In response to the Thursday letter, “Put a quick stop to bikini baristas,” I’d like to say that I am a 31-year-old woman living in Marysville with my husband, and as such, I have absolutely no problem with bikini baristas.
First, despite all efforts to suppress human sexuality, it continues to exist, and will for as long as we draw breath on this planet. You don’t have to like it, but it isn’t going away any time soon. Secondly, in these difficult economic times, we never fault men for falling back on their bodies in the form of physical labor, which is equally exploitive in that it causes workers permanent physical strain and injury and usually only pays a low wage (excepting union jobs).
We respect “hard-working” men and yet, when a woman falls back on her body to earn a living, we condemn her. That just seems like a misogynistic double standard to me. If you don’t want to see women in bikinis, you certainly don’t have to go there. I wish the same were true for the things I find distasteful.
Take religion, for example. Like bikini barista stands, you don’t have to go to church if you don’t want to. However, unlike bikini baristas, churches in Marysville hold services in public schools and send people to my door to disturb my work in order to shove their religion down my throat. Personally, I’d much prefer a girl in a bikini knock on my door bearing coffee.
So, when the writer says she speaks for the “women of Marysville,” know that she is not representing me or the women who would likely be unemployed if she had her way. If you really want to end bikini barista stands, try fighting the class system that gives some women few options other than to exploit themselves for money.
Jillian Ingram
Marysville
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