To think bums should be covered in a public pool?

[Whatkatyforgottodo]

I may be being unreasonable and I’m just old and out of touch… took my kids swimming today at our local public pool and there was a lady wearing one of those swimming costumes that is basically a thong at the back? I saw lots of them in the beach during the summer which I kind of understand as it helps you get a very high cut tan/eliminates tan lines but I felt a bit weird seeing one in an indoor pool? Not sure where boundaries lie…? Happy to be told IABU but wondered what others think?

Slight deviation from topic, but a few posters have mentioned wearing thong underwear to avoid VPL. Thongs are often visible under trousers, you just have VTL instead. If you prefer them fair enough, but they aren’t a solution to VPL. It isn’t difficult to buy underwear which doesn’t show at all.

I get dancers underwear for this problem! The kind that goes under leotards. Absolutely no VPL at all

I’m only in my forties but I can remember a time when absolutely no-one cared about “VPL” or even knew what it was. It became a “thing” as a marketing tool in the very early 2000s when shops all went in on selling thong knickers as the new trend.

In the 90s we all just wore ordinary pants and didn’t stress about it at all.

There is nothing disingenuous about saying they're comfortable! It is entirely subjective, I find jeans comfortable but I have friends that live in leggings because jeans are uncomfortable..other friends can't wait to get their bra off as soon as they get in the house, I don't even notice I'm wearing one.

If young women want to show off their bodies then good luck to them, make the most of youth and fantastic collagen whilst it lasts.

It's no different to what my age group (45) did in our late teens/early 20's with our bikini tops and mini skirts that barely covered our butt cheeks when out clubbing, tiny string bikinis on holiday etc.
I remember my parents were horrified at the time, older people will always be outraged by the fashion choices of the younger generation. My DM admitted to me when I was about 35 she was envious that I could wear tight/fitted tops/dresses, short shorts etc as she couldn't.

Nobody is suggesting that children should wear them but an adult woman has every right to if that's what she chooses

@PurpleDiva22 I’m afraid you imagine wrong if you think nobody notices. And, as this thread demonstrates, there’s plenty of judging too. I’m not saying that’s right, but it’s definitely happening.

It’s not the style for me but each to their own. I see so many of them at the gym that I’m inured to them now. But I must admit they don’t look like they are serious swimmers in them. That’s my only thought.

I'm in my 40's too and it was very much a thing when we were teens, I started wearing thongs in about '94. None of my peer group wanted big knickers showing in our leggings or cycling shorts.

Yes, this tacky look has been normalised by shows like Love Island. Along with lip fillers etc.

It’s extraordinary how comfy these are for women, yet men don’t seem to want to wear them

Hear hear

You must have been very advanced! Did you send off for them? In 1994 someone gave my mum a black G-string as a cheeky 40th birthday present; and aged 15 I had never seen one before - thongs simply weren’t sold in any of the lingerie departments of the several big department stores in our city, and I knew this quite well as I was a fashion devotee, and spent my time reading Vogue and Cosmo and looking at all the clothes I could. The underwear styles that were very much in then were very minimalist tencel boyshorts and bikini knickers with lace - not a thong to be found anywhere (unless it was “sex wear”).

Admittedly, I did grow up in the grim north; so maybe things were just a little more backward there, and all the young teenagers in Guildford were down at Ann Summers for their scanties?

If they’re so comfortable why don’t you see older women in thong bikinis? Surely when one’s older it’s even more about comfort, no?

Back in reality, the vast majority of women aren’t that keen on wearing damp stinky buttfloss made out of plastic, that gives faecal bacteria a nice route down to the vagina. It’s uncomfortable and unhygienic. Women do it because they think it’s “sexy”.

If your farts exit in a straight line from your arsehole I congratulate you - and commiserate on your poor understanding of how gases behave. 🤓

@Juliagreeneyes
Because the older we get the saggier our arses become. Of course it's an aesthetic thing, which is why the younger women can embrace them! I don't wear thong bikinis but you can see the bottom of my bum cheeks as I've still got a pretty good arse 😀

Why on earth would someone's underwear be damp and stinky? 30 years of thongs never had an issue with any bacterial imbalance because I've able to wash myself properly.

Just because you find them uncomfortable it is disingenuous to state as a fact that they are categorically uncomfortable when that's clearly not true 🤷🏻‍♀️

You stick to Apple catchers and I'll stick to thongs. Job done 😀

Doesn’t bother me. I’m in my late fifties, I wear a full piece swimsuit, but I don’t care what anyone else wears. I’m there to swim and enjoy myself, plus I try not to be judgemental about what other women wear.

@Juliagreeneyes

If they’re so comfortable why don’t you see older women in thong bikinis? Surely when one’s older it’s even more about comfort, no?
Huh? Older women usually don't wear thing bikinis out of not loving the state of their arse. Nothing to do with comfort or not

In the 80s and 90s we didn't wear fabrics that were so full of Lycra so there wasn't such an issue with vpl. I certainly was aware of vpl in my 20s and that was in the 90s

I wore thongs a lot in my younger days. I wear them now under my leggings at the gym. They are perfectly comfortable. I dint feel them at all. The only reason I don't wear them all the time is now at my age I need to wear a thin liner for leaks and they need a bigger pant to stick on

Women judge other women partly in the same way that chefs will judge other chefs, artists judge other artists, and so on. It's not automatically a betrayal, just because it's a person of the same type who has an opinion.

Do you not remember the whale-tail and low-rise jeans trend of the late 90s/early 00s? I was in sixth form in 1999 and hipster jeans, worn ultra-low, with a dental floss thong was very much in fashion, we even had thongs with diamante bits where the strings met.

You're in denial.

That was very late 90s, not early 90s!

I don't want to be exposed to someone's brown eye if they make a wrong move. Even if you have a nice bum there's a time and a place to be showing it off and a public pool/spa isn't it.

They outline every crease and lip. It's too much for me to look at after breakfast

Exactly — that’s the entire point! It’s not about comfort at all: it’s about how the arse looks to men. If it was all just about comfort and making your own free choices about what to wear, women would wear one whatever they thought their arses looked like.

Good grief, we’re talking about SWIMWEAR here, that goes in the pool. Of course it’s damp: you’re wearing it in water. And if it’s stuck up your arse, it’s going to be stinky no matter how much you wash.

Amazed at how many people seem to think it’s OK to wear porn-style thong outfits in a public pool and are getting in a tizzy about it. I don’t care if you wear thong undies as I’m not likely to see them, am I? But thong swimwear out for kids and everyone to see in a public pool is just sexualised and attention-seeking.