soliloqueer

I have a question.

Why has it become expected for men to go shirtless in pools?

Looking for some relaxation yesterday afternoon, I slathered myself with SPF-9000, grabbed my iPod, and went down to the pool where I found a lounge chair in indirect sunlight, stretched out, and chilled to the new Coldplay album, which, by the way, I love.

Mission accomplished.

After about 20 minutes, I decided to make use of my new swimsuit, which I wore just in case, took off my shoes and socks, and slipped into the water.

What did I not take off? My shirt.

You see, I enjoy the heat, but not the way UV light sears my skin like I’m a piece of ahi tuna at a Japanese restaurant. Thus, I usually keep my shirt on in the pool so as to keep my body from bursting into flames.

And while people were polite, I did get some looks.

Not to be a all “I’m so hot and sexy” about it, but I do have a reasonably nice body and so these people shouldn’t have assumed I was embarrassed by my physique. Nor were there many women hanging around, so it’s not like they were disappointed because they didn’t get a peek at the goods.

Rather, the attitude was, “You freak, don’t you know you’re supposed to take your shirt off because you get in the water?”

Seriously though, why?

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.