Let’s Talk Bathing Suits

In our society (especially in North America) wearing a bathing suit and going swimming seems to go hand in hand.

Where do they come from though?

Well after a little bit of digging, I’ve traced it back to the 1670’s, which was the first recorded history we have of women bathing with clothing on being more of a “norm”. Prior to that? NAKED NAKED NAKED. Let’s break this down for a second.

Here is quick overview of the length of time that humans have been on this planet (including more than one viewpoint):

Atheist View:

• 55 Million Years Ago | The First Primitive Mammals Evolve
• 6-8 Million Years Ago | The First Gorillas Evolve
• 2.5 Million Years Ago | Early Forms of Humans Use Stone Tools
• 1.6 Million Years Ago | We First Start Building Fires
• 400K Years Ago | We Begin Hunting With Spears
• 195K Years Ago | Modern Humans First Appear
• 5.5-6K Years Ago | The First Civilization Begins

CReationist View:

• 6K Years Ago | Mankind is Created

Why Do I bring this up? Well like I said, The 1670’s is the beginning of seeing regular swimwear practices in history (more on what those practices were in a bit). If we ignore all of the atheistic human history prior “Modern Humans”, we are still left with 195,000 years of human existence; only about 350 of which have seen the likes of the bathing suit. For those following along at home, that’s 0.18% of all of human existence where swimming nude wasn’t a given. Alternatively, in the view where humans are only about 6000 years old, the percentage changes to 5.83%. I don’t know about you, but that’s still not looking good for the old swim trunks…

Alright, well ignoring the blink of an eye in which we have decided to wear bathing suits, let’s talk a little about the time since the 1670’s, shall we?

When these changes in the “norm” hit the scene, it wasn’t everyone wearing bathing suits, no no. As is with just about every other issue in history, bathing suits were becoming expected of women, not men. Surely, if bathing suits were arriving to civilization because they were superior to the ways of the past, then everyone would have them, no? I have to wonder what kind of body shame this caused women at the time. Essentially they were being told that their body was shameful and should be covered, but a man’s should not.

More Recently

Would it surprise you to know that it wasn’t until the 1940’s that girls were required to wear bathing suits in schools? How about the fact that up until the 1960/70’s it wasn’t uncommon for nude swimming for males in schools to be enforced? These changes happened for cultural reasons.

These changes in beliefs and customs can come to be for many reasons. In this case? Likely a few factors played a role here. Things like an increasingly over-sexualized society and view of the naked body, poorer body image, and maybe even a profitable swimwear industry seem pretty guilty to me. How about the possibility that church leaders who were potentially misinterpreting their own text when it came to nudity decided that in order to remove the temptation  of man who was “not capable of keeping it in his pants”, stricter dress codes would be appropriate?

enough about history

But what about today? If you ask most people why they wear a bathing suit when they swim, their mind will go blank at first. When it comes down to it, they’ve never really given it much thought. They wear a bathing suit because everyone else does – because that’s how they were raised – because not doing so is weird. These are all pretty weak answers. Especially in a society where nowadays everyone wants to question what the larger population is doing and go against the herd.

So why do you wear a bathing suit when you swim? Does it keep you dry? No… Does it keep you warm? No… Does it offer you any physical protection? Well I don’t know what kind of material your bathing suit is made of, but mine sure doesn’t. The only argument comes down to “it keeps people from seeing me naked”. There’s not enough blog post left to get into how your fear of someone seeing you naked is tied into a combination of insecurity created by the idea of “perfect bodies” (proudly brought to you by movies, magazines, and porn) and the fact that you were just raised to think that being naked in front of others was either shameful or sexual. Again, if you ask someone why they don’t want to be naked in front of strangers, they will most likely struggle to find a bulletproof answer.

So, now that we have decided that bathing suits have no real practical use and that the reason you wear them is because “that’s how everyone else does it”, go out and try it our way. We have laws in our society that have been birthed out of these religious influences (many left over from the Victorian Era) so you will have to find somewhere where it’s permitted to swim nude. The options are endless though:

1. Changes are there is a nudist/naturist club near you who would be happy to have you (provided you’re there for the right reasons).
2. Many cities have groups that will rent out pools and organize nude swims.
3. You likely know of a river, lake, or a friends pool where this time of activity would be an option.

I wasted a lot of years walking around with a wet bathing suit clinging to me. Believe me when I say that those days are done.

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