Exposed to Expose

I want to reflect on a thought brought up in class earlier this week about the role of women, and also Teresia Teaiwa's article, "Bikinis and Other S/pacific N/oceans." Given the proximity of summer, it seems especially appropriate to highlight. Honestly, until I read Teaiwa's article, I never really thought about why the bikini was called a bikini, and I also had no idea that this provocative swimsuit was named so to pay homage to the Allied efforts during World War II. And before taking this class, neither would I have ever linked the word "bikini" to as Teaiwa puts it, "a site for nuclear weapons testing." I think that poses the question "Right this second, who would really stop to think about the other story that a 'bikini' is hiding?" Probably not many.

Teaiwa states, "In the context of war, society has an ideological stake in the reification of female bodies when male bodies are being sacrificed heroically." It always seems like the image of women gets twisted for the benefit of consumption, or the male gaze; and though they are being represented (albeit in a negative way), this representation ironically makes them become invisible. The image of the bikini has become indicative of the female body, and the history of the Bikini Islanders' dislocation and devastation by nuclear technology is lost. I think Teaiwa's idea of finding meaning in bodies and rethinking how militarist and tourist consumption have permeated history reminds us that it is because of juxtapositions like these that it is part of our responsibility to help inform others of nuclear history in order to debunk the ideology that created the atomic bomb and the bikini. Then perhaps the next time a person sees a bikini or the word "bikini" they will think of the injustice dealt to Bikinians, rather than an exposed woman.