Tens of millions of American women and girls, from age 1 to 90+ wear bikinis to the beach. Are they all acting indecently? What, exactly, is indecent about a bikini? It covers the sexual portions of a woman's body.
What’s the point of avoiding tan lines, if you’re not just proposing to show as much flesh somewhere else?
Maybe some women better like the way they look naked with less tanlines? Why do you care? No one is making you wear a bikini. if they are, call the police.
Some women wear bikinis because they think they can “win” the game of female objectification.
Sure. And most wear them for other reasons. You're over-thinking this.
Once upon a time, referring to the sexual mores of the French in a positive way was understood to be a concession of the moral argument in favour of simple hedonism.
You miss the point- toplessness on European beaches isn't about sex for the majority of women who forego their bikini top. Go to a topless beach, even in France, and you'll discover that toplessness is pretty much equal opportunity when it comes to age, body shape, size etc. The context of a topless beach is not sexual.
Clothing which ONLY covers the sexual parts of the body is, possibly, even more sexual than total nudity, since it makes sex the WHOLE point of the garment.
People’s actions in public, especially when they are socially destructive, are indeed of interest to everyone else.
The majority of French wear tops on the street, so even they acknowledge a sexual component to the bathing suit, since they wouldn’t appear that way at a cafe, no matter how comfortable it might be.
The existence of a European double-think on the issue of co-ed European beaches doesn’t mean that European women don’t know that a topless woman in public is generally indecent.
How do you define morality? By majority?