Recently, a company in Israel advertised their modest swimwear for frum women on many Jewish community e-mail lists. One list member asked me the obvious question, and it has bothered me since. What is the point of modest swimwear? Do frum women wear modest swimwear when they go mixed swimming? Frum women don’t swim with men anyway. Since they are swimming with other women, why need the extra modesty? What do they care if they are showing thigh?
Men are hardly modest around other men. Just go to a men’s mikva (especially the one at Telz) and you’ll see just how casual we are about modesty. It is a freaking dangle-fest. So why do frum women need modest swimwear? I’m sure that when women are around each other, they are as casual as we are. C’mon, I watch those caged-women-in-prison-showers movies on cable, they comb their hair and soap up without even thinking about a towel. Super casual jiggle-fest. So why the burkini?
It must be that modest swimwear is really a ploy by the super liberal leftist orthodox feminists who are really trying to get us back to the days of mixed swimming — which will lead to mixed dancing, and adult parties — with the bowl full of car keys (remember those parties?).
In that case, I’m all for it. I think once they break down the mixed swimming barrier, we’ll be able to get back to the kind of frum community we all really want. The kind where Young Israel members hold mixed toga parties for married adults. You can wear “modest swimwear” underneath, or better yet go alfresco. BTW, the burkinis are real — and so are the toga parties in the frum community. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
You have to check out this video from China Network Television (!) filmed on the beaches of Tel Aviv.
“Modest swimwear becomes popular at beach”” link http://ping.fm/xZecF
The best line is in the intro: “…but for some population sectors, showing less means more when lounging at the shore.”
In other news, a woman in France was kicked off the beach because she was wearing a modest swimsuit. The beach patrol said that they don’t allow these full coverage suits because they harbor more bacteria and are thus less safe. WTF!
I sure hope there’s a MuslimSatire blog out there that’s mocking that kind of stuff from their perspective. That’s a pretty weak argument to get a women to show you some skin.
Why not really piss people off with putting more designs on the fabric — like these aprons http://www.voshy.com/pictures/funny-aprons/ (warning: unztnius images) But beware of putting gods on your suit… http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/indian-fury-at-hindu-goddess-on-skimpy-swimsuits-20110510-1egax.html
Check this out this is a copy of the muslim swimsuit, sadly this is what we have come to copying the muslims: http://www.ahiida.com/
Yup, I could not find a good image of a frum women in a modest swimsuit. The email on Jewish lists is advertising for a company in Israel. But I did take the burkini image from the other side of the Jordan :-). The company’s website: http://www.marseamodest.com/ There, they got a free plug.
Thank you for the plug! In response to the many comments, I want to remind you all that women cover up for many reasons i.e. for religious reasons, for sun protection, and for age/weight/medical related issues. Also, women that regularly cover up are not necessarily comfortable being exposed even at a women’s only beach/pool, and anyways, often the lifeguards are male. This really is a matter of the WOMAN’S choice, her comfort level.
Whoever is criticizing a woman covering up, is probably slim and fit. What about the heavier woman. What about the woman who can’t tolerate the sun? what about the woman who does not want to put a stumbling block in front of a man.? what about the woman who hates changing at public beaches/pools? (In MarSea Modest Swimwear, a woman can wear the swim outfits at the water and on the street).
We sell swimwear to everyone from secular and non-Jewish to ultra-religious. We hope that more modest Christians will contact us. Thank you and have a good Sabbath/Shabbat Shalom
I wear modest swim wear when I take my young kids to public pools & beaches. If I only took them to separate swimming places, here in the US, (since we live outside of the gettos of Brooklyn & Lakewood), we would never get to go swimming. Nothing funny about that. PS- We went to a state park pool frequented by the Amish last summer. You know you are a bit odd when the Amish stare at you. The Amish women were all staring curiously at me in my full length swim dress & scarf. They were all changed into regular swim suits. I kid you not. Kol kavuod bas melach p’nima.
What’s the point of swimming if you can’t feel the water?
That’s what they asked Moshe at the YamSuf. Did he show them!
nice!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s a dress not a row boat.
Thats it! im throwing out all my bikinis and getting these instead. Do you think I’ll stand out from all my friends at UCLA? Also does hollister make these? (thats where i buy all my beach stuff). I’m just dying to look like the Women(??? hard to tell) in this pic!!!!!!
Try this site. More culturally appropriate. http://www.aquamodesta.net/
I am a big advocate for girls & women being active & tsnius. A wide range of garments can facilitate that.
& I think you will find if you look around at the pool & beach that there are a lot of people covering up for different reasons. Many kids swim suits now come w. a surf shirt, which kids seem to be happy to wear, instead of having to get smeared all over w. suntan lotion.
So if you wear a long t-shirt or spandex skirt to swim, you are really not standing out so much in an urban setting. Most people who mention anything to me about how I’m dressed assume I am trying to cover up from the sun, not from their sons.
Also Please comment and give your opinion as to what exactly the individuals in this picture look like in those things:
im torn between aliens and play-doh aliens
I think TinkyWinky is getting her friends to get La La into the water. “It’s ok, you can’t get wet!”.
Yeah i was thinking along those lines too
Hahaha!
TA, can I recruit you to write some pieces for me? I’m trying to kick off my communal yeshiva/ex-yeshiva blog (click my name). Not a competition to Heshy btw, just if you have pieces you think are not his style.
Another good thing about tznius swimwear is that you get less sun exposure so it should hopefully reduce incidence of skin cancer.
Tznius to a certain extent also apply when a female is around other women. I think tznius is a trait many girls who wear shorts and other non tznius clothing just around girls do it usually subconciously because they want the attention. And personally those girls who wear non tznius clothing because they can around girls have an annoying personality of wanting to show off (obviously this is not so much the case when a girl is wearing basket ball shorts or that kind of clothing I’m talking about really not tznius clothing). So that’s what I think btw I am very curious to know from where do you get your pictures lime the women in the modest swimwear?
I took it off Flickr and possibly violated a copyright by posting it here without permission (though maybe it’s “fair use” — any lawyers in the house?). It’s from a site that sells modest swimwear to the Muslim community. However, the site that inspired this post is actually an Israeli company (I posted the link in a comment above, and they also sells to the Muslim community — since this is one of the many things we agree about — cellulite is untznius.)
If Heshy gets a “takedown” notice for the copyright infringement, I’ll have to ask you to send me a few pictures of you and your friends.
Looks like none of the readers here were invited to the couples’ toga party in a Young Israel community that I hinted about. Maybe another post detailing that little story is in order.
I keep tzneius and I go mixed swimming. Let me tell you, swimming in a bathing suit, long sleeved t-shirt, skirt and shorts (just in case the skirt floats up) is not as much fun as you would think and I’ve come to the sad realization that it is probably not all that safe. I love water, the beach, the ocean, pools, natural springs, bays, lakes, you get the picture. If I think I can swim in it, I will. These tzneuis bathing suits are going to save me from drowning in a pool of clothing. And this way I get to enjoy the beauties of Hashems great earth AND I can keep halacha while doing so. 😀
I just went to the beach today with my daughter and I was able to swim in the waves, and play matkot (paddleball) and lay in the sun all in my MarSea Modest Swimwear. I was not overly hot, was not bogged down in the water, and was able to leave the beach and go right into my car. I didnt feel anyone paid attention at how “different” I looked, except other religious women who perhaps wondered where I got my swimwear (they were in there clothes and didnt go into the water).
http://www.youtube.com/user/Deenieday#p/a/u/1/Em-e6w4e1v0
The importance of tznius