Let's Go For A Swim

     When my grandmother went to the beach in beginning of the last century she looked like this:


                                      

                                                 
                            This is her daughter a few years later in a much more risque´outfit

Beach attire sure has changed.

     In 1919, special deputies called "Sheriffettes" were sworn in to monitor the swimwear of the bathers at Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York. The moral code called for strict adherence to "covering up" the female form. Annette Kellerman's one piece bathing suit from the turn of the last century was considered the appropriate norm. 

      Last year on a beach in Nice, France, there was a twist to the modesty rule. A muslim women was asked to disrobe by police because the "burkini" she was wearing was against the law,, covering up too much. Two different anxieties in two different epochs  traveling in opposing directions meet again to draw a line in the sand.

               

                                 

       The Burkini. The burkini, designed by an Australian Muslim female, Aheda Zanetti, is a  bathing suit that covers the entire body, except the face, hands and feet. The garment provides individuals with the freedom to enjoy outdoor activities whilst respecting their religious obligations.

                                     

                            

     Even the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls added his two francs to the dress code fray by claiming that Marianne, the french revolutionary icon, a symbol of freedom, was painted with breasts exposed so that she might feed an entire nation. Sounds like a Trump tweet.

 

     
     Marianne, above, pictured in the iconic painting by Delacroix, holding the french flag, treading on bodies,, her mammaries loosed and free, ready to nurse the madding crowd's thirst for Liberte´. 

     

 

     The modern Bikini on a modern woman revealing everything except perhaps the recipe for Coca Cola.... or perhaps it is written there somewhere. 

     
     You will notice that all the fotos above are of women. Dress codes almost always target women. The burkini crisis involves women's beach attire.There has never been much of an issue over men's swimsuits. Why have France and other countries turned the burkini into a symbol of human rights and or an issue of national security? Why are France ,Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, The United States and other countries so eager to trash their freedoms of conscience, religion, and expression and trade them for strict dress codes? It's rather absurd that the dress code in question translates to displaying more flesh. Does it matter if society confuses public conduct with freedom of expression and what are the consequences if we ignore codes? See the lady in the modern bikini above, Does fashion, that covers up, summon more respect for females  or are modesty laws sexist?  Anyway soon no one will remember the meaning of modesty. Why has there been little public debate on the subject of the boundries of freedom of expression,, religious freedom, and in the case of the burkini,,, immigration? There is much latitude for venemous thinking to insert itself here because the consequences of prohibitions may sacrifice the precepts we hold dear.
     Lots of questions yet is there one collective answer,,,, or many answers,, some not very comforting,,, or do we just ban what makes us uncomfortable? I focus on the burkini because it prompted this article. It seems however after considering the subject of muslim fashion verses the world,, the burkini and burka bans have nothing to do with rules for proper public apparel, or that C.4 can be hidden under a burkini,, and everything to do with fear and self loathing in St. Tropez. Does modesty rear its ugly head when one gazes upon their exposed body just at the moment a muslim woman strolls past in a burkini?  What a cringe factor! 

It is easy to see how the non muslim majority could be thrust into a conundrum. They must confront their past, not only from their grandmother's point of view,, but from the point of view of colonial history. The world is changing fast and furiously and the capacity to digest change can sometimes be the cause of mental gastritis. How does a person in a "string" process a  person full body suit?  Do we purify rapid social change with democracy at its worst just as radical muslims wish to purify us with terrorist acts meant to provoke religious discipline? Society risks losing their own precious jewels by not considering all the angles. 

     Well here we are, the filling in a sandwich. The bread above is prejudice and the slice below is cultural relativism. Are you hungry? Societies can find themselves paralysed by either political correctness or outright prejudice. Solutions seem unattainable. Tolerance cannot be tolerated because often there is no real debate on troublesome modern issues.  Could honest debate lead to some conclusions, perhaps like understanding just what has and is really happening. Where does society stand on its own principles?  Instead we issue edicts and just prolong our agony. To vacillate between bans and political correctness render us all wishy washy about our own beliefs as we hastily try to steer a course to nowhere. 

     A few quotes,, not answers :

     “What have you against analysis?’ Nothing—when it serves the cause of enlightenment, freedom, progress. Everything when it is pervaded by the horrible taint of decay of the grave. And thus too with the body. We are to honour and uphold the body when it is a question of emancipation, of beauty, of freedom of thought, of joy, of desire. We must despise it in so far as it sets itself up as the principle of gravity and inertia, when it obstructs the movement toward light; we must despise it in so far as it represents the principle of disease and death, in so far as its specific essence is the essence of perversity, of decay, sensuality, and shame.”


      "There is one force, one principle that is the object of my highest affirmation, my highest and ultimate respect and love, and that force, that principle, is the mind."

     “This kind of American exceptionalism is a product of 200 years of disconnection from our country’s acts around the world — a geographic, intellectual and emotional isolation.”“Ask any Mexican, and she will be quick to say that the U.S. creates the demand, supplies the guns and launders the money; we suffer the deaths. The fight against drug trafficking is unpopular in Mexico because it is seen as a fight we’re waging on another country’s behalf. Whether or not such a view is correct, it would be politically unviable for the Mexican government to be seen as cooperating with an unfriendly neighbor on such a contentious issue. This is not a threat Mexican officials are making at the moment; it is a simple political reality.     

“Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.”  

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.” “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”