This Post Isn't Really Saying What I Want It to Say About SwimSuits

I'm a bit sun dazed,
so read this with a slight slur.

Setting: Our city has a wonderful pool/water park space
where people from all walks of life come together
to enjoy the water in the heat.

Today, instead of goggling at the perfect bodies (only),
young, brown, firm, proportioned, and accessorized,
I choose to look at *everyone.*
Really try to see people.
The whole spetrum, so to speak.
What do I understand and think about people,
their bodies,
and, well, my own.

Ok, I've tried specifically to avoid bodily identification
on this blog because I do not want to buy into this culture's hype--
body focusing,
body demoralizing,
and even body dismemberment (looking in the mirror
at one particular body part & lamenting--ie, hair,
lips, ears, butt, thighs .. .).
Yet, after today, unable to avoid
the pressures of swimsuit season
I feel this post warrants ,
such attention.

So what did I see?
Everything we are taught not to stare at:

disabled children with palsies all waving their hands

fat bodies in two piece swim wear (lots--good for them)

utterly humongeous bodies, people who looked unhealthy

scarred women, one who's leg had been ripped up the side

bald men, even a balding man w/permed mullet

tattooed people, orange suns, moons, blue butterflies, dolphins

more tatooed people, skulls, hebrew, chinese, crosses, roses

balding women who were an array of thinness at top

brown men and women with white, asian, and mexican partners

black children with wonderfully, proud nappy hair

pink chubby white bodies seared in the sun, straps crisscrossed

sculpted bodies walking out from air-brushed magazines

poor bodies in cheap, faded jeans instead of trunks

old women with sagging arms and throats

tall men all skin and bones

pale people who have only now seen the light of day

body piercings galore--especially navel

athletes with straining muscles

pregnant women who looked as if they could drop

lovers and fighters; quite whispers and loud shouting

people who jerk arms and point fingers, call for their friends yards away

children who dance

teens with crossed arms, rolling eyes

jumpers and divers; huggers and shunners

bodies who splash


and it's hard to talk about all of these bodies and peoples without talking about hair, legs, big ears, suits, and even teeth individually--but I know better than to disect people, because they are each a part of me and I am a part of them--they become a part of my day, I become a moment to them--will I smile and nod or turn my back in snub?

Why are we taught it's not polite to stare? ok, to look? to realize that people are different, really different? is non-looking really the best policy? i wonder.

Seeing someone in the eye and acknowledging their existance seems right.

And finally, how would I fit in if I didn't, er, know me? One little girl asked if I was a life guard; why did I think that such a grand compliment?



On a lighter note: how horrible for those who came of age during the 80s.
The radio station at the pool played every hair band known--
thankfully, I can't even imagine what it must feel like to repeat that era. ;-)