Is it a sin for women to wear bikinis?

[LittleSoldier]

I have an honest, serious question for the men here. I’m not trying to be insulting but as a woman I obviously don’t know what it is like to be a man.

With all respect and humility, I’m asking if you really have problems with lustful thoughts when you see a woman in a bikini. I’m not referring to the thong ones or the teensy tiny ones. I mean a bikini that covers up the rear and a top that uh, completely covers the uh, chest area.

Is it really a problem? I don’t know! Please help me out here.

 

[LittleSoldier]

We call them “budgie smugglers” down here. There’s actually an ad on Youtube about it in regards to trying to sell an icecream. (Trumpet of all things, ironically) - Search it and know I’m not sounding like a complete perv.

Anyway, I was informed by a doctor once that speedos are not very safe for men, I think most could has it a guess as to why.

Yet isn’t that what men swimmers wear during the Olympics? I think they’re speedos - that’s what I would call them. They are definitely tiny. So they must confer some advantage or else they wouldn’t be worn.

 

[edwest2]

Men are made to respond to scanitly clad women for as long as men and women have been around. Hollywood knows this and certainly so-called fashion designers know this. After the disgusting thong bikini appeared, it would not surprise me if a designer pair of rubber bands for $50.00 are next in stores.

God bless,
Ed

 

[edwest2]

Ed, I apologize but I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Would you please go into further detail or rephrase to help me understand? Thank you.

OK. Perverts and sexual deviants from the 1960s gradually turned Western Society into a paradise for perverts and sexual deviants. Lady Gaga runs over to a Berlin Sex Club for an evening of debauchery.

God bless,
Ed

 

[Portrait]

“Prude” is the word the immodest use to denigrate the modest.

Dear Carl,

Cordial greetings and hope all is well.

Excellent pithy comment and a real truism if ever there was.

Warmest good wishes,

Portrait

 

[jegow]

Women do not run around on the beach in their underwear!!! They’re probably wearing bikinis.

Men run around in tiny little speedos that amazingly somehow stay on but the outlines of every covered part of the male anatomy can be discerned very easily and if they bend over, even more can be seen. Is that OK?

Men run around the beach topless. Why is that OK? And why can’t men control their own impure thoughts? Why do you blame the women? Are you so weak that you fall into sin when seeing a woman in a bikini? It seems that I constantly hear that men are the “strong sex.” It appears to me that you aren’t quite as strong as you claim.

I’m tired of women being blamed for so many of the sins of men.

Check out post #16 - see what the last fruit of the Holy Spirit is.

But is that not the effect of Original Sin - the original harmony between man and woman was wrecked. Calling men weak in your response is a good example to show how that harmony has been messed up. Men and women are supposed to help each other even though that harmony has been ruined by sin. We see it right after the fall, Adam and Eve looked upon each other differently. Men get their weakness from that fall. Men can be weak in that area because of the reality of sin in the world and the fact that we all are subject to concupisence whether we like it or not. Just as men are supposed to help women get into heaven women are supposed to help men. Since the sexes are effected by concupiscence in different ways … it is an act of charity to men that women dress modestly to help them stay away from the near occasion of sin, even on the beach. To say that a bikini wearing woman is not going to challenge a man in the ways of purity or in the area of concupiscence is just a tad naïve. And to say that his being challenged is due to just plain weakness is not very compassionate because we all have to deal with the weaknesses and injuries that came from ‘the fall’ due to sin and for a decent number of men that is a pretty regular cross they have to carry - it means more if women help men with that cross in what is an over-sexed world rather than saying that it’s their problem because they’re just weak. Which also brings up the point of why is it that men are blamed for being weak when women are purposefully not willing to lead virtuous lives in their dress (even on the beach) i.e. the virtue of chastity which of course includes modesty? I think we could make the argument that the virtue of one effects the other just as the lack of virtue in one can also effect the other but in the opposite way. Modesty or the lack of can both be powerful things - obviously bringing about different results.

 

[braidwood]

This thread and some of the replies confirm for me that members of the Catholic Church are giving up on traditional standards of modesty and decency.
I recently attended Mass and the young lady in front of me had low cut jeans, was clearly wearing a visible thong and had a tattoo on her lower back.
I am struggling to decide what Jesus would make of all of this. From my reading of the Holy Bible, no one presented to Him in the state of undress exemplified by a modern bikini.
Is our body truly a temple of the Lord, or simply an object for human glory and edification?
Mike

 

[CWBetts]

This thread and some of the replies confirm for me that members of the Catholic Church are giving up on traditional standards of modesty and decency.
I recently attended Mass and the young lady in front of me had low cut jeans, was clearly wearing a visible thong and had a tattoo on her lower back.
I am struggling to decide what Jesus would make of all of this. From my reading of the Holy Bible, no one presented to Him in the state of undress exemplified by a modern bikini.
Is our body truly a temple of the Lord, or simply an object for human glory and edification?
Mike

I don’t see tattoos as universally wrong (and I believe the Church is silent on this), but I am in agreement with the modesty issues.

 

[LittleSoldier]

OK. Perverts and sexual deviants from the 1960s gradually turned Western Society into a paradise for perverts and sexual deviants. Lady Gaga runs over to a Berlin Sex Club for an evening of debauchery.

God bless,
Ed

I’m very sorry but I still don’t understand. There have been perverts and sexual deviants as long as there have been human beings. Who is Lady Gaga? What is a Berlin Sex Club?

Are you aware that in Greek society it was the norm for an older man to be involved with a younger man in a sexual relationship? This was accepted behavior. This sort of thing is not new.

“The most common form of same-sex relationships between males in Greece was “paiderastia” meaning “boy love”. It was a relationship between an older male and an adolescent youth. In Athens the older man was called erastes, he was to educate, protect, love, and provide a role model for his beloved. His beloved was called eromenos whose reward for his lover lay in his beauty, youth, and promise.”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_ancient_Greece

What about Sodom and Gomorrah? There were some perversions going on there and they were acceptable in those societies, although not accepted by God as appropriate.

From what I have seen of the world (which admittedly is not much) I think that people are trying their best to be in monogamous relationships, married, and raising a family. The American Dream is still there - people work hard and they buy a house and they turn it into a home. Sure there are problems. Sexual behavior seems to be showing up at a younger age but I’m not sure if that is really true. Bikinis have been around for fifty years. The fact that you call it “underwear” troubles me. It’s not underwear. If a woman ran around in public in her underwear she would be 5150’d and locked up under supervision.

I have two nieces. One is 19 and one is 17. Both are faithful Catholics and do extremely well in school. Neither one has ever been on a date. Neither one wears makeup. When I expressed my concern about this to my sister she said this is normal today. Teens are in college, studying. It’s not the same as when I went to college and I thinki this change is for the better.

If women in bikinis cause such horrible lustful thoughts in men, why isn’t there rampant sexual behavior on the beaches where the bikini-clad women are gathered? And what of those speedos - are they worn to cause lustful thoughts in women?

Finally, why do you say that a “beautiful” woman doesn’t need to run around in her “underwear”? I don’t think you’ve answered my question about that (although I may have missed it). Why the emphasis on “beautiful” women? Is it OK for a woman who is not “beautiful” to run around in her “underwear”? From your post this is the meaning I read. If you had just meant women in general you wouldn’t have used the word “beautiful.”

 

[CWBetts]

I’m very sorry but I still don’t understand. There have been perverts and sexual deviants as long as there have been human beings. Who is Lady Gaga? What is a Berlin Sex Club?

Are you aware that in Greek society it was the norm for an older man to be involved with a younger man in a sexual relationship? This was accepted behavior. This sort of thing is not new.

“The most common form of same-sex relationships between males in Greece was “paiderastia” meaning “boy love”. It was a relationship between an older male and an adolescent youth. In Athens the older man was called erastes, he was to educate, protect, love, and provide a role model for his beloved. His beloved was called eromenos whose reward for his lover lay in his beauty, youth, and promise.”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_ancient_Greece

What about Sodom and Gomorrah? There were some perversions going on there and they were acceptable in those societies, although not accepted by God as appropriate.

From what I have seen of the world (which admittedly is not much) I think that people are trying their best to be in monogamous relationships, married, and raising a family. The American Dream is still there - people work hard and they buy a house and they turn it into a home. Sure there are problems. Sexual behavior seems to be showing up at a younger age but I’m not sure if that is really true. Bikinis have been around for fifty years. The fact that you call it “underwear” troubles me. It’s not underwear. If a woman ran around in public in her underwear she would be 5150’d and locked up under supervision.

I have two nieces. One is 19 and one is 17. Both are faithful Catholics and do extremely well in school. Neither one has ever been on a date. Neither one wears makeup. When I expressed my concern about this to my sister she said this is normal today. Teens are in college, studying. It’s not the same as when I went to college and I thinki this change is for the better.

If women in bikinis cause such horrible lustful thoughts in men, why isn’t there rampant sexual behavior on the beaches where the bikini-clad women are gathered? And what of those speedos - are they worn to cause lustful thoughts in women?

Finally, why do you say that a “beautiful” woman doesn’t need to run around in her “underwear”? I don’t think you’ve answered my question about that (although I may have missed it). Why the emphasis on “beautiful” women? Is it OK for a woman who is not “beautiful” to run around in her “underwear”? From your post this is the meaning I read. If you had just meant women in general you wouldn’t have used the word “beautiful.”

Christian morality is not to be measured by the heathen world. The issues with perversion is that is coincides with a resurgence in neo-paganism. Read the first chapter in Romans (that one is in the New Testament, it is the first of the Pauline Epistles), and tell me that you do not see the same kind of immorality reflected today.

 

[Lycorth]

Sexual behavior seems to be showing up at a younger age but I’m not sure if that is really true.

Surely you have heard of the troublesome rates of teenage pregnancy?

Sexual behavior is rampant amongst young people.

If women in bikinis cause such horrible lustful thoughts in men, why isn’t there rampant sexual behavior on the beaches where the bikini-clad women are gathered? And what of those speedos - are they worn to cause lustful thoughts in women?

Mainly, there isn’t sex on the beach because public sex is a crime. Also, most men who wear speedos do so to show off, much the same as many women who wear skimpy little bikinis. Even if it’s done in an “innocent” fashion (ie, being ignorant of how bearing that much skin can incite lust in others), it’s hard to be unaware of just what you’re putting on display in a speedo or bikini.

However, public sexual activity most certainly does happen, on the beach as well as elsewhere. I’d say to just Google “public sex” but I warn you that it is one heck of an occasion of sin to do so.

 

[LittleSoldier]

Christian morality is not to be measured by the heathen world. The issues with perversion is that is coincides with a resurgence in neo-paganism. Read the first chapter in Romans (that one is in the New Testament, it is the first of the Pauline Epistles), and tell me that you do not see the same kind of immorality reflected today.

But that is my point! It’s always been with us. It’s not something that has shown up in the last forty years. I’ve seen pornorgraphic silent b&w films, made in the twenties.

This is not something new and blaming it on women wearing bikinis makes no sense.

If you wish for me to read scripture, please provide the book, chapter, and verse. I’m sorry but I don’t know all the books as I’m still stuck at Noe in the OT.

Are you referring to this:

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

[Romans 1:25-32, KJV]

I don’t see anything there about modesty or bikinis. Are you correlating the wearing of bikinis with hatred of God, fornication, pride, boasting, inventing evil things, disobedience to parents, breaking covenants, being unmerciful, “backbiting” (whatever that is), envy, whispering, MURDER?

That does not follow logically.

 

[LittleSoldier]

And still not one man active in this thread has answered my question.

I wonder why that is.

Please answer the question. I want to know! Don’t you think women deserve to know the truth about men’s thoughts?

No. Never mind. I don’t think any man in this thread will honestly answer the question. I tried. I’m not going to respond any more in this thread. Humans, both male and female, were made in the image of God. Nobody has presented Church teaching which states that wearing bikinis is a sin or any sort of evil act. Some of you have decided it is inappropriate to wear bikinis and nothing I say will change your opinion. And that’s fine. But I have an opinion, too. I also have the right to wear a bikini (not that I would) and those women on the beach have the right to wear bikinis and I’m not going to judge them. That is not my place.

What I’m reading is that the wearing of bikinis has led to all sorts of awful social problems. That is very simplistic and illogical. And wrong.

So if you have lustful thoughts when you see women in bikinis, I suggest (as Ed stated) that you never go to a beach again.

It’s not a problem here. Nobody wears a bikini on the beaches here. It’s too cold. But I stand by my comments. I’m just giving up on you guys. It seems that, according to some of you, wearing bikinis causes lustful thoughts in men and therefore it’s wrong. I think that if men are as strong as they claim to be, those lustful thoughts would be dismissed.

And I’ll tell you what I do when I see a man in a speedo (with the exception of the Olympics). I laugh and laugh with not a lustful thought in my mind. Not even a itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow polka dotted one.

 

[LittleSoldier]

Surely you have heard of the troublesome rates of teenage pregnancy?

Sexual behavior is rampant amongst young people.

Please provide documentation to back up your assertion. What I mean by that is documentation that shows teenage pregnancy has increased significantly within the last forty years.

And even if it has, you’re blaming the wearing of bikinis on teen pregnancy rates! That is not logical! Surely it might have something to do with a few other factors such as increased use of artificial birth control as accepted practice by most Protestant churches and the legality of abortion.

Mainly, there isn’t sex on the beach because public sex is a crime. Also, most men who wear speedos do so to show off, much the same as many women who wear skimpy little bikinis. Even if it’s done in an “innocent” fashion (ie, being ignorant of how bearing that much skin can incite lust in others), it’s hard to be unaware of just what you’re putting on display in a speedo or bikini.

That is an assumption. Please provide documentation to back up your asserting that sex isn’t on the beach because it’s a crime (which implies that women wearing bikinis causes lustful thoughts and actions in a place other than the beach).

However, public sexual activity most certainly does happen, on the beach as well as elsewhere. I’d say to just Google “public sex” but I warn you that it is one heck of an occasion of sin to do so.

Then I won’t google it. Thank you for the warning. I try to stay away from things like that.

 

[Lycorth]

Please provide documentation to back up your assertion. What I mean by that is documentation that shows teenage pregnancy has increased significantly within the last forty years.

“Since the 1950s, the U.S. teen birthrate has declined while the proportion of teen births that are nonmarital has increased.*”

guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/05/1/gr050107.pdf

And even if it has, you’re blaming the wearing of bikinis on teen pregnancy rates! That is not logical! Surely it might have something to do with a few other factors such as increased use of artificial birth control as accepted practice by most Protestant churches and the legality of abortion.

Please provide documentation to back up your assertion that I blamed teen pregnancy rates on the wearing of bikinis.

That is an assumption. Please provide documentation to back up your asserting that sex isn’t on the beach because it’s a crime (which implies that women wearing bikinis causes lustful thoughts and actions in a place other than the beach).

The obvious and observable fact that there is a lack of sex on public beaches due to the fact that public sex is a crime in the United States in no way implies that women wearing bikinis causes lustful thoughts and actions in places other than the beach. I have no idea how you drew that conclusion.

Then I won’t google it. Thank you for the warning. I try to stay away from things like that.

Welcome

 

[CWBetts]

But that is my point! It’s always been with us. It’s not something that has shown up in the last forty years. I’ve seen pornorgraphic silent b&w films, made in the twenties.

This is not something new and blaming it on women wearing bikinis makes no sense.

If you wish for me to read scripture, please provide the book, chapter, and verse. I’m sorry but I don’t know all the books as I’m still stuck at Noe in the OT.

Are you referring to this:

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

[Romans 1:25-32, KJV]

I don’t see anything there about modesty or bikinis. Are you correlating the wearing of bikinis with hatred of God, fornication, pride, boasting, inventing evil things, disobedience to parents, breaking covenants, being unmerciful, “backbiting” (whatever that is), envy, whispering, MURDER?

That does not follow logically.

What about loving the creature more than the creator?

 

[coolcatholicguy]

I personally don’t think it’s that bad for women to wear normal, SWIMABLE bikinis, but I would caution the stuff like that in swimsuit magazines.

 

[PatriceA]

I personally don’t think it’s that bad for women to wear normal, SWIMABLE bikinis, but I would caution the stuff like that in swimsuit magazines.

I agree, if I had the body for it, you bet I’d be wearing a nice cut bikini myself. There are some really cute retro type stuff out there that I would love to wear.

 

[CWBetts]

I agree, if I had the body for it, you bet I’d be wearing a nice cut bikini myself. There are some really cute retro type stuff out there that I would love to wear.

“if you had the body for it”…hmmm this smacks of pride and worship of the creature over the creator. Bikinis do nit give glory to God, but glorify the creature. What is so hard to see about this?

 

[edwest2]

It’s just like a lady friend of mine who said, “If I had legs like that I’d wear mini-skirts all the time.”

It is difficult to be a woman in a society that allows a tiny clique of so-called “fashion designers” to dictate what face and what body type constitutes ‘beauty.’

I suggest avoiding TV and most movies where women are simply treated as objects and not people. And beaches.

God bless,
Ed