The Guardian - Swim England in deep water over women's swimwear advice

silentcrow I did the first great north swim; i remember my friend & I reassuring ourselves that ‘if that larger middle aged lady in the swimming costume’ thinks she can do this, we’ll be absolutely fine.
Turns out she was swimming all ten waves that day, was a multi channel swimmer & absolutely destroyed all us amateur wetsuit splashers!

There may have been some stuff about how tits in the pool were a no-no as it might upset people (transmen with no tops on) but as changing facilities are somehow different, cocks in the womens /girls was AOK.

Indeed there was.

Outdoor Swimmer magazine had a good laugh at the whole idea...

outdoorswimmer.com/blogs/swim-england-in-storm-over-swimsuit-advice

I've been part of the OW community for years and that article is bob on - it's one of the few sports where body fat is an advantage and as such you get a great range of people. I've never felt a moment's shame lakeside and many of my swimming heroes are women much older than me.

I thought Swim England was all about promoting swimming ?

I’m a decent swimmer and I can tell you that there are women at my Tri club/masters group in their 50s and 60s who turn up in bobbly costumes and seen-better-days hats who can absolutely smoke me in the water.

Still under review according to website

www.swimming.org/swimengland/engaging-trans-people-facility-operators/

It was another one where the interest groups came in, gave them an incorrect view of the EA, and said that as trans people lierally are the sex they identify as there is no need to do any risk assessments or have any consideration for others using the facilities.

I think they also had a bit about how anyone who felt uncomfy sharing fcilities should be educated.

There may have been some stuff about how tits in the pool were a no-no as it might upset people (transmen with no tops on) but as changing facilities are somehow different, cocks in the womens /girls was AOK.

Swim England do a lot of swimming clubs that meet in schools so communal changing.

Have Swim England issued revised guidance re single sex swim sessions after it was pulled after Man Friday?

It could be as simple as someone being told to write something about choosing swimsuits - meaning fabric choices, sport suits vs casual etc. And they ran with it far too far thinking they had had a bright Iidea to include sexist fashion advice. So possibly well intentioned.

But why the hell did it get approved?!

Now that it's been pointed out, I started wondering what the actual origin of that text was, and I did a search on "these colors will have an overall minimizing effect". In fact there were quite a few sources from around 2010, and I don't know which one was the original. None of them seemed to give credit to any of the others (and Swim England certainly doesn't). Here's one:
www.womenality.com/2010/04/06/finding-the-perfect-swimsuit/

Ooh good catch.

I notice the word 'colors' so some bright spark probably thought it was a good idea to cut-and-paste from an American website.

Well they certainly draw attention away from less appealing areas!

What? No Man Friday inspired Mankinis with frilly hats :( ???

Is there a companian page for men and boys on choosing swimwear to disguise their less appealing parts and draw attention to their "assets"?

No?

Hmmm that's a massive oversight - how strange.

Badger - i don't think hampstead ponds have anything to do with swim england. They are owned & managed by the city of london. That bloke who's a "nonbinary" freemason and mates with the speaker of the house of commons is heavily involved around opening up this and otehr women's spaces to men. The speaker of teh house of commons being the one who refused a parliamentary question on karen white a TW in prison who assaulted female prisoners including showing them her erect penis... The freemason is also the partner of another nonbinary person who was heavily involved in writing guidance for teens around sex and stuff which says that clitorises and penises are basically the same but just differ in size. They have also cowritten papers with someone who believes that people who prefer "intergenerational sex" are at the bottom of the hierarchy of oppressed sexualities.

There's some interesting people and links in all this, for sure.

I thikn aminee challenor was and stil is involved in the stonewall trans group who advised swim england. Just another interesting link.

"As a guide to choosing swimwear for women it’s worth remembering people come in different shapes and sizes"

Stone me, I'd totally forgotten that. What would we do without such helpful reminders?

Thing is if you have a jiggly belly you're more likely to be apple shaped (like me) not pear. Just saying.

It's either 8 years of being offensive or 2 years of being offensive. We'll be generous and let you take your pick Swim England, so long as we get a better fucking answer than, 'this doesn't reflect our views'. No that's just your official view for x amount of years until someone decided to embarrass you. Someone approved it. Will action be taken against them? Or the person who approved it?

Na didn't think so.

So much for your woke points.

Nothingontelly you’re right I did. Off to the gulag I go! I’ve heard it’s rather nice though, lots of clever and interesting women and I can make wine and gin so I reckon I’ll fit in ok

I’m so tired of women’s bodies being up for discussion. They’re just bodies. Who cares if they’re a bit jiggly, or different shapes. That page on Swim England’s site, plus the guidance for Hampstead Ponds which said women who were uncomfortable with dicks in the changing room ought to be re-educated, tells me all I need to know about the culture at Swim England.

The wording in places really does make me think it was a primary age work experience boy who wrote it.

Bikinis totally expose a jiggly belly,

I mean, they're like, totally right but you only say it for bantz. Yo.

I'm pear shaped. It does mean I'm less prone to heart attacks, though.

"A pear shape has often been the plague of women"...

wtaf

Very bizarre. Who leers at others in a swimming pool? A beach, okay, but if you're using a pool to swim, you're not seeing much of other people's bodies.

Yuk.

Was Teddy Boy Dark Lord involved back then?

Why did they need to be told what was on their website!?