Cultural Perspectives At The Tropics

I haven't updated in a long time! This is due to the fact that: A) work is very busy these days, B) I was on vacation for a while, and C) I'm staying with my parent's for a while and their computer has an inconsistent internet connection, as well as not having any of my Favourites.

Anyway, that vacation I was mentioning? I went some place tropical with the family. T'was all good fun. But there's nothing like a Caribbean beach to make you think about the differences in how women and men display their bodies. For starters, this particular resort was mostly stocked with people of Spanish and French background. Not your typical uptight North American folk. Needless to say, I saw enough boobies to make me desensitized for life. But it was strange... I wasn't offended or uncomfortable by any toplessness there. Whereas the last time I went to Miami, the topless girl running down the beach made me uncomfortable like whoa. At first I thought it was because my parents were there too. But my parents were here too and it didn't bother me one bit. Maybe it was because I was staying in a place with different social and cultural ideas when it came to nudity or lack thereof. I was in this whole "Meh, it's just boobies." state of mind. Must be one of those "When in Rome, be a Roman." things.

Another thing I thought about; the difference in men and women's bathing suits. Had this been North America, the little girls would have been in one pieces with little bows, the young ladies in itty bitty bikinis, and all the men in long, long, baggy man-shorts. As it turned out, most of the little girls wore near replicas of their mother's bikinis, and a sizeable chunk of men eschewed from the baggy, baggy, long man-shorts, wearing short-shorts or speedos instead. I'm not exactly sure what it all means. There's the question of whether tiny bathing suits unnecessarily sexualize young girls, and the question of why on the beach only women are encouraged to show off their bodies with tight fitting clothing and men are to cover up.

I'm just going to put that all aside for now and mourn the fact that summer is almost over :*(