Venecia Guzmán Elizondo

I recently saw a video where a young designer is talking about what (supposedly) happens in men’s brains when they see a woman in a bikini, or “the bikini effect,” as she calls it. She says a Princeton study found that as men see a woman in bikini, parts of the brain “related to tools” such as hammers, screws, etc., are activated. It is worth mentioning that these activated parts she’s referring to (see below), are related to a variety of other functions, such as understanding the meaning of words when reading, the process of recognition of known faces, and more.

The designer declares that this information shows “wearing bikinis surely gives women power; the power to inhibit in men the ability to see her as a person, but rather as an object.”

Even if this would have been a valid study with evidence-based conclusions (see below), I refuse to accept that simply by deciding to wear a bikini I am causing men to see me as an object.