How Much is Your Dignity Worth?
Taffy Brodesser-Akner had a great piece in the Times last week about swimsuit shopping and conscientious objection. It makes sense, trust me.
What I’m saying is that it’s easy to get angry; the problem is staying angry when your need for convenience outweighs the part of you that is allegiant to your convictions. And as my finger hovers over that Slender Tunic, which Lands’ End is now selling in blackberry — a color that suits me very much — it is harder to find my self-righteousness again. A long time ago, you could opt into news and never be exposed to someone’s really good argument on Twitter that the only answer is a boycott. You could be a person who wasn’t awakened to the world around you. These days, you would have to be trying not to hear about the ways that the world doesn’t align with your values and about the very simplest thing you could do to show your consent or your objection. And the simple thing you can do is not to march on Washington but to simply opt out of a certain business’s service.
Lands’ End went and bungled it all with “Gloria Gate” — when they disowned Gloria Steinem after a cavalcade of complaints from disgruntled customers who felt that featuring an interview with the author and activist was akin to littering the catalogue with aborted fetuses. Or something. I’ll admit I don’t really understand conservatives.
And so Brodesser-Akner is cast back into the wilds, left again to fend for herself as she tries to find a bathing suit that makes her feel, well, acceptable. She’s describing a familiar experience for women — especially for women come summer, especially for women who fall outside whatever version of the female shape is currently considered tolerable.
Lands’ End’s cowardice in this matter was pathetic, and electing to passively show displeasure by no longer giving them your money is a great way of demonstrating that disappointment, but GIRL STILL NEEDS HER BEACHWEAR.
I buy one bathing suit every 4–5 years; this is my own passive form of protest against the entire swimsuit industry, which mass produces ill-fitting and poorly-made pieces of spandex and then tries to charge women $100+ for the pleasure of being ogled and/or body-shamed. In addition, if you have a chest that doesn’t fall within the bounds of “normal,” you have to pay more money for the extra inch of fabric it takes to keep your breasts something close to covered and yes, I have strong feelings about this.
I made the move to a one-piece last year, and feel pretty content about it, if weirdly modest? I got it on sale from J.Crew, which I will tacitly recommend because they build suits in bonus sizes (although yes, you will pay more for them).
The sports bra I bought during my weekend meltdown has actually been saltwater treated, so “you can wear it as a bikini top!,” the shop owner told me, as though this was a bonus? Which, at $150, it probably should double as something — maybe an air conditioning unit or bar stool? Anyway, now I’m on the hunt for plain black bikini bottoms and would love any advice.
I’ve been scouting independent designers who make comfortable, quality suits that celebrate a wide-range of body types: so far, my two favourites have been Hackwith Design House and Minnow Bathers, although I’ll admit even these are limiting. And, of course, expensive. $150 is an incredible amount of money for an item that inspires dread.
What have you got for me, readers?
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