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Baffled By Bikinis

by Ruthie Alekseeva  
12/09/2023 / Christian Living

Images in Christian Churches

I love learning about Jesus, Bella thinks, as she raises her hands in the air, claps them three times, then spins in a circle.

“Great singing, boys and girls,” Mrs Hilliard says, once the song finishes. “And I love how well you did the actions. Now, let’s sit down and hear a true story from the Bible.”

Bella’s Sunday School teacher holds up a picture book. The cover has an illustration of a naked man and woman standing behind a hedge. The hedge covers the couple’s nudity so only their shoulders show, implying that shoulders are modest but public, full-on, post-fall nudity is not.

“This is Adam and Eve,” Mrs Hilliard says.

She flips the book open, turning it to the first page. The hedge has gone. Now, Eve stands under a fruit-laden tree and only her hair covers her nakedness, but her tummy and thighs still show, implying that thighs and tummies are modest also.

 “They lived in the Garden of Eden,” Mrs Hilliard continues. “They lived in perfect harmony with God and each other until they made a terrible decision.”

Images in Christian Publications

I hope we can all admit that pictures of Adam and Eve aren’t the only incidence of semi-nude people that we see in Christian resources. The movie Soul Surfer, filmed in 2011, tells the true-life story of a Christian girl who loses an arm, because of a shark attack while surfing, and how she overcame this tragic incident. Although an inspirational story, it has images of young women wearing nothing but bikinis in it, the whole way through.

Even earlier than that, in the year 2000, Australia hosted what International Olympic Committee president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, called the “best Olympic Games ever.” During these games, Australian Christians distributed mini versions of the Gospel of John. This book of the Bible had pictures of Christian athletes, both male and female, wearing short, tight clothing which revealed their shoulders, backs, tummies and thighs.

Many of the female athletes in that Gospel of John wore outfits which look like bikinis, and their picture included a testimony of how they became Christians and how readers should copy them and become Christians also. It’s not surprising then, that as a young girl, on the brink of womanhood, with zero sexual experience, whose body had changed but whose mind hadn’t yet sexualised, having seen these images inserted into a book as holy as the Bible, that I would take their advice and not only emulate their Christian stance but their clothing also.

Blindsided

But when I copied the outfits of these Christian athletes and of Adam and Eve, I received angry reprimands. That left me feeling blindsided, baffled and unjustly treated. What is wrong with wearing a bikini or an outfit that bares your shoulders, tummy or thighs? I thought, and if it’s wrong, why are they in the Holy Bible and in picture books used for Sunday School? I also didn’t understand why I copped the blame when I had simply copied pictures of older, possibly more experienced, Christian women, and those women can’t wear the blame alone either, because Christian resources are not the handiwork of women only. In most publications, Christian men lend a hand as well.

If shoulders, backs, tummies, thighs and bikinis pose a great and uncontrollable problem for all men, why didn’t the men involved in producing these resources stop these publications? I wondered, and why don’t they draw the hedge Adam and Eve stand behind higher, so only their necks and faces show? That’s a great incongruity, instructing young girls, with zero sexual experience and pre-sexualised minds, that they must dress modestly but then displaying images of Christian people wearing what some consider immodest outfits. How can young girls possibly understand there’s a controversy surrounding showing certain areas of the body or be held fully responsible for what they’re wearing if this is what they see in their churches and Christian books?

It Must Stop

That’s not fair. That’s not kind, and it must stop. People who teach modesty must open their eyes and start seeing how confusing and conflicting Christian resources can be. Instead of teaching that vanity is the only reason why a woman might not have “appropriate” clothing on, we must acknowledge what young girls are seeing and help them untangle why there’s so many different ideas, even amongst Christians, of what is and is not a modest outfit.

When I copied the skimpy outfits I saw in Christian picture books and in the Gospel of John I owned, not only did I receive reprimands, but some men, at church and in the community, also ogled and leered at me. On one occasion, a man even followed me, as I walked home. Some people blame that kind of behaviour on what a woman wears. So, I also wondered why the Christian men and women who produced those materials hadn’t added a warning saying:

If you copy the outfits in this publication, you may get reprimanded or ogled, leered at, or followed and if you do, you might get blamed instead of comforted.

I have found that “modesty” dressing doesn’t eliminate sexual harassment, but, in my experience, it does reduce the frequency of it, so why didn’t those Christian men and women give me a choice on how I want men treating me? Why did they make that choice for me? That’s not fair. That’s not kind, and it must stop also.

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