1. If you were to go swimming with a bunch of guys (from church) what would you wear?
LaFawnda: Board shorts, and an open-backed tankini.
Latoya: I would wear my bikini, with a tank top over top and my stubbies. I don’t want a tog wedgie in my butt!
Mo’Nique: Bikini with a singlet and shorts, because I’m not wearing no one piece.
Laquisha: Short shorts and a bikini.
Shanaynay: I would probably wear my bikini with a singlet and shorts …I would prefer to just wear a bikini top, but because guys are there I’d feel like I needed to wear a singlet over top.
2. Would you wear the same outfit when you were just with your girl friends or with your family?
LaFawnda: Yeah, I would with my girls, and I probably wouldn’t think twice about my outfit when I’m with my family.
Latoya: Nah, I’d wear my bikini and board shorts with my girl friends and my family. I have a lot of guy cousins, so I’m quite used to being around boys in my togs and for them to just be shirtless.
Mo’Nique: No, I would just wear a bikini top and bottoms.
Shanaynay: No, I’d just wear a bikini top and bottoms with my girls and around my family.
3. What type of togs do you feel most comfortable in?
LaFawnda: Anything as long as I have board shorts
Latoya: Bikini and shorts with a top over top. I don’t have to worry about muffin top, buts falling out or my lack of abs
Mo’Nique: I’m comfortable in a bikini when I’m by myself, but when I’m around people I feel most comfortable in shorts and a singlet
Laquisha: Shorts and a bikini top.
Shanaynay: Probably bikini top and bottoms anytime for me, but depends on the environment. Like if I was at Moana Pool I’d feel uncomfortable wearing just a bikini top and bottom, but if I was at home or at the beach I’d feel totally fine.
4. Why do you wear a bikini?
Mo’Nique: I mainly wear a bikini just so I can get a tan. If I were to walk across the beach just in a bikini I would feel uncomfortable, or just feel like it was inappropriate. Like I’m not wearing my bikini to impress anyone… Because guys are so image focussed, I don’t feel very comfortable walking along the beach in a bikini if people are around.
Shanaynay: Mainly because I love the all over body tan. But also because I have a slim body and I want to wear a bikini while it still looks good. I’m sure one day I won’t want to be displaying my saggy body in public!
5. When do you think is the most appropriate time for a girl to wear a bikini? (I.e. in a relationship, marriage, by yourself, or with other girls?)
Latoya: When she is with girls, unless they're lesbians. I think in marriage it’s most definitely fine. When you're single is when I would find it most uncomfortable, just because I don’t want people to be checking me out and basing my beauty on my body. I would feel uncomfortable at the start of a relationship wearing a bikini, but I think after a few months I would feel okay to because I’d know he wasn’t sleazing out over me.
Laquisha: In a relationship, and with girl friends.
Shanaynay: Definitely with girls it’s fine. Personally, I’d feel quite comfortable being in a bikini around my boyfriend, but if he had an issue with it I guess I’d just wear something else.
6. How do you feel when good-looking guys are shirtless?
LaFawnda: I’d be like dayum! The first thing I look at is their arms, then their back, then their abs… then their face…haha
Latoya: Dayum Africa! I love a swimmers body, like that triangle Olympic body. Yum. I like any guy shirtless really, as long as he’s not chub…and as long as he’s lean. I cant help but smirk when a guy takes his shirt off even when I’m not attracted to him, I’m not even aware of it sometimes.
Mo’Nique: I will think “dayum”, and then two seconds after I’ll look away because I don’t want to lust.
Laquisha: Ooooh! Wahooo! Dayum!
Shanaynay: Not gonna lie, I do check them out. But then I realise I shouldn’t be hard out giving them the up and down, so I would look away. I’m pretty sure I show it all on my face though, sometimes I just cant help but smile, haha.
7. Would you prefer they wear something else?
LaFawnda: Nah. As long as they don’t have a t-shirt tan
Latoya: Nope. As long as they're not in speedos
Mo’Nique: No, I’d just choose not to look. Because there's no need to get excited over something that’s not mine. Like he might have a girlfriend, you just don’t know.
Laquisha: Oh just like a singlet maybe, if they have a good body wear a singlet, or just go shirtless.
Shanaynay: No way. If a guy has a hot bod, he should go shirtless, like in appropriate situations, at the beach etc. I don’t struggle when guys are shirtless, like I admire their body, and then I move on. It’s not like I go home after a day at the beach and go through images of all the hot guys in my mind. I don’t really dwell on it.
8. Do you feel like it’s more acceptable for girls to check out guys than it is for guys to check out girls?
LaFawnda: Yeah, I feel it’s more acceptable. Girls don’t get turned on the way guys get turned on.
Latoya: Yes, I find it more natural for a girl to check out a guy. Girls don’t really think too much into it, not as much as guys anyway. Like the other day I was checking out James Marsden and Bradley Cooper, but when a guy starts checking out Megan Fox it just makes me subconsciously feel inadequate.
Mo’Nique: Yes, because girls aren’t physically wired the way guys are. Girls can control how they feel about it more than guys.
Laquisha: I reckon it should be the same both ways
Shanaynay: Yeah, girls don’t get turned on to the same extent that guys do when looking at a person’s body from the opposite sex. But in saying that, I don’t understand why it seems okay in society for a girl to objectify a guy’s body, but then when a guy objectifies a girl it’s seen as bad.
9. How do you feel when you know a guy is checking you out?
LaFawnda: It’s a bit of a mixture of “oh they're appreciating you”, but then you also feel self-conscious too. You suddenly become aware of what you’re wearing.
Latoya: I’d be pretty stoked, but it would depend who it was. If it was a guy you liked you’d be like, yup, tick. But if he was a creepy old man, you’d be like please no. I don’t wear hard out boob in your face bikinis so I don’t feel like guys do check me out that much. I would prefer that a guy check me out when I have clothes on though, rather than when not. Like if he notices your eyes or your hair, or your personality, I’d way prefer that.
Latoya: If a guy checked out your looks I feel like its short-term thing, but if he likes your personality, that’s more meaningful.
LaFawnda: The first thing guys get drawn to is like girls’ attractiveness, not their personality, that pisses me off.
Mo’Nique: Awkward. I know they're judging me based on how I look. It’s in an objectifying way, it’s all in what I do and don’t have, rather than who I actually am.
Laquisha: Haha, um… if it’s someone creepy then I would be freaked out. If he was hot I would be happy…come to me!
Shanaynay: I guess it depends on what I’m wearing. Like if the only time the guy was checking me out was when I was just wearing a bikini then I probably wouldn’t appreciate it as much. I don’t want to have to be wearing hardly anything at all in order for a guy to think I’m good looking. It’s nice for a guy to come up to you when you’re dressed to kill in actual clothes, and to be told you look nice. I guess I want the best of both worlds, to be told I look good when in a bikini, and also when I’m wearing clothes. But yeah, if I knew a guy was checking me out, I’d way prefer for him to come over to me and tell me to my face that I looked good rather than just looking from afar, sometimes words actually do speak louder than actions.