A concerned New Zealand mother of young boys has called for G-string bikinis to be banned from a public place – but her campaign is significantly different to an earlier one started by an n man who was concerned about woman ‘cheapening themselves’.
In February, community worker Ian Grace sparked outrage after pleading for skimpy bikinis to be banned from Gold Coast beaches because they make him feel ‘uncomfortable’.
Now, New Zealand mother Amy Dixon wants the ‘pornographic’ garments banned from her local public swimming pool in New Plymouth.
Ms Dixon, who has three sons, started a petition asking if she was being a prude for wanting the Todd Energy Aquatic Centre to ban G-strings.
The petition has already got almost 200 signatures.
She started the campaign after her eight-year-old boy saw a young woman wearing a G-string while at his swimming lesson.
‘The term itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikini seems to have taken on a whole new meaning,’ she wrote on the petition page.
‘It was pornographic,’ Ms Dixon told her local paper Taranaki Daily News.
‘I don’t want to be an overprotective mum. Is that the space we’re in with society now? If so, I’ll find ways to prepare my kids for that. But do we have to do that?’
Though the aquatic centre does stipulate that women’s breasts be adequately covered, it currently has no rule against G-strings.
On her petition page, Ms Dixon said that women wearing G-strings has often left her family ‘feeling uncomfortable and the enclosed area means looking away or moving spaces is not always an option’.
‘I wonder whether it also creates a barrier for other members in our community where they may avoid these spaces all together,’ she wrote.
She has found a lot of support for her position, with one signer writing that ‘Pools are generally kid places, the fact women think it’s OK to be so inappropriate is mind blowing’.
‘They just want to be looked at.’
Another wrote that ‘I want to have a fun family outing without bums up in my and my children’s faces’.
Ms Dixon has gained support from some locals.
An n teacher commented that they ‘see it frequently. It’s inappropriate for a child to be exposed to this!’
When Mr Grace, who is the founder and president of local charity Youth Music Venture, raised a fuss about G-strings on the Gold Coast he said it was about ‘protection’.
‘I don’t believe that young teens want to be seen as sexy, it’s just the fashion right now,’ he said at the time.
‘And I absolutely believe that the real issue here is the men who might be ogling the girls.’
He detailed an incident that left him feeling ‘uncomfortable’ when he recently walked past a woman in a G-string.
‘One young lady in particular was walking on the footpath on the main road and had the tiniest triangle in front and was as close to naked as anyone could be,’ he wrote.
‘While any man would enjoy “the view”, I believe women are very much demeaning and cheapening themselves, portraying themselves as sex objects, then decrying it when men see them that way.’
He said ‘bare bums’ are just as erotic as bare breasts so they should be barred in the same way.
‘If not banned at the beach, very definitely banned the moment they are off the beach,’ he wrote.
‘This certainly should not be allowed in public pools or theme/water parks which are very much more family orientated. Young kids don’t need to see women’s bums.’