Skin is in: as sales of thong bikinis rise, is body confidence also growing?
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A Sydney council’s ban on ‘inappropriate’ swimwear stirs a wider debate over complex feelings about women’s bottoms. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.
![[Chloe Mac Donnell]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/11/07/Chloe_Mac_Donnell_Next_Gen.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
When it comes to clothing advice for women, the “rules” are endless. They range from sizeist – “avoid horizontal stripes if you have a wider frame”, to ageist – “don’t wear a crop top over 50”. Now Australia is weighing in. A council in Greater Sydney has banned thong and g-string bikinis at its public swimming pools causing outrage among pool users and stirring a wider debate about the policing of women’s bodies.
![[A young woman wearing a thong with jeans]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/5d957e538b6275200dd8a51727317e78863eb7ba/0_175_5250_3150/master/5250.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
In a now-deleted post on Facebook clarifying its swim-attire rules, Blue Mountains leisure centres stated that skimpy swimwear was “inappropriate” at its facilities. The guidelines were posted after pool users queried posters at centres warning that “revealing swimwear/thongs” were not to be worn.
If an Australian council has got its knickers in a twist over swimwear guidelines, it is going against wider trends. Skin is in, with bikinis outselling traditional one-piece swimsuits and women over 45 driving the trend. Meanwhile, a thongkini has become the default uniform on the reality show Love Island and is regularly championed by celebrities including the gen Z model Bella Hadid, the singer and size inclusivity advocate Lizzo and “midlifer” Jennifer Lopez.
This is hardly the first time that women’s bottoms have been controversial. Heather Radke, the author of Butts: A Backstory, describes bottoms as holding “a complicated space in conversations of obscenity”. The author, who has tracked the cultural history of the derriere, says people “generally have a lot of complicated feelings about the butt – it is a place associated with sex and defecation and has long been tied up in questions of racial and gender categorisation and hierarchies”.
