{"id":47822,"date":"2024-07-16T20:48:52","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T00:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=47822"},"modified":"2024-07-16T20:48:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T00:48:57","slug":"are-you-ever-too-old-for-a-bikini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/07\/16\/are-you-ever-too-old-for-a-bikini\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Ever Too Old for a Bikini?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Worried about coming off as an exhibitionist at her daughter\u2019s beach wedding, a reader wonders whether there is an age cutoff for wearing a two-piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Vanessa Friedman<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, not long after she turned 50, Gabrielle Union-Wade talked to the\u00a0\u201cWho What Wear podcast\u201d<\/a>\u00a0about the criticism she had received on Instagram about posting lots of photos of herself in a bikini.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Demi Moore
In her late 50s, Demi has the body of a woman in her 20s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cSomebody said, \u2018You\u2019re old enough to be somebody\u2019s grandma. Why are you still in, like, wearing swimsuits?\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cI\u2019m, like, \u2018First of all, they\u2019re not just swimsuits. They are thongs. And you\u2019re going to see these cheeks until my ass literally falls off, and I might just wear a bikini in the coffin.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, discussing how women become invisible in Hollywood after age 35, she added, \u201cWe need to boldly take up space and boldly claim and acknowledge our own beauty in all that we do, instead of waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is nothing more effective for confronting those around you with the reality of yourself at any age \u2014 and all the prejudices and subconscious biases about women and age \u2014 than a bikini.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Elizabeth Hurley
Elizabeth simply does not age<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That\u2019s why the question of \u201cto bikini or not to bikini\u201d is one thing if you\u2019re at home, say, or at a friend\u2019s pool and an entirely different one if you are at a beach or public event. And these days the question is really about psychology and sociology rather than physique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a home pool, the answer, of course, is simple: Wear whatever swimsuit makes you feel happy. Or no swimsuit at all, if you want. Age has absolutely nothing to do with it. Nor does body type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a public pool (or beach or beach club) \u2014 and as with short skirts, which I wrote about a few weeks ago \u2014 forcing such a confrontation is not without effect. In that case, the decision to go there is more complicated than merely, Do I feel good in this suit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the question is more like: Will I feel good in this suit, and am I ready to deal with the unspoken judgments that will ensue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether we like it or not, and whether it\u2019s right on not, we are constantly being assessed by what we wear: in the workplace, on the beach, on the street. That\u2019s why \u201cstreet style\u201d exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are definitely long-held biases about women showing their bodies as they age (or, for that matter, when they are young). Though magazines like People and Hello! often get excited by stories like \u201cCelebrities Over 50 in Bikinis!\u201d they are not particularly useful guides for the rest of us. The celebrities they show \u2014 Christie Brinkley, Paulina Porizkova, Elizabeth Hurley \u2014 are generally ones who were known for their bodies and thus distant from most people\u2019s reality. (Often they are also on a yacht or private beach.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Sports Illustrated\u2019s sudden embrace of aging cover stars in its swimsuit issues, while laudable, always shows them in one-piece suits (and often one-pieces with sarongs), so featuring them doesn\u2019t make as big a statement as it could. See\u00a0Martha Stewart<\/a>\u2019s 2023 cover or\u00a0Gayle King<\/a>\u2019s in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there is no question that, in your case, people will see wearing a bikini at a wedding pool party as a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand, it\u2019s a great way of showing younger generations (and your daughter) a potentially more liberated future and that pride in your body has nothing to do with age. On the other, you may run into judgments about taking attention away from the bride. It\u2019s up to you how to weigh those two possibilities \u2014 and whether, on a day when there are a lot of other things to think about, this is something you want to think about at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever you decide, however, wear it with confidence. Bikini or not, there\u2019s no better look.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Worried about coming off as an exhibitionist at her daughter\u2019s beach wedding, a reader wonders whether there is an age cutoff for wearing a two-piece. By Vanessa Friedman Last year, not… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"9","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":47823,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-15-at-6.14.26-PM.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[9145],"class_list":["post-47822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-are-you-ever-too-old-for-a-bikini"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47825,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47822\/revisions\/47825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}