Women, bikinis and Serena Williams [SacBee.com]

I last wore a bikini nearly 25 years ago when I was eight months pregnant. That summer it was brutally hot, and the stucco bungalow we were renting in Los Angeles didn’t have air conditioning. In lieu of driving to Santa Monica and plunging into the Pacific every 10 minutes, I’d turn the hose on myself and dry off on the front steps.

It didn’t occur to me to care how I looked. I was miserable, and my goal was to wear as little as possible. Demi Moore had recently posed naked and pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair, triggering a kerfuffle about decency and motherhood. So I also felt empowered in my near-nakedness.

I mention this because it’s summer, and even with all that passage of time, yet another generation of young women is consumed with dread at the thought of being seen in a bikini. In light of beach season, the website Refinery29 surveyed 1,000 millennial women to see how women view their bodies and how that compared to a so-called “bikini body.” Although 54 percent said they were “mostly happy” with their bodies, a staggering 80 percent avoided activities because they feel self-conscious about their shape.