Paige Hunter Blog

What do you wear to the beach? Are you comfortable wearing a bikini, or do you prefer a less revealing one-piece?

Well, now you can cover up as much as you want. Several brands of swimwear are offering full coverage, rashie-type swimwear with built-in skirts or capri pants and high necks. The suits will hide your arms, legs, cleavage and bum – all those body parts we insecure women have traditionally been scared of showing.

But what kind of forces make women want to hide their bodies at the beach?

The ranges of 'modest' swimwear were all originally designed Orthodox Jewish and Muslim women who are forbidden from showing their bodies in public. They have, however, had much wider appeal. Larger women, new mums and elderly ladies have all bought the full coverage suits, presumably because they feel uncomfortable in regular swimwear.

Now the swimwear labels are actually marketing their products to new mums, knowing that so many will choose to cover up their bodies at the beach rather than be seen in a bikini.

And this made me sad. Obviously there is nothing wrong with covering up for religious or health reasons. But it does worry me that women – particularly new mothers – could feel compelled to wear full coverage swimwear because their bodies are less than perfect.

I remember vividly the feeling of stripping to my swimsuit shortly after my third baby was born. She was a summer baby, and we were on a beach holiday just weeks after she arrived. I bore a visible caesarean scar and had significant tummy overhang from my pregnancy, plus varicose veins, stretch marks and extra weight. As a result, I wore a rashie top over my bikini for the first time in years; I was far too self-conscious to let my loose stomach hang out.

But I wish now that I had been braver. I wish now that I had fought that desire to cover up. A post-partum body is as natural and normal as any other body. And when people like me hide ourselves under rashie tops and 'modest' swimwear, we perpetuate the notion that less than perfect bodies are shameful and embarrassing.

It's a difficult issue because I know how hard it is to resist that societal pressure. It is hammered into us through the media and our own insecurities to be ashamed of our imperfections, including those arising from pregnancy and birth. We are supposed to 'bounce back' to our pre-pregnancy states within weeks, to be thin, toned, tanned and unblemished. And so we cover ourselves up when we don't meet these standards, out of our own discomfort, and to protect other people from the horror of our less-than-ideal bodies.

And we shouldn't have to. Those of us with imperfect bodies have just as much right to feel good in a bikini as supermodels. And the more flawed bodies we see, the more we chip away at the body image ideal.

I don't believe that every new mother has a responsibility to be a body image pioneer. If it is too confronting or uncomfortable for you to show off your body, then by all means wear a rashie. But marketing modest swimwear specifically to new mums just spreads the idea that post-partum bodies aren't good enough.

And really, our bodies are as awesome and beautiful as the bodies of the babies they created.

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