Bikini Warfare  

LOL, I'm from NY, my husband is from TN, and we live in NC...
He is all the time trying to tell me that the Civil War wasn't about slavery. he says it's about basic rights. Um, hello?
Apparently the Mason-Dixon separates textbooks too.

I am sure Daisy just could not find anything else to wear while Bo and Luke were helping Uncle Jessie at the gift shop.

HA HA HA this made me laugh out loud. I am from Louisiana and have seen many of these suits- I am proud of where i came from but I, like you, paid attention in history class :)

I also would never be caught DEAD wearing a suit like that :) Please don't think all "southerners" are hillbilly-hick-confederate wearing meanies!!! LOVE YOUR BLOG. Keep up the good work.

My husband has a t-shirt he bought at the beach a few years ago. It has a woman's form on the front done in the rebel flag. Not sure what people would make of that especially since I'm black! LOL!

Mary Ellen

To me, the Confederate Flag is downright offensive. Someone put one up on my street (I live in Michigan) and I seriously felt like throwing up. What the heck message were they trying to put out there? We're racist and proud of it?! That's how I look at it, but then again, I've been a Midwesterner my entire life.

I am born and raised in Arkansas and Confederate flags are a daily sight here.. SADLY. I don't understand how anyone can justify wearing or displaying anything that is KNOWN to be such a divisional item. Whether anyone really is dillusional enough to not find it a racist symbol themselves, they need to realize that to the majority of the world, especially black people, it screams I am full of hate.

Wow. I think that's pretty bizarre. I would have said something to my hubs but within earshot of her too. Who wears the freakin' Confederate flag?

Oh my goodness! haha I am glad I am not the only one who feels this way. I am from New Hampshire and now living in GA and I see stuff like that a lot here, and I DO NOT get it!! People need to get over it and just move on!

Hahahaha- open mouth insert foot. I have been in that situation way to many times!

I live in Ga and I hate the Redneck Flag. All the Necks around here fly it from there truck and it lines the windows in their trailers.

I just have to THANK all of you who have commented, echoing my disgust for that flag-- I was worried that I'd lambasted for posting on this topic!

That said, I am really interested to hear what a "defender" of the flag as pool/beach-wear would say about this!

~Elizabeth

I must say that is not a common sight here in Winnipeg, Canada,,,instead we get the gals at the beach with beer bikinis, like Molson Dry or Labatts

Classy...

I'm so glad you posted this. As a proud Texan it pisses me off to see people still sporting that flag... Yes the civil war was about basic rights and freedom was one of them. I had a student actually draw one in my class and hand it to me (note: im black) and that was grounds for in school suspension. no matter what anyone says it offensive and if you plan on wearing it you might as well put on your white sheets with them 9in my opinion)... the war was over 100 years ago... you're not getting your slaves back.. and everyone who was a part of it died ages ago so stop acting like you were there!!! build a bridge and get over it. we're free ... ok stepiing off my soap box

Wow. Why would someone wear something like that? I don't know about wearing a flag that you're proud of on your body in such an insultin manner.... even if it wasn't that specific flag. I have nothing against the south. I live in Northern VA and it's below the Mason-Dixon line and I claim to be a Southern Belle, but for me there is only the one flag. Stars and stripes baby.

i live in the midwest and in a local hillbilly sort of town they've got confederate flags in the back of their pick-em-up truck windows and bras or panties hanging from the rear view mirror...trucks all muddy and they are headed out coon hunting

though it is...it never came off racist to me...i take it as a love for redneck livin'
i know some of the people who sport the c-flag in such ways and they are good ol' boy types...i do think their intention is just to be backwoods country
so...it's never offended me...but i totally see how it's offended others...
i just wouldn't want to sport the "losing" banner anyhow..ya know?

I am sure what i am about to say will cause a stir and in no way am I trying to be offensive. Being from the South I know a lot of people who "fly" that flag. And most of them are not racist or holding on to the past. A lot of them are just proud to be Southerners. I am also extremely proud to be from the South, but knowing that the sight of that flag stills offends people means that I will never fly, wear it or display it. I think a lot of southerners especially this generation are just proud to be that... southerners. And to them, thats what the flag represents. Yes, they should respect the fact that the flag still holds a terrible reminder to some and a few probably have no idea that they are offending you. Maybe you should ask them why they are wearing it, flying it or displaying it. Most of them are not trying to be offensive BUT I am sure a lot of them are. Hope this gives some a different opinion of these "rednecks"

lololol that is hilarious! I don't get the need to keep the war alive, but my husbands family is from the Deep South, and wow. They don't celebrate the 4th of July because thats the day Vicksburg fell.

I hated history, so I never paid attention. I've seen this flag, and I still don't know what the civil war was about.

LOL....ppl from rural areas here in The South wear such things all the time. I don't get it either.

Wait, did she have fantastic abs and large hooters? Yes? Well then, that was me.

Seriously though, my dear colleague, a Texan who has been transplanted to Utah for the past 40 years, still wonders aloud how her ancestors could have ever lost that one great war.

I'm still going with the cotton gin. Downfall of southern humanity (if you are, indeed, a Yank).

Darn that Eli Whitney.

That is just terrible- on a cruise, really? I'm a southern girl, born and raised in Georgia... so I have seen plenty of rebel flags (it is usually in the smaller, country towns)

In their defense, 90% of the people who put them on their trucks or shirts or whatever are completely ignorant and have no idea how offensive it is to other people... I mean they literally just think of it as "southern pride" as in, "we love living in the south" NOT meaning "we want slavery back" or anything to that extent...

It is just sad that they don't know anyone with the common sense to tell them how it is perceived to someone who is not from their little country town... ugh. I hate that there are so many people that think all southerners are like that. I live close to Atlanta and we have such a huge mix of people and cultures around here- I love it! =)

My dad's thankfully-ex-wife was born and raised in mississippi and the proudest southern racist I ever met. I still don't know what he saw in her. She had that bathing suit and I had to ask her not to wear it when she was at our house going to our pool, because I didn't want anyone to think I was affiliated with something like that.

Sad as it may be, I wonder if she wore it for the association to "Dukes of Hazzard" and specifically 'Dasiy Duke'... In fact, I'd be shocked if her thought was not "Damn Yank", but more along the lines of "Excuse me, look at all the bikini's on the boat - why would you be commenting on mine?"

Yes, it scares me that people are more into pop culture & less into history & facts.

Do you find yourself thinking more about this stuff now that you have G - or less?

Ali--

I tend to think of these things more now that I have G-- I never really noticed the association until you mentioned it, but I am rather concerned about the world she'll be growing up in!

~Elizabeth

I would agree with previous posters that I think a lot of people don't get that the confederate flag is a painful thing for a lot of people to see. I have to explain to students every year why it is not ok to display a confederate flag. That for a lot of people it isn't a flag of South, it is a flag of slavery.

Now that being said the history/government teacher in me must point out that technically it is considered disgraceful and desecration of a flag to do anything other than fly a flag in its proper location (a flag pole). So at some level by wearing the flag she was saying she disrespects the south (although I have feeling if you aren't smart enough to know that flag is not acceptable you sure don't know that by wearing it you are offensive).

Weird! I live in what I consider the South - why is Georgia referred to as the south more regularly than Texas?? I don't get it - and while we see the occasional flag mounted in poor taste, I don't recall ever seeing anything as tacky as that suit. How offensive!

UGH! Some people!

Mama Hunt, my mom raised that exact same concern yesterday when I told her about what happened. She said, "If we pull in the American flag when it rains, why on earth would it be ok to wear any flag as a bathing suit, knowing it's going to get wet?"

My girlfriend and I had this discussion not too long ago. She was born and bred a Texan and didn't understand why Northerners thought the Confederate flag was such a horrible thing! I told her that where I'm from the people who display it are usually ignorant, racist and white trash. And it doesn't mean good things when somebody proudly displays it for all to see. Unfortunately for some of us, the Civil War never ended. :(

I live in Wisconsin, so when I see the Confederate Flag here, it's usually in some redneck's truck as a sign of rebellion. Sometimes, oddly enough, it's used as a legal symbol of racism against blacks (who represent the south in a lot of ways to mostly-white Tinytown.) To me, it just says, "I'm ignorant and proud."

I'm certain the Yank would have won (again!) had that become a battle!

I always wonder what it is about the confederate flag that people think is cool! I always think of it as a sible of racism as well as ignorance!

I would have made the same comment too!

The first time I went to Dallas to visit Liana at SMU, I noticed that her sorority house was home to 125 designer-jeans clad white girls, served by a staff of 5 African American cooks and housekeeprs, dressed in what would only pass as a Halloween costume up North. I jokingly asked one of the older girls in the sorority if they all knew who had won the Civil War, and she quickly delivered the line "You mean war of Northern Agression?" with an icy glare. So ohhh, I know the look you're referring to!!!

Whoopsie on her hearing you! That's pretty funny though. I think it's really disrespectful too that people have those flags around still, I find it to be a racist statement more or less. But my guess is she had no clue what she was doing, she just thought it was "cute" and "cool". Ah, ignorance.

Lol, I almost died reading this one! I totally agree with you. Even here in PA, there are people who proud show their support for the confederate flag and it has me completely mind boggled sometimes. That just really cracked me up!

I also have to add that I agree with the other girls that I see the confederate flag as racist. I cant believe people actually refer to the civil war as "war of Northern aggresion".

Wow. Wow to the experience you had and Wow to the comments. I have been a Mid-Westerner all my life and my husband (who is African American) was born in southern Arkansas. His Great-Great-Grandaddy was born into slavery. So it's not that far removed from their family's history.

I'm glad you said what you did, although w/ these comments I'm also wondering if she ever even realized why you made the comment.

I also think that for some individuals, no matter which side of the line, they will never understand that the Civil War is over and we can all be friends. Last time we were in Arkansas one of hubby's cousins saw me walking back from grabbing something at the car, stood up, and said "Who's that white b$tch on my Big Mama's land?!" (extremely aggressive). Uhhh...

Too funny! Like you, I don't understand clothing like that. I would have done the same thing as you. I am always being told that I speak too loudly and everyone can always hear me, ha!

Born and raised in Oklahoma in a little redneck town flag is something I grew up with but did not care to fly myself ...nor my family ...I fear racism in this country is as bad from both sides as it ever was and as long as people behave like morons on both sides of the story the war in this country will never end...Also I love how history interprets things so wonderfully you can write a book any way you want to and someone will always agree or disagree with you ...

I'm from New York and the only place I have ever visited down south was Florida (Well, Orlando..which technically isn't south) and North Carolina. I have never seen this, but I had a friend who lived in Jacksonville, and she had told me that a lot of people down there where she hs actually have confederate flags outside their house. I agree with you...the war has been over for sooo damn long. Get over it. ha.

I'm in Florida, in an area that sees a lot of rednecks, and I see the flag a lot -- often times with "heritage, not hate" beneath it. But I'm also of German descent, and I don't get personally offended when I hear people refer to Germans as a whole as "Nazis" for the same reason -- it's over, and I know people can just be ignorant. But I ALSO agree w/those who think wearing any flag is kind of silly.

I also live in Florida and see this flag being flown from the back of ratty pick up trucks and as window tint in the back windows of others. I have no idea why they display this flag. I personally find it offensive because if I was a black woman I wouldn't like it very much either. I chalk it up to ignorance. Why can't we all just get along?
Too funny that this idiot girl heard you talk about her suit. I'd LOVE to know why she felt compelled to wear it.

Ugh, ignorance at its finest. People are so clueless!
This Southern girl would not sport the rebel flag anywhere, not on my body, car, etc.....like someone else said, we're not all backwoods hillbillies, promise!