Above photo by Danielle Eakins
We’ve all seen the images on Instagram of the hot girl freediving in a bikini. Maybe you are that girl. Maybe you’re not and maybe you muttered under your breath something like, “I bet she can’t even dive past 10 meters…”
Awhile back I was scrolling through Instagram and noticed that PADI posted a picture of a girl getting out of the water in SCUBA gear. She was very pretty. There was nothing else remarkable about the photo. Not a lot of skin. Not a suggestive pose. But somehow this image triggered a pretty strong response among PADI’s social media followers. Many of the comments expressed disappointment that PADI would post the photo. A few of the comments picked the girl apart for wearing makeup and not having her hair tied back. They accused PADI of not picturing ACTUAL women divers because real female divers don’t look like that.
I don’t understand what a REAL diver is supposed to look like.
So I studied the picture intently trying to pinpoint what it was that was so wrong about it. She had SCUBA gear on. Her mask was on. Nothing seemed out of place. The only real issue that people seemed to have with the photo was that she was pretty.
I hesitate to post many pictures from days that are too warm for a wetsuit because I worry people will think those same thoughts about me. That I’m not a real diver. I don’t want to invite people to pick me apart. And when I do post a photo of me diving in a bikini I worry that I’m losing respect among some people in my community.
But what is it about seeing an image of a girl diving in a bikini that triggers us to the point that we insult her?
Here in Hawai’i there’s no shortage of cute girls getting their pictures taken underwater. I’ve been told so-and-so IG model with hundreds of freediving photos and tens of thousands of followers can’t even dive that deep. Would we say that about someone else? Would we critique them so harshly for their capabilities if they weren’t hot?
I don’t think so.
What if it stems from insecurities that many of us have? We see someone getting likes and follows on social media. We decide this is because they’re attractive and therefore, undeserved. Next we assign negative qualities to that person in order to feel better about ourselves. This picture of the gorgeous human makes me feel insecure and instead of turning inward to recognize that I have something (poor body image, low self esteem, etc.) to work through, I focus outward on this other person in a negative way.
I’m guilty of doing this, too.
As I continue to grow and “do the work” on myself I have started to recognize why these negative thoughts come up and I’ll try to shut them down right away.
None of us should care what someone else chooses to wear, in or out of the water. If someone wants to post a diving photo with their butt front and center, hell yeah! Post that booty pic! At the end of the day, I just want people to dive. The more people we have in the ocean, the more ocean lovers we create.
I’m super interested in what everyone else thinks about this topic. Please comment below, send me a message, or DM me on Instagram.