Once in the 2003 summer when I worked as a lifeguard, one of my
friend, Jimmy, dropped by the swimming pool where I was working and
would like to swim without bringing his trunks. I tried to offer him
my spare swimming briefs, but he refused my offering by saying that it
was not his type. He later left the swimming pool without dipping his
toes in it. From then on, I just started to wonder what the exercise
has anything to do with one’s type/style. Then, I observed during my
duty that most male swimmers seemed to prefer a certain style of
swimwear—long boxers [馬褲款]—especially for those who thought their
swimming skills were not good enough. On the contrary, most athletic
swimmers would wear another style of swimwear—triangular-shaped
briefs, the so-called “normal-cut” style in Europe and the States.
Therefore, at the end of last semester, spring 2004, I launched a
small survey on the Fu-jen Catholic University campus, to understand
what the male swimmers’ background and swimwear preferences were.
According to the result of the small survey, this paper argues that
most male swimmers in northern Taiwan cannot get rid of “the male
gaze,” except for some conditions of their self-cognition to swimming
proficiency and the homogeneity of the environment that they are in.
Swimming, usually considered as a relaxing form of sport in Taiwan,
is highly promoted by our government recently. Subtropical Taiwan has
longer summers, so aquatic activities are popular nationwide. However,
considering the geographic conditions of Taiwan Island surrounded by
seas, whose fast-flowed rivers are too dangerous to swim in, our
government actively helps local governments establish swimming pools.
So far there are 127 swimming pools among 369 townships, which makes
the popularization rate up to 34.4% (NCPFS). Also, because the
pressure in water is heavier than that in air, people have to consume
more calories to resist water pressure. For instance, people who do a
course of movements in air consume 80 kcl/hr, while in air they consume
40 more kcl to deal with the heavier pressure. On the other hand,
buoyancy in water hold people not to sink, so that they can act more
easily in water than on land as long as knowing how to cope with
qualities of water. Hence, for those who are overweighed, recovering,
or lacking of enough strength, swimming is a good choice of aerobics to
start with (Blue 3). Thus, one of the goals for 2007 A.D. in the
Ministry of Education is, the current Minister Tu, Cheng-sheng [杜正勝]
claimed that, at least 50% students in every level are able to swim
(Su).
The target of the small survey done in fall, 2004 were the male
undergraduate, from 19 year-old to 28 year-old, majoring in diverse
departments and taking swimming course to fulfill the physical
education requirement. 36 entries of the 60 self-designed
questionnaires which were made of 17 questions were collected (60%).
The questionnaire is divided into three main parts: basic information,
experiences regarding swimming, and the equipment at hand.
In recent summers, more and more parents have their children
acquire how to swim. Elder generations, on one hand, are not as lucky
as the learn-how-to-swim generation who have chances. Recalling his
childhood, one of my uncle said, “Unlike the present kids, we had no
chance to learn real swimming… [A]nd where we played with water was
the ditch in our neighborhood, instead of the proper swimming pool.”
On the other, they are more fortunate to participate in water-playing
in a more casual way. Since the most commonly recognized aquatic
activity is swimming, swimwear—trunks for boys and swimming suits for
girl—is taken as the proper “attire” when people go swimming in
public swimming pools.
Different from other sports, swimming participants probably have to
expose most of their bodies to the public in order to enjoy being in
water without too much resistance. On that account, the chance of
displaying oneself enhances (Chen & Yin). Goffman was famous for
pointing out “self presentation in public areas.” He asserted that
to a certain “audience” an individual could be viewed as a performer,
acting deliberately on stage (Goffman). For this reason, those who own
good shape may be willing to display their shape in public while those
who don’t have ideal shape might conceal their shortcomings. Taking
the common experiences of Australian young girls at swimming pools as
her research, Kandy James found out that the girls expressed an
awareness of their presentation of self and have develop certain
strategies to attract or avoid others’ critical gaze. Unfortunately,
girls who deem themselves as imperfect have always far outnumbered
those who consider themselves flawless. What is interesting, “most
men think of themselves as average-looking (Barry 117)”, and they seem
to enjoy being average among people. Among people, they do not “stand
out”, becoming the object of others’ gaze.
Indeed, ‘the gaze,’ appearing originally in the film theory in
the 1970s (Chandler), has magic power to take effects on whom is gazed
at. Medusa, the mortal gorgon with snaky hair in Greek myths killed by
Perseus, is said to have the power to turn people into stones while she
gazes at them (Hamilton). Susan Bordo mentions that, “‘the male
gaze’ has the power not only to objectify, but to feminize
(Culbertson).” Refusing to be objectified, the male usually avoid
being gazed at so as to keep their masculinity.
This summer, without exception, I found a part-time job after I
came back Green Island, waiting for the school opening. One of my
colleagues, who used to be overweighed, got fit after a process of
regular exercise and diet. Because of swimming every day, his skills
at swimming got better and better. One day he determined to go
swimming with the triangular trunks, instead of his previous long
boxers.
“I didn’t swim that well,” he explained, “that would be too
showoff if I swam poorly wearing the type that looked professional.
Now that I’ve had at least the certificate of lifeguard, I think it’s
okay to wear like this.”
Addition to self-cognition to swimming proficiency, chances are
that the environment affects swimmers to choose the style of swimwear
as well. In the results of the survey, 15 participants revealed that
they prefer long-box style to the brief one. Though the reasons were
not complete, 7 said that the long-box style is good-looking [好看], 3
confessed that wearing it makes them expose less [遮較多], and 2
wearing it for “sense of security [有安全感]”. Here, whether or not
something is good-looking depends on the majority. Since I inspected
the way I touched water, most people I know have worn the brief style—
the triangular-shape—Naturally, for me it was normal to go swimming
wearing the triangular trunks without second thoughts. Suppose that
those who answered the long boxers were “good-looking”, they might be
influenced by their companions, as taking part in aquatic activities.
Therefore, it is possible for one who may not swim chooses looking-
professional brief trunks, only because his companions wear that.
Although the atmosphere of Taiwan society is opener and opener,
people are often confined to some existing boundaries whether they are
conscious or not. The tendency for the male swimmers in Taiwan to
wearing conservative long-box swimwear, shows that they are conscious
their self presentation and would rather to hide themselves among
crowds by wearing similar style, so as not to be objectified or even
feminized.
Works Cited
Barry, Dave. “Men, Women See Themselves Differently.” Popular
Culture: Perspectives for Readers and Writers. US: Heinle, 2002.
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Blue Whale Swimming School (藍鯨游泳學校) edit. 游泳教學手冊[Swimming
Instruction Handbook]. Taiwan: 藍鯨管理, 2002.
Chandler, Daniel. “Notes on ‘The Gaze’.” 26 Sept. 2004.
www.aber.ac.uk/ media/Documents/gaze01.html>.
Chen, Tse-chun, and Yin, Bao-ning [陳策群 and 殷寶寧]. “Swimming
pools: the Landscape Where Water and Sexuality Flow—Illustrated
with Swimming Pool of Taipei Municipal Youth Park on Gay Space
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<http://cc.shu.edu.tw/~gndrshu/meeting/paper1.htm>.
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Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. NY:
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