Story
#10 :
Clothing Store, France
(We’re in year 2000 or close. As a teenager, I’m slim and “nicely built” (or so I heard), yet I am VERY modest, especially on the chest area, and my family know it and respect it. I don’t mind girls who wear low-cut clothes, I think it’s really great if they enjoy it and I HATE slut-shaming, yet I’d rather get slapped or punched than showing the slightest part of my “parts”. Up to now most girls and women used to wear swimmer one-pieces on the beach, and I loved it. However, bikinis are coming back into fashion and my mom wants to buy me one of those. I accept, thinking she’ll find me a modestly cut two-pieces or anything that’ll cover everything I want to cover. She makes me try a dozen bikinis on. All of them are too low-cut for my tastes, and the shop assistant (he’s male) is staring.)
Me: “Mom, I don’t feel good in any of those.”
Shop assistant: “Are you sure? Because you look great in ALL of those!”
Me: “I don’t feel good. I’d like to try something more modest, please.”
(The shop assistant comes back with a swimsuit that is even more low-cut than the previous one. I’m running out of patience).
Me: “I’d like to try a one-piece on!”
Mom: “But you look so much better in a bikini!
Me: “Mom, EVERYONE looks good in one-pieces! They hide all the flaws!”
Shop assistant: “Which flaws? Your mom’s right, you have a bikini body!”
Me: “It’s MY body and I want to try a one-piece. I just prefer stuff I can swim with without ever losing the straps.”
Mom: “Try this one on before.”
(I try it. It’s still too low-cut for my tastes.)
Me: “I’d prefer a one-piece.”
Shop assistant: “One-pieces are for grandmothers. Is that what you want to do, looking like a granny? That would be a waste!”
Me: “I’d like something that’s not THAT low-cut, please.”
Shop assistant: “Why? You have beautiful breasts.”
(He’s staring at my cleavage and I’m just a girl. I feel dirty. To all shop assistants who read this, if a customer ever tells you she wants something more modest, just give her something more modest. Don’t make her try sexy things on “for her own good” if she doesn’t want to, especially if she’s a teenager. Prude-shaming is just as wrong as slut-shaming