“Thongs and G-string swimwear is not acceptable for
males or females…”
Summer is turning downright wild in Australia.
Yesterday, we learned that multiple popular Sydney-area
beaches had been shuttered after becoming inundated
with alien balls. Manly, Dee Why, Long Reef, Queenscliff,
Freshwater, North and South Curl Curl, North Steyne and North
Narrabeen, each very featuring very fine surf breaks, currently
closed to the public while scientists poke around in the sand,
attempting to understand where the little grey and white blobs came
and of what they are made. Northern Beaches mayor Sue Heins gamely
declaring, “We don’t know at the moment what it is and that makes
it even more concerning. There’s something that’s obviously leaking
or dropping… floating out there and being tossed around.”
Well, surf sun worshippers looking to get a fix of vitamin D
from local pools instead of the beaches better tread very
carefully. In a move that further stunned the staggering suburbs, a
council in Greater Sydney has announced a ban on g-string bikini
bottoms. A leisure center, which owns five pools, attempted to
explain, posting, “Much of [the confusion] focused on a poster
showing the kind of swimwear that is and isn’t appropriate. It’s
important to remember that these images are indicative only. In
particular, the image of ‘revealing swimwear/thongs’ has raised
some eyebrows. This image refers to thongs and G-strings – not
bikini tops and bottoms. Thongs and G-string swimwear is not
acceptable for males or females when visiting our leisure centres.
Bikinis are acceptable and considered recognised swimwear.”
Thong and g-string users were quick to denounce their
marginalization and took to social media, en masse, declaring, “If
you don’t like it, don’t look” and “So long as [practicality] and
safety are considered it shouldn’t be any one else’s business what
I’m comfortable swimming in.”
Cultural expert Lauren Rosewarne told The Guardian
that Australia has a long history policing women’s bodies, adding,
“The undercurrent of these stories is that somehow women are doing
something with their bodies to distract men in ways that make men
feel as though they’re being tempted, and it’s up to women to sort
themselves out … Somehow, the responsibility is on women not to
stir desires in men, because then men might act badly and be
punished, so we have to put the responsibility of morality on to
women’s shoulders.”
The final dagger delivered at the end.
“Not everything is sexual just because you see it as such.”
The uproar has not yet put an end to the draconian rule change
though do you have an opinion on the matter?
Should decency be policed?
Or are you a live-and-let-live sort?
More as the story develops.
