| "A simple thing like a bathing suit can ruin summer for older women," Leslie Morgan Steiner says in the audio introduction to her op-ed — which, just in time for swimsuit-shopping season, is all about the conundrum of bikini-wearing. Yet Steiner didn't write this column to wallow in self-loathing. She's here to urge the ladies: Get over it! Steiner is 56 and, like many American women, long struggled to love her body thanks to a culture that "seems to insist that women abhor our own skin." But she reports that age and the wisdom of older friends — and the younger men she's dated post-divorce — have taught her a valuable lesson: Life is too short not to celebrate the bodies nature gave us. One friend had for a decade hidden beneath surfer shorts. But "after the end of a 23-year marriage, a burst appendix, three childbirths, one near death from vaginal cuff dehiscence, and painful infidelity," Steiner writes, that friend finally decided: "I don't want to spend a single minute of the life I have left worrying about my body." In her 50s, she switched back to bikinis. Another, a grandmother in her 70s, has fully cast off "the torture devices designed to deprive older women of the simple joys of swimming" and chooses these days to dive in au naturel. As for the men? They've helped Steiner see that "there is nothing more beautiful (or sexier) than a woman who is comfortable in her own skin." Now that's hot — and refreshing.  (Camila Rosa for The Washington Post) Our culture seems to insist that women abhor our own skin. This is my rebellion. By Leslie Morgan Steiner ● Read more » | | | | For as long as I'm able, I'll never think again about passing up the chance to decide another election. By Robert Mann ● Read more » | | | | Democrats started with denial. But acceptance will come in the form of the November election. By Catherine Rampell ● Read more » | | | An aggressive wild turkey in D.C. shares some behavior with those on the Trump right. By Dana Milbank ● Read more » | | | | The president should take the step for policy reasons, but the electoral math looks good for him, too. By Perry Bacon Jr. ● Read more » | | | | Editor's note from broadcaster's website contains few details for its readers. By Erik Wemple ● Read more » | | | Homeland Security has botched the rollout of a new organization that sounds more incoherent the more it is explained. By Eugene Robinson ● Read more » | | | | It's a very bad sign when the party that controls all the levers of power in Washington doesn't know what to tell the voters. By Henry Olsen ● Read more » | | | | And yet, the California Republican is still quite likely to become the next speaker of the House. By Michael Gerson ● Read more » | | | The problem is that its roots run deep, and the solutions are hard to scale. By Paul Waldman ● Read more » | | | | When even the most civic-minded state in the nation goes down the Trumpist rabbit hole, we have a big problem. By Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent ● Read more » | | | |
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