Why do women wear bikinis?

Ok so I know why *I* don't wear them, but that's pretty obvious I think.

Today I took the kids to the beach and while there I happened to notice that 95% of the women there were wearing a bikini, from the very young up to those on the verge of "old"...all wearing bikinis. Honestly I'm fairly certain the only females that I saw that were not wearing them were either a) wearing regular clothes/no swim wear at all, or b) were of the slightly chubbier variety and probably wished they'd make suits that covered from the neck to the knees.

I found this quite odd. I started thinking about how many times I've heard women complain about swim suit shopping and not being able to find one that fits or one that covers up the right spots. I thought about all the women I've heard complain about and agonize over a bit of belly flab or their flappy upper arms or jiggly thighs or their *gasp* 5 extra pounds. We're a society so obsessed with our physical flaws...and yet here are all these women putting them all on display.

But why? I find it improbable that all those women I saw were totally and completely accepting of their bodies. In fact, a girl next to me who couldn't have been older than 12 or 13 and had a perfectly slender/healthy looking body was describing to her 2 friends that she was in fact sucking her stomach in and went about showing them what it looked like when she didn't.

I'm not saying that women shouldn't wear bikinis, if you've got it (physically, mentally, or both)...flaunt it baby! And if its something that makes you feel good about yourself or your body, then more power to you! I'm also not saying that they should only be for the super skinny, if you have the body confidence for it then I see no problem with that.

The things that makes me curious though, is that I just know so many of those ladies out there had to be cringing internally over their butts hanging out or thought they needed to suck in their stomach so much they could hardly breathe. Not to mention the fact that they spend a significant amount of time wearing something to cover up their bikini. So why put yourself through misery? Why not stick to a more forgiving and covering one piece model?


Maybe I have a hard time grasping this because we fat folk tend to avoid swim wear as much as possible. We have no desire to show off our physical flaws in small pieces of spandex. No matter how much we know that those itty bitty things are 200% more stylish than our butt and thigh covering muu-muu's, our piece of mind and self-confidence are worth a bit more than style.


Is this a southern California phenomenon? Maybe women in other areas around the country are not as interested in baring so much of the skin they are not thrilled with.


So ladies, I want to hear it. If you wear a bikini I want to know why. Do you have a rockin' bod and want to show it off? Is it the one piece of clothing that makes you feel sexy? Because all your friends are wearing one? You have a secret obsession with tan lines? Deep down you know that all those things you *think* are wrong with your body don't make one bit of difference to anyone else in the world?