Tag: swimsuit

A swimsuit is one of several kinds of garments designed to be worn by people engaging in water-based activities or sports or during certain activities under sunlight. Most kinds of swimsuit reveal a large portion of the body surface area, but exceptions exist. The more revealing kinds may also be worn as undergarment in sports that require wetsuits, or when there is a need to display the body, as in the case of beauty pageants or bodybuilding contests.

There is a very wide range of styles of modern swimsuits, which vary in relation to body coverage and materials. The choice of style of swimsuit is dependent on current fashions, community standards of modesty, and plain personal preference. Swimsuits for men usually expose the chest, while those for women do not usually do so; however, many women prefer to engage in water or sun activities with their torso uncovered, in a practice commonly described as toplessness or topfreedom. Since the early twentieth century a naturist movement has developed in western countries that seeks a return to non-sexual nakedness when swimming and during other appropriate activities; in some places around the world, nude beaches have been set aside for people who choose to engage in normal beach activities in the nude, and such beaches may or may not enforce nudity onto their goers.

In anime, it is common for at least one episode to feature the characters in swimsuits, usually as an excuse for gratuitous fanservice; when that happens, the episode is usually labeled a pool or beach episode, after the place the characters went to. Swimsuits, and in particular one-piece swimsuits, are a very common fetish in Japan; while the reason for that is uncertain, a common folk explanation is the fact that boys throughout their entire adolescence are commonly exposed to their female classmates wearing them, in what might be called an experiment in sexual discovery waiting to happen.

One-off appearances of characters in swimsuits should not be tagged.