A Pinny For Your Thoughts

Are mesh shirts the equivalent of bubble wrap?

By Chris Thurber

I recently attended a 3-day conference on eating disorders, where the message was clear: Within the range of healthy weight, human bodies come in all shapes and sizes. Yet popular media promulgate an Abercrombie & Fitch ideal that is unrealistic for many. The gap between this beauty ideal and one’s physical reality can lead to deep dissatisfaction with one’s shape, a condition called “body dysmorphia.” In turn, this dissatisfaction can fuel eating disorders.

To prevent a damaged body image and disordered eating behaviors, researchers at the conference all recommended the same thing: Eschew commercially driven, pop-culture beauty ideals and accept every person for who they are, regardless of shape, size, color, hair, or body mass index. Love them for their humanity, not for their physique. Stop focusing narrowly on the superficial characteristics of weight, height, muscles, skin, breasts, and other bulges, and start focusing on brains and behavior.

“Eschew commercially driven, pop-culture beauty ideals and accept every person for who they are, regardless of shape, size, color, hair, or body mass index. Love them for their humanity, not for their physique.”

All human beings form first impressions, and most adopt culturally mediated beauty ideals. However, human beings are also capable of prioritizing the strength of character over strength of biceps; sense of humor over sense of fashion; and people’s social skills over people’s social networks.

This message certainly aligned with the mission of every day- and resident camp with which I have ever worked. It echoed keynote addresses and sermons I have heard. Indeed, it is what I have been teaching my students, staff members, campers, and two biological children for years.

Caught Off Guard

During the next week, a camp director friend and I were watching an online video I created for ExpertOnlineTraining.com, titled Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In one scene, some boys are playing capture-the-flag in the middle of a sunny field. The teams are divided by shirts and skins, so some of the boys are bare-chested, as boys often are at summer camp. “Chris, I love the content. All the strategies for helping children focus are excellent. It would definitely help my staff to know all this before opening day. I just have an issue with the game the boys are playing in that one scene.”

Who could object to capture-the-flag? I wondered. No one was playing roughly, the referee was fair, and everyone looked excited. Plus, the scene lasted only a few seconds. “I’m not following you,” I said, after a beat. “Well,” he explained, “we no longer divide teams by shirts and skins at our camp. It might make some of the heavier or skinnier kids self-conscious.”

He went on to explain that he had recently started using pinnies (colored, mesh tank tops worn loosely over T-shirts) to distinguish teams after one parent complained that her heavyset son might get teased about his weight or feel self-conscious about his body if he were asked to remove his shirt.

“What about swimming?” I asked. “Well, most boys wear regular swim trunks,” the director replied. He then paused and added, “One or two choose to wear Lycra swim shirts.”

I thought about that option. Swim shirts—sometimes called “rash guards” or “surf shirts”—offer good UV protection, but all tight clothing accentuates what’s underneath, so I asked, “Does a snug-fitting polyester top actually help a portly or scrawny camper feel less self-conscious about his body?”

Again, the director paused. “Well … no. Actually, I don’t know,” he said, now miffed. “I guess it’s up to them.”

“But you require the pinnies?” I asked.

“Yeah. I guess it’s complicated,” he conceded.

Indeed, it is complicated. On the one hand, high-quality youth programs share a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Such programs do not tolerate individual differences; they embrace them, knowing that many of these differences contribute richness to the social fabric of the community.

In accord with their DEI commitment, progressive youth programs also shun discrimination based on age, race, religion, national origin, or any other innate or peaceful aspect of identity. Such programs especially abhor discrimination based on physical differences, such as height, weight, or skin color.

Unanswered Questions

Requiring boys to wear pinnies, lest they expose their torso, is tantamount to saying, “We agree that some bodies are OK to look at, and others are not OK to look at.” Or perhaps, “We recognize that a few children may have been taught to be ashamed of their bodies, so we will require all children to hide their bodies.” Or maybe, “During certain activities—but not others—we require boys to cover their torso, based on the assertion that some torsos do not adhere to arbitrary cultural standards.” Considered from these perspectives, the pinny requirement is a form of body-shaming.

On the other hand, no caring adult wants a child to feel humiliated. That was never the intent of shirts-and-skins. On the contrary, the tradition began centuries ago as a convenient, fast, and economical way to distinguish between two boys’ teams. At halftime, skins become shirts and shirts become skins, a form of equity that distributes comfort on hot days. As a bonus, balled-up shirts from the skins team become convenient markers for goal creases or midfield lines. Pinnies, by contrast, cost money and time. They sell for only $3 apiece, but that means the average camp is in for several hundred dollars, not counting laundry expenses. Add a few more dollars for plastic cones or line paint to denote creases around goals. Still, if the cost of adhering to the shirts-and-skins tradition is a child’s self-esteem, pinnies are worth considering.

Still unanswered are questions about changing, showering, swimming, and other times when body parts are routinely exposed. Directors of summer youth programs joke about the plethora of modern safety equipment and frequently chide, “Why don’t we just bundle every kid in bubble wrap and tell them to sit quietly on a bench, in the shade? That way, we can guarantee that they won’t get hurt.” Is fear of kids being uncomfortable with their bodies pushing us in the same, absurd direction? Should we put all children in amorphous, full-body, Tyvek suits (the kind worn when installing fiberglass insulation) so no one can see their shape during free swim?

It sounds attractively progressive to tout the theoretical benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion on your website. In practice, however, are you attempting to obscure these differences? In practice, are you masking individual differences because it is easier than addressing root problems of discrimination? If some of your young participants are routinely hurting others by disrespecting their bodies, then you have a bullying problem. Remediating that social ill entails teaching social skills and conflict resolution, not slapping pinnies on everyone.

Looking Past Physical Attributes

I would not have predicted, as I sat through that eating-disorders conference, that I would end up questioning pinnies, of all things. You may arrive at a different conclusion, but for me, using pinnies to minimize physical self-consciousness is folly; they are the mesh equivalent of bubble wrap. Even more insidious, if pinnies are used to hide bodies, they are adding shame, not taking it away. If you currently use pinnies for emotional protection, I urge you to consider how badly that policy can backfire.

Ideally, anyone assigned male gender at birth—be they chubby, lanky, muscular, tall, short, pre- or post-pubertal, with or without scars, birthmarks, or melanin—feels comfortable in their own skin. Having worked with camps for four decades—including some for young burn survivors and some for children with atypical musculoskeletal configurations or craniofacial abnormalities—I have seen this ideal achieved. Without pinnies. All it takes is time and sterling role models.

“Amplifying social connections, competencies, and cooperation will boost people’s moods and confidence.”

For children who begin day camp or overnight camp feeling self-conscious about their bodies, wearing a mesh tank top will not work wonders, but it might take attention away from physical characteristics long enough for other children to focus on an individual child’s character and skills. In the end, these are the fertile soil in which self-esteem and social standing take root.

It may be wise for camps to offer pinnies during team sports, in case some participants prefer that option over removing their top. Options are healthy; control feels good. But requiring pinnies and forbidding bare torsos are policies that serve only to increase discomfort.

Amplifying body dysmorphia can contribute to depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and unhealthy social stereotypes. By contrast, amplifying social connections, competencies, and cooperation will boost people’s moods and confidence.

The more your program helps participants make friends, develop skills, and work together, the less everyone will care about looks. And the more your staff members demonstrate—through leadership-by-example—a certain amount of comfort with bare arms, legs, chests, and backs, (at appropriate times, of course, such as free swim or a game of capture-the-flag), the more comfortable young participants will be with their own shape, size, and color.

In the largest longitudinal study of camp outcomes to date, the most notable pre-camp to post-camp growth for young participants was in the construct of Positive Identity. Campers and parents independently reported enhanced feelings of self-confidence and self-worth as a result of a camp experience lasting at least one week. As one 12-year-old put it, “I love camp because, at camp, I get to be myself.” The less that camps bend to a commercial stereotype of the ideal male body, the more kids will get to be themselves.

Dr. Chris Thurber is a psychologist and professional educator at Phillips Exeter Academy who enjoys training other leaders and teachers around the world. He is the co-author of The Summer Camp Handbook and the co-founder of Prep4Camp.com, an inexpensive program that lowers the intensity of first-year campers’ homesickness by 50 percent, on average. To schedule a consultation, book a keynote, or purchase cool gear that raises money for camper scholarships, visit DrChrisThurber.com.