British company Kiniki is making what it calls “tan through” swimwear. That means the fabric allows 80 percent of sunlight through the bathing suit, so you don’t get tan lines. Or, as the Kiniki website says, “so you can tan all without baring all!” Oh … yes! Except … no! This is, in fact, a very bad idea, because of that little thing called skin cancer. Experts are worried, since this garment is the opposite of UV-protective clothing. People might not put sunscreen on under the suits. And what if they don’t reapply sunscreen when it wears off, which it is all too likely to do — rapidly — with the fabric rubbing against it? If you’re on the beach in public, how would you reapply sunscreen to, um, those areas without looking like a freak? And if you don’t lotion up, imagine the sunburns. Imagine them. Why would anyone want to risk that? We don’t know, but apparently a lot of people do. The people who make the suits say they can’t keep up with demand since they launched four weeks ago. And the suits only come in animal prints!
When perusing the Kiniki site, we thought, Isn’t it a little sexist to assume that only women would want to lose their tan lines? Is Kiniki suggesting that tan lines on women are bad but tan lines on men are okay, in some sort of offensive double standard along the lines of the cultural norms of bikini-line maintenance for both sexes? And then we scrolled down some more.
Photo: Courtesy of Kiniki
Well, at least they’re not offensive due to sexism.
’See through’ swimsuit to eliminate tan lines [Telegraph UK]
