and-sequin-covered string bikinis that I couldn't actually swim in, not as a physical sport, clothes that fairly scream that women should wear swimwear to be looked at rather than to be active. I've really liked the recent trend for tankinis with shorts and faux-skirts, and swimming dresses (not scary ones like those), because I like taking the alternative to eye candy when I'm getting my exercise. My body is not an ornament, it's an engine of war.
Posted by Thene
February 27, 2009, 4:07 PM
Oh, I know, swimsuit shopping is *the worst.* Last time I went shopping the entire floor, which was the size of a city block, was dedicated to string bikinis. I kept looking for the sporty suits, but they were nowhere to be found amongst the endless rows of bikinis. Finally, I gave up and bought one of the stringy things (strictly because it had penguins on it, and I am a sucker for penguins), but I really can't do anything but sorta hang off the wall of the pool in it, because it's perpetually in trying to separate itself from my body. Kinda makes a girl want a Victorian purity pouch.
Posted by Michelle
February 27, 2009, 5:47 PM
I'm really disturbed. Once again, women can't win. Please, be a sweet, modest lady while simultaneously being a sexy and hot girl. Be a virgin, don't be a prude. So which should we pick- the skimpy string bikini or Wholesome Swimwear? Good luck!
Posted by megan
February 28, 2009, 8:53 PM
Eh, I remember lots of girls wearing a tshirt over a swimsuit in middle school, not just religious ones. Tho I think a wetsuit would look way less dumb than any of those designs, I agree with the person that I liked the trend of girls' boardshorts as well.
Posted by Nadia
March 1, 2009, 9:49 PM
What is appalling is the "slimming" model for adult women - modesty is so important they gotta make these silly suits, but having the right attractive thin body type still has to be imposed. Argh.
And these suits will *also* hamper someone's ability to swim - they're too loose, heavy, and have too much material. So this is not actually a solution to the equally-silly/sinister bikini, barring religious considerations.
I've found good "sporty" suits at stores attached to swimming pools/community centre complexes. Presumably, because people going there actually want to swim not sit on a beach.
Posted by minerva
March 2, 2009, 5:06 PM
Minerva, that's a great point about the 'slimming' model.
I've had best luck finding swimwear at shops favoured by older women; because, again, of the fucked-up standards imposed on our bodies, there's way less tendency to peddle string bikinis at them.
Posted by Thene
March 3, 2009, 3:07 PM
Hello Ladies,
Personally, as a Muslim woman, I would be more comfortable wearing a modest swimsuit out in public. however, were I at home with my husband, by our pool, I'd have no issue wearing nothing:-)
I am taking ownership of my body. I do not put myself on display nor buy into the conditioning that's been drummed into us by Hollywood, magazines and television. Telling us how we should dress and act, and what is sexy and isn't.
We sadly live in a time where the cool thing for women to do is to show as much skin as possible, and modesty becomes something to look down upon.
Why?
Posted by Sufisticate
May 10, 2009, 3:34 PM
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