One Gold Coast man wants to ban ‘offensive’ bikinis and the entire internet responded

Kim Kardashian, who rarely appears on the Glitter Strip in Queensland, has made the G-string bikini popular for a new generation of beach goers. Photo – Instagram.

A Gold Coast man has gone to the effort of establishing a petition to ban skimpy bikini bottoms from the beach as, he believes, the sartorial equivalent of dental floss objectifies women.

Ian Grace, a community activist who heads up the Youth Music Venture, wrote to Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate pleading for some specific cuts of women’s swimwear to be covered up, arguing there was a time and a place for them.

“At an event run by our local Councillor Gail O’Neill, where our musicians were playing, 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,” Mr Grace wrote.

“You could see she was looking almost defiantly at people as they approached, almost daring them to say something. There’s something very wrong here.

“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.

“Bare bums can be seen to be every bit as erotic if not more so, than women’s bare breasts – so would it not make sense they are banned identically? If not banned at the beach, very definitely banned the moment they are off the beach.

“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.”

He acknowledged that his ideas may sound “a bit old fashioned”, but they also show how out of touch he is with young people – those he wishes to protect with this proposed ban.

The thong bikini resurgence was not born on the scantily clad shores of Broadbeach.

The 2020s renaissance occurred online when a Kardashian or similarly popular online personality like model, activist and swimwear label creator Emily Ratajkowski posted photos of themselves modelling the small pieces of quick dry fabric to their millions of fans.

Banning them from beaches isn’t going to quash the popularity, as trends now live and die online.

Kardashian is one of many models and celebrities who has normalised the G-string.

Like clockwork, these comments, first published by the Gold Coast Bulletin this week, spread about the internet and they began trending around the country. Calls for Mr Grace to be cancelled are now as trendy as the high-cut togs he dislikes.

To reiterate, this was one man – one man who decided to have a itsy bitsy teenie weenie whinge over swimwear. One citizen fashion police officer who doubled down and expanded that he also doesn’t like any tight clothing on women including activewear and whatever “crevice filler” clothing is or revealing blouses at business and networking breakfasts.

There is a thin line between those who support the G-string bikini trend and those who, like Mr Grace, feel threatened by them.

Much like outfits, when you hear an opinion you don’t like, just ignore it. It would only be an issue worth exploring if Mr Tate backed in Mr Grace’s arguments.

He didn’t.

As well as living in a state of perpetual offence, we are also living in an age of intolerance. First it was gluten, dairy and now its thoughts and opinions. Say the “wrong thing” and it’ll cause social inflammation.

Isn’t it wonderful we live in a place where Mr Grace’s thought bubble can be heard just in the same way Australia is a great place that allows men, women and children to wear whatever they like?

Rather than getting angry at his opinion, broaden the conversation. Use it to once again highlight how we still don’t have appropriate consent or sexual health education in this country for young people.

Can we have less citizen fashion police work and more actual policing of the domestic and family violence epidemic plaguing the community please?

There are some cracks in Mr Grace’s logic.

“Women wear skin tight clothing, men don’t,” he told Ten’s The Project this week.

Clearly he isn’t among the hundreds of thousands of Australians who are glued to the latest season of Married At First Sight – Nine’s reality TV version of an emotional car crash – where grooms, one from the Gold Coast even, donned suits that could have doubled as full body compression stockings.

Tight clothing aside, there was a wonderful lesson buried in this week’s episodes where couples were asked to “rank” their co-stars according to physical attractiveness.

One groom, a bloke called Tim who is in his 50s, refused on the basis that “it’s bullshit”.

“It’s not age-appropriate. I’m already 10 years older than Lucinda (his “wife”), but then when I go down, then I’m going 20 to 30-year-olds, I look like the biggest creep walking,” Tim said.

Instead of encouraging women to cover up and men like Mr Grace to shut up, let’s start showing more respect to ourselves and each other and work to change attitudes instead of outfits.