What Happened to Decency?

May 31, 2019

My daughter called today. She read on an online forum a mother’s post on the lack of decency at public swimming pools. Teenage girls are wearing bikini bottoms no bigger than thongs, exposing their derrieres to all.

What shocked my daughter was not this woman’s observation, but how viciously she got attacked for her comments.

I grew up in Europe. I am used to topless beaches. But even for me, thongs are “for special eyes only”. Certainly not the general public. Certainly not at a public swimming pool where young kids play.

And I will admit, I am a woman of a certain age now and I don’t care for females’ anatomy so broadly displayed.

Leaving my personal tastes aside, I cannot help but puzzle over why a teenager would expose herself in such a vulgar way. She is barely out of childhood. Is she after attention? Hasn’t she been told that a thong says: look at that, all exposed, open for business!

Where is her mother? Didn’t the mother explain to her daughter that a thong may be sending the very wrong message that she “wants some”? That she is available “that way”?

And where is that teenager’s father? What does he think of having his sweet little princess looking like a strip pole dancer?

It is both ironic and hypocritical. In this country, boys wear the longest and baggiest swim trunks. God forbid even a shadow of their privates could be seen. I heard people calling men in speedos perverts.

Then what could you call a woman, let alone a teenager, wearing a thong at a public swimming pool?

Why would a parent even buy that piece of fabric for a daughter?

Katrin L.