Body Confidence: Bikini Body Beautiful?

I have never worn a bikini in my life and unless I have a miraculous bodily transformation in the next few months I doubt if I ever will. As I write this, I am sitting on a beautiful beach in the Gambia, dressed in black trousers and a short sleeved shirt, whilst all around me are women and men of all ages dressed in little scraps of nothing. I am here for a conference, they are here for a holiday – and from what I hear, perhaps some sex tourism.

There is an old lady sitting not too far away from me, she is wearing a hot pink bikini, she saunters casually from her sun bed to a table for her lunch, her belly is rolling over her bikini top, her bottom is saggy, her skin is wrinkled, yet she seems not to have a care in the world. I envy her this body confidence. It reminds me of an alternative scenario:

Man: (Naked, sitting on toilet, with door open doing a number 1) don’t move away you have a beautiful African body

Woman: (Naked, caught in the glare of harsh bathroom light trying to retreat to the comfort of the dark room)…

For as long as I can remember I have always had issues with the size of my belly, some of my friends have beautiful flat tummies but not I. I know there are other parts of my body that make up for my sizable belly – I quite like my breasts for example, they are big and well shaped, and although they are starting to head a little south I still have no issues with them. From what I hear, my legs are not bad either but as for the tummy I don’t think anything short of a drastic diet, constant crunches or plastic surgery will help. In the past I have tried the drastic diets and constant crunches, yes the belly does go down a tad but not by that much – it’s still not flat enough for me to wear a bikini. My sister thinks I’m crazy, she thinks I have a small belly (well, compared to her I do) she says if she had my body, she will wear a bikini.