Beach ready bodies

On this topic, I found this pic on the BBC website.

I can’t help wondering how many GNers would be as keen to flash quite so much of their ample assets as the woman on the right!

Good idea, I say.

MissAdventure The best reason I know for completing my outfit by buying myself a cold shoulder top, although quite how one wears leggings and shorts on the beach I am not sure. I might pass on that and just wear shorts.

Because they are the sort of clothes which are criticised on here.

Proving that people are "looking", probably far more than is good for anybody.

MissAdventure why not? I have some nice navy shorts, which I often wear to the beach., usually with a Tshirt and, sometimes, even a sweater. British and northern European beaches and adjacent sea are far too cold for me to risk wearing a swimming costume, let alone going into the sea. Anyway, someone has to look after the towels and clothing.

It's fine to wear a costume, just don't wear shorts, leggings, or cold shoulder tops on your way to the beach.

I'd give a lot to be able to strip off on a beach and sprint (?) into the waves - aged, lumpy body notwithstanding. It would have to be a tropical beach of course.

DD is overweight, (size 18/20) has been since birth and claims she was a dolphin in a past life.

She has never, in all her life - and she is nearly 50 - had any qualms whatsoever about getting into a swimming costume, as bright and patterned as she can find, and going into the sea, a swimming pool, river or lake.

She is a wild swimmer all year round. She was in the school swimming team and if anyone has thought anything unpleasant, they certainly have never said it, more often they admire her swimming prowess.

Look around you when you are on the beach, have a look at the other people on the beach with you, they will come in every size from stick thin and tiny to very large. How much are they looking at other people? Very little, so just get on with your time by the sea and enjoy yourself.

Theres a peom that comes to mind but I can't remember who wrote it,
"High Tide on the Coast of Linclonshire", I think it is called. Everyone obviously went to Skeggy that year.

Yammy

Callistemon21

Jaylou

My body is beach ready, I look like a whale.

??? ?

I'll join you we could make a pod or in my case a high tide. They couldn't blame Global warming for anything other than me showing my body at the beach and entering the water for at least 30 years.

If we all got in the sea, the sea levels would rise and flood the beaches.

The only beach I ever visit is Whitby. So being beach ready = jeans and a hoodie, no dehairing necessary.

Grammaretto

My DD and the DGC wear wetsuits at the seaside. The North Sea is not for the fainthearted. I went in in my cozzie (swimshop on-line) and felt very brave exhilarated.

My DD goes in with a group of women on a shingle beach in the North sea . They said they do it on Boxing Day I don't know if she'll manage that!
Seasides always seem odd to me as a child we had Scotland opposite us and Criffel the mountain it made it seem safer somehow seeing the sheep.

All bodies are beach ready. Just put a cozzie on and be happy.

Why do women feel embarrassed about being seen on the beach? Do they never look around and see people of all sizes shapes and sexes on the beach, all in swimming costumes and enjoying themselves?

Why do people think people are looking at them all the time? It suggests a general level of narcissism that I am sure does not exist. I have always worked on the basis of why would anyone look at me? And since I can never think of a single reason why they should, I just assume that they will not be looking at me and do what I want and wear what I want to wear.

A pedicure (done at home) and a Veet job on any excess undercarriage fluff are all I bother with. Before hitting the beach I always wish I’d lost a few pounds (OK, quite a few) and toned up certain areas, but TBH there are always others on the beach a good deal fatter and flabbier than I am, and moreover who don’t seem to give a monkey’s, so I do wonder why I let it bother me.

None of us sensible grans are too worried by the sounds of it. Really, who cares what we look like. I wear a hat in the sun since my BCC nose operation but apart from that, the thing that puts me off are the crowds.

I am not a beach person, but when I have been on the beach. the last thing I am thinking about is how I look.

Who cares, who looks, who judges? No one that I am aware of.

My DD has an Asian friend and her dad dies his hair every Sunday. The women remove leg hair etc with cotton thread but they don't die their hair. They did DD for her wedding she had a good laugh as they did her back and stomach and arms as well as all the rest, she said you could have made a haystack and it took ages but was not painful

I cannot really join in , as I go to the beach once every five years or so and frankly I have never worried whether others thought I look all right or not.

I had to feel good in my swimsuit - my sympathies were definitely engaged by the young woman in the song The teeny-weeny, itzy bitsy yellow polka dot bikini - as I too in my young years bought beach wear I did not have the courage to wear!

Yes, OP, both Spanish and French women as far back as around 1900s bleached or shaved the hair on their legs and waxed or bleached the hair on their upper lips. They also tweezed their eyebrows to a more cultured shape. Most Arab and Indian women did so too. Manicuring your hands was quite usual too. Obviously, it was often only women in towns and cities who had access to a hair-dresser or a chemist who sold wax and other preparations who could do this. The poor peasant women in the country side could frequently neither afford the time or the money.
Even today if you walk the Camino de Santiago, you will meet women in the agricultural districts who you would swear were around 65-70 until find out that they are barely 50. Farming for the poor is still hard manual labour in Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Greece to say nothing of Asia.

I live near the sea and sometimes walk there with my friends, who often swim, although I don’t due to health concerns re a nearby sewage outlet. I do sometimes wear my tankini when I’m there with them and I like to be beach ready because that’s what I like. Neat bikini line, waxed legs and shaved armpits - tried having my armpits waxed once but it was much too painful. Makes me feel better but I guess I’ve been programmed by society to remove hair. I’m very happy for everyone to do exactly as they like but for me this is the way that I feel comfortable.

nanna8

No ,don’t go on a beach and sun bake. Too risky. Skin cancers are rife here ( I have had 2 and have one right now on my nose) . Husband had a melanoma on his face and he wasn’t one to spend long on a beach. They are unpleasant and often deadly and need skin grafts and horrible surgery. Just not worth it, even in cooler climates.

All too true, melanoma is gaining ground here in the UK. It is potentially deadly. There is so little knowledge about it in this country. I don't mean medical knowledge, but knowledge in the general sense, among the public.

Lolling about in strong sun with next to nothing on is foolish.

?

My DD and the DGC wear wetsuits at the seaside. The North Sea is not for the fainthearted. I went in in my cozzie (swimshop on-line) and felt very brave exhilarated.

Callistemon21

Jaylou

My body is beach ready, I look like a whale.

??? ?

I'll join you we could make a pod or in my case a high tide. They couldn't blame Global warming for anything other than me showing my body at the beach and entering the water for at least 30 years.

My body has never been beach ready, but then I don’t like beach holidays. I burn easily and the sand gets everywhere! ??
It’s obvious that men don’t worry about their body shapes - some of them are enough to put you off your ice cream!