Of nuns' habits and student bikinis

St. Theresa’s College in Cebu City banned five graduating students and their parents from attending the high school graduation ceremony because the girls posted photos of themselves in bikinis on Facebook.

 

Why can’t students wear bikinis and post pictures on Facebook if they choose to? 

 

As I understand it, the family outing where the students were seen frolicking on the beach is outside the school’s jurisdiction, so why bother? Does the school expect them to wear a nun’s habit while swimming in the sea?

 

I think it is hysterical. 

 

To what lengths are the school’s authorities willing to go in order to advance a school policy? With this precedent, the school is saying it will police what students do, not only within, but also outside its walls. 

 

I understand that a Catholic school such as St. Theresa’s College invented its own rules and regulations on modest attire to promote its version of Roman Catholic behavior. But prohibiting the wearing of bikinis at the beach is beyond comprehension. 

 

The school should not delude itself into thinking that just because it promotes a certain outward appearance over other styles of dress, it possesses a better understanding of what being a Roman Catholic truly means.

 

But, really? What is it about bikinis? Is it really about bikinis, or is it about something that has nothing to do with the attire at all?

 

For me, this whole hullabaloo about bikinis is, in essence, a knee-jerk reaction driven by the fear of change and a desire to stay relevant. In order to do that, the college has to protect its invented traditions of religious tenets, even if it lends support to bullying and repressive thinking.

 

But of course, bullying and repressive thinking is not a monopoly of a religious institution like St. Theresa’s College. For that matter, all institutions, be they family, economic, political, or educational, undergo similar reactions when dealing with change. Eventually, each institution has to deal with it swiftly or die off.

 

So the question is: how does an educational institution like St. Theresa’s College deal with change? Should it continue to resist change and remain as a vestige of “me-and-you-against-the-world” religion? Should it remain an unwavering bastion of exclusionary thinking which has its closest modern parallel the strict adherence to a purist revivalism—in other words, an institution with a fundamentalist orientation?

 

If the school insists on remaining unchanged, its position on this matter is untenable.  

 

First, I do not wish this fine academic institution to represent our Orwellian nightmare, where every move we make is being watched and monitored by a dystopian Big Brother. Second, I do not wish to see this accomplished educational institution blindsided by an extremist and exclusive way of thinking that belongs to a religious fundamentalist—the very person who sometimes becomes the fountainhead of local and global conflict. 

 

And speaking of religious fundamentalism, the Taliban (which means the Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement) of Afghanistan would rather have their women covered from head to toe.

 

I think the school should not fear change, but welcome it. The school should not instill fear; instead it should promote faith in the durability of its founding religion by accommodating a wider appeal, especially to those who do not believe that posting bikini pictures on Facebook is a sin against God.

 

There is a sobering thought from the great American virologist Dr. Jonas Edward Salk about the precariousness of our human existence and the puniness of some of our human practices. He hypothesized, “If all the insects on earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on earth would disappear. If all humans disappeared, within 50 years all species would flourish as never before.”

 

So why bother about bikinis? Really.