Skip to main content

the swimsuit rant

i’ll forewarn you that most averaged-sized women will probably not appreciate this post very much. i understand. i’ve been (either directly or indirectly) the object of various hatred more than once.

i am not an average-sized woman. i’m only 5’1” on a good day, and i’ve never donated blood because most of the time (when not pregnant – and therefore not allowed), i don’t weigh enough to do so. i do not ‘diet’, so to speak, nor do i work out compulsively. i try to eat healthy food, for the most part, and i try not to sit on my butt all day. this is just the way i am. our current culture views me as ‘lucky’ to have this body type. whatever. a couple hundred years ago, people would have considered me ‘unhealthy’. i am what i am. i am small woman.

as the Lord has seen fit, i am a small woman who has given birth to 3 children. as i see fit, i am a small woman who wishes to exercise a bit of modesty, even when swimming.

unfortunately, the swimwear industry, seems to think that the only people my size fit neither of those situations.

i went looking for family swimwear last night. i came home with something for everyone but myself.

apparently, people my size are only allowed to wear triangle tops and string bikini bottoms. ::sigh:: okay, that’s a little bit of a generalization. you can actually find some full length tops. not many.

what i was mainly looking for is bottoms. i have a little ‘skirt’ type bottom, but i really don’t like the way it fits, and it’s kinda shorter than i’d like. i’d love a pair of board shorts or, even better, a board skirt… my experience in shopping for these items is less than satisfactory. it seems that the offerings of these items is also discriminated by size. yes, you can find them in my size. they are a good inch and a half to two inches shorter than the IDENTICAL shorts or skirts in women’s sizes grrr! what is with that? i’m not looking for something that will barely cover my butt! the relative size of my butt has nothing to do with it.

so yes, i’m frustrated.

i actually tried on a pair of trunks that i bought for dave, which wound up being too small for him. they actually fit me perfectly… except for the fact that they hang to about 2 inches below my knees and therefore look ridiculous! why is there no happy medium?

Comments

  1. On the flip side, I consider myself to be "average" size for the most part. My problem has always been I have a longer than average torso. I thought with some of the new 2 pieces I might find something that suits me better than most 1 pieces. Not so much, as I have a larger than average bust. My choices? Pay 3 times as much for a 1 piece at a specialty shop or end up with something where either my chest is falling out or is too big for me. And people wonder why I don't swim much.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Swimsuit shopping is horrible for ANY woman, no matter her size I think...unless you want to wear a string or less ;) (ew) My advice...get some mens board shorts you like (if you can find some you like) and shorten them, wouldn't take more than a half hour or so. Good Luck!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. have you looked in the boys section? Boy's board shorts might be the right length. I have a similar problem with Lily in that almost every pair of shorts in the girls section should be considered underware. So I shop in the boys section for her shorts as well.

    Alternatively, Land's End sold by Sears usually has a fairly good selection of more modest swimwear for women. Give that a look.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

all comments are moderated. unkind comments will be deleted.

you may like...

dear neighbors which shall remain nameless,

i am writing this informational letter on behalf of your children, your bank account, and your auto insurance company, all of which suspect an impending blow to their current, healthy state. it appears that you may not be aware of certain traffic laws which pertain to the proper seating and safety of your children while in your vehicle, so i will take this opportunity to share them with you.   Washington's New Child Restraint Law Effective June 1, 2007, children less than eight years old must be restrained in child restraint systems, unless the child is four feet nine inches or taller. A child who is eight years old or older, or four feet nine inches or taller, must be properly restrained either with the motor vehicle's safety belt or an appropriately fitting child restraint system. Children under thirteen years old must be transported in rear seats where it is practical to do so. The fine for improperly restrained children in motor vehicles is at least $112 per c

idiosyncratic kids, bad parenting, and the like…

here’s a random post for you.  a smorgasbord of tasty day-to-day anecdotes with no topic in particular. HOW TO MAKE “D-CHEESES”   - just in case you find yourself in charge of my daughter around snack time. i have no idea where she came up with this, or why it is called ‘d-cheese’, but if she asks for d-cheese, this is how you make it:   the stacking is key! if you should, for some reason decided to cut one half and then the other half, you’re asking for it.  the two halves must be stacked and then cut. and all 4 pieces must be stacked on top of each other before handing over.  how she came up with this, and how i figured it out, i have no idea. i never claimed to have normal kids. BREAD ANYONE? the other night we had bread with dinner, but forgot to eat it. micah found it a little later and decided to have a little snack.            he was reaching into the bread and digging it out.  do you see the hole he put in that piece? and finally, WANNA FEEL LI

big fat nothing

see all the big welts?  yeah, me neither.  our spectacular appointment with the allergist revealed that layla is allergic to nothing.  so we're back to square one and we know nothing other than that something is causing her bladder issues and we don't know what.  maybe her doctor can put a little pressure on the urologist to see us.  who knows.  and food doesn't seem to be causing her skin issues, nor the rash she gets on her face after eating sometimes.  okay, that's not exactly accurate.  food is causing it, but not an allergy.  she has sensitive skin and when food gets smeared on her face, it irritates her skin. so, as disappointed as i am that we've gotten nowhere here, i am looking on the bright side that she isn't allergic to something major like wheat or dairy that would create a significant lifestyle change in regards to our diet.  so in that respect, it's good news.  i just really want some answers.

my mind is blank…

i’ve been really bad about blogging lately. i really don’t feel like i have anything interesting to say. we haven’t been anywhere lately. no one has been sick or hurt themselves lately. no one has visited us. i’m still working on my mom’s shawl, but it isn’t done yet. really. it’s pathetic. i think we need to take this as a hint and plan to do something exciting sometime soon. we’re kind of winding down and getting ‘mentally prepared’ for the school year. shane’s curriculum for the year is here and all loaded onto the computer, just waiting for him to start figuring it out (me too). i’ve got stuff floating around in my head about what sort of stuff i want to do with layla this year. it’s still preschool, so i have a very laid back attitude about it. fortunately, she thinks that ‘schoolwork’ and anything that seems to have an academic twist to it is SUPER cool, so there will be no struggle with her about that sort of thing, like there always has been with shane. i think the

random diaper musings

do you ever feel at odds with yourself? i constantly feel like i'm a big wad of contradictions. and being the living-in-my-head, overthinking type i can spend years, i mean hours pondering things. it can really get me down. example: diapers. one would think that this was a relatively easy thing to handle. i've got 3 kids. i'm pretty familiar with diapers. it seems so simple; your baby needs a change so you take the old diaper off and put a new one on. done. right? no. i have this constant dilemma going on. cloth or disposable. i have 25 perfectly good fitted cloth diapers that i paid a lot of money for when i decided a couple years ago that i was done filling up landfills. so micah wears them a good share of the time. but it bugs me that they're so bulky, especially with the covers on and clothes fit funny and that totally drives me nuts. so at home, he just wears the diaper w/ no cover and when we leave the house, i put a disposable on him. not usually