IS MODESTY MAKING A COMEBACK?

[CG6468]

IS MODESTY MAKING A COMEBACK? DESIGNER CRITICIZED FOR VIRAL SWIMSUIT EVOLUTION SPEECH NOW SOLD OUT OF INVENTORY
Jun. 24, 2013 10:50am Liz Klimas

There’s a generation that knows her as the white Power Ranger or soap opera character, but actress Jessica Rey has a new crusade that’s getting some recent viral attention — a campaign for modest swimwear.

Rey’s line called Rey Swimwear with the slogan “Who Says It Has to Be Itsy Bitsy” launched in 2008 with vintage-inspired swimsuits manufactured out of Orange County, California.



Q, a Christian group, recently featured a speech by Rey — The Evolution of the Swimsuit: Can Modesty Make a Comeback — that spurred viral discussion in the days that followed.

Rey covers the pre-bikini “bathing costume” era and the origins of the bikini itself. The bikini was invented in 1946 by Frenchman Louis Reard, naming it after the atomic bomb testing site and advertising it as the world’s tiniest swimsuit.

Although many women wear bikinis now, Rey says that historically they didn’t catch on right away in the United States, with some beaches having guards to measure sizes of swimsuits.

“It’s no wonder that the girl in the song was afraid to come out of the water,” Rey said, referencing the lyrics of the 1960 Brian Hyland song “Itsty Bitsy Tinnie Winnie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.”

It was within this decade though, that the bikini gained popularity.

“Last year alone, spending on the bikini totaled $8 billion,” Rey said. “The popularity of the bikini has been attributed to the power of women, not the power of fashion.”

At this point, Rey examines the “power that wearing the bikini brings.” Rey references studies that found brain scans showing little activity in the part of the brain associated with considering another’s feelings and the most activity in the area of the brain that also lights up when viewing tools.

“A Princeton professor said, ‘it’s as if they are reacting to these women as if they are not fully human. It is consistent with the idea as if they were responding to these woman as objects, not people,’” Rey quoted.

“So, it seems that wearing a bikini does give a woman power — the power to shut down a man’s ability to see her as a person but rather as an object,” Rey said. “This is certainly not the kind of power women were searching for.”

No more bikinis? DAMN!

[ExGeeEye]

If it is merely a matter of fashion, then it doesn't matter.

If it is a matter of improving public morality, then it might be a good thing.   Personally, I doubt it.

There seems to me to be an equivalent pull towards shrinking existing garments further, with the goal of eliminating them altogether.