This is a three-part series of questions. Please note–it is not my intention that responders to this thread should need to answer every question. Feel free to pick and choose.
Part 1–for the women on the board.
Have you ever participated in a bikini car wash? If so, did it feel odd or unusual in any way? Did people take your picture? And would you do it again?
If you have not participated in one, how do you feel about them? Would you participate if given a good opportunity?
Part 2–for the men.
Have you ever taken your car to a bikini car wash? If so, did you take any pictures, and if you did, how did the girls or women respond?
Part 3–non-gender specific.
Do you think there should be a minimum age for a girl to participate in one? Would you let your daughter participate in one?
Feel free to add other questions or thoughts as you desire.
I personally have never taken my car to a bikini car wash, but that’s more a result of circumstances than anything else.
Once. It was a fund-raiser for some college charity. It was in the parking lot of a restaurant where I was planning to eat anyway, and my car really needed it. A pretty girl would take your keys, a bunch of guys would wash the car, and a pretty girl would return your keys to you. So I dropped my car off, went inside to eat lunch, and got my car afterward. I did not take any pictures. As I picked up my keys, I told the girl, “My mother would not approve of this. She would want the guys to wear Speedos.” The girl laughed and agreed.
Minimum age equal to the voting age. If I had a daughter, I would not be thrilled, but would not stop her.
There was a charity carwash in a Wal-Mart parking lot some years ago. At the time, I was hosting several web pages of local pix (no video yet), and I often took pix of anything and everything for this. I also wrote local news articles about just any subject. But when I gave the girls my card and asked if I could take some “news” photos, pointing out it would promote their cause, they didn’t permit it. I’m pretty sure they thought I was some dedicated prevert, and the Internet was just too scary to contemplate.
If they didn’t want to be seen in bikinis, why did they have the carwash in the first place?
Did not participate, was never asked. They didn’t have bikini’s when I was the age it would be suitable to participate.
I’ve seen lots of guys lined up for bikini car washes.
I would frown on my daughter participating if she was below the legal age of consent.
I just want to pass on that I used to go to an Army base every weekend to go the Commissary. There was almost always some kind of car wash for MWR or unit parties/charities whatever.
Let’s just say when the infantry units filled with incredibly fit young men wearing nothing but army shorts and boots held their car washes, the line was filled with middle aged women and was very, very long.
You want to post pictures of strangers on the internet where hundreds of thousands of people can see them and don’t understand why they might want to protect their privacy? And they’re the ones with the “problem?”
:dubious:
I’m far from good-looking, in a swimsuit or otherwise, but if some random stranger came up to me and asked to take my picture for a website, it would be “hell to the no.” I don’t care what your intentions are.
Pretty much this. No, I haven’t ever paticipated in one, and I wasn’t aware they were that big a thing. I mean, I don’t have any righteously moral bones to pick with it - if someone wants to wash cars in a bathing suit, go for it - but I’d be a bit :rolleyes: at the whole event.
They have underage girls at places specifically marketed as “bikini carwashes”? cause i have seen highschool age kids washing cars in their swim suits because they are outdoors in the middle of summer in Florida and expecting to get wet, but there is a vast difference between that and a car wash were hot women in bikinis wash your car while looking sexy.
Women and girls would wear shorts and t-shirts at their car washes for their teams or clubs. While there was usually a particularly cute girl holding the sign by the street, guys didn’t usually get stuck with doing all the work.
Young people doing car washes to raise funds is a commonplace. Using girls in bikinis to hold the signs, attract attention and do the easy customer interaction work is also a commonplace. Or at least bikini tops & short shorts.
This is/was true everywhere in the US I’ve driven over the last 40 years.
The Yellow Polka Dot Bikini was a popular song in about 57. So I was in grade school for that. HOWEVER, you are right, “respectable” girls didn’t even wear two piece swim suits (much less bikinis) until I was out of high school.
With regard to Part 1- I would say I feel they have a ‘cheap appeal’ to them and therefore, I do not have an appreciation for them. With my salad days behind me, I’m confident a good opportunity will not present. When I did have a bikini body (and wore a bikini) I lived in a coastal city which often held ‘bikini contests’. Never a shortage of participants, but I’ve always been too modest for parading myself around.
Part 3 - On what grounds could a minimum age be set? I do have an 11 year old daughter. I would forbid her participation in such an event as the thought of her being ‘admired’ as an underage girl by adult men feels sickening to me. If she were to make the choice on her own as an adult I would feel differently - not necessarily 100% supportive, but accepting of her choice.
**Freudian Slit **- As a teen, I owned a couple of 2-piece bathing suits that were similar in coverage to granny panties and a Playtex cross-your-heart bra. Kinda like this. My mother would never permit me to wear something so low-cut that my belly button would show!!! :eek:
As for the OP - as I’ve gotten older and grouchier, I really hate events that use scantily-clad women as a draw. My husband and I were at a bike show this weekend, and several booths had young women in teensy outfits, and all the old geezers were pulling out their phones left and right to take pictures. I thought it was cheap and pathetic.
I’m not sure about the source of my outrage, but I know it’s not envy. I think it’s because I worked so hard in my field to be accepted as capable despite my internal plumbing that it sickens me to see young women parading around like sex toys. And while I don’t want to see hard-body guys flaunting their wares either, I know they don’t face the same problems of being taken seriously in a professional situation.
So, no I’ve never done a bikini car wash, and I’d be really disappointed if my daughter wanted to participate in one. I also agree that under-18 should be prohibited, since it’s not about washing cars.
For the trivia-obsessed Dopers looking in, this may be a legacy of the car washing scene in Cool Hand Luke
Joy Harmon, perhaps not the first woman in history to wash a car with her tits but certainly a pioneer in its popularization, is now 74, and no longer participates in this. Instead she runs a bakery
Does anyone know any place where these type of car washes can be found?
I mean, just as a matter of interest.
I mean, my car isn’t really dirty.
I mean…
So it’s an invasion of privacy for 2000 people to see them, but it’s not for 1000? Isn’t the reason they’re there in the first place is for people to see them?
