![]() “For too long you’ve been inundated by G-rated fairy tales,” Ren tells us, “the blood and dirt in their original drafts scrubbed clean by salarymen in suits.” The narrator is a future Ren, who claims to be a mermaid. Ren Yu is a competitive swimmer at her high school in Pittsburgh we quickly learn that she hates her fellow humans and is intent on becoming a mermaid-not the pretty Disneyfied kind, but one of the vicious types who lure men to their deaths. Its protagonist is one of the star swimmers on her team, idolized and crushed on by another swimmer-failure in this story doesn’t so much happen in the pool as it does in the everyday struggle to exist outside the water. Though not marketed as YA, it explores themes of adolescent identity formation and failure, from within the chemical waters of the high school pool. Jade Song’s debut novel, Chlorine, is an uneven but ambitious contribution to queer swimming fiction. Like Chen’s novel, Dryland also dwells in failure-Julie, its protagonist, is on the swim team, but she isn’t by any measure a fast swimmer, nor has she “figured out” her queerness, as so many of us did not or could not in adolescence. It isn’t overtly queer, but there is a queerness in its contention with what happens outside and beside commonly acknowledged forms of success, wide of the goalposts of “normative time.” I treasured Sara Jaffe’s Dryland, set in the early 1990s in Portland, a lesbian coming-of-age story whose idiosyncratic protagonist joins the swim team to pursue a crush, despite some dark swimming-related family history. I found companionship in Anelise Chen’s So Many Olympic Exertions, a ruminative novel about sports, writing and failure. I was introduced to Céline Sciamma’s films via La naissance des pieuvres, a tale of queer longing, teen power dynamics and synchronized swimming. I devoured Alexander Chee’s gorgeous, propulsive novel, Edinburgh-the story of a young Korean-American queer boy who survives childhood sexual abuse, and has to come to terms with the lingering trauma while working as a high-school swim coach in adulthood. If the story is also queer, so much the better. There is something both dreadful and compelling about being thrust back into the days of early-morning practices, timed heats, dry skin, chlorine-scented sweat and hair, and permanent raccoon-like goggle marks. We try extremely hard to ensure our photos are as life-like as possible, but please understand the actual color may vary slightly from your monitor.As a former high school swimmer, I’ve always been drawn to stories that are set in the pungent turquoise depths of regulation-length pools. This is due to computer monitors displaying colors differently and everyone can see these colors differently. Please note that contact with rough surfaces and velcro fasteners should be avoided since they can pull out the white fibers in the fabric, damaging the swimsuit’s appearance. ![]() ***Disclaimer: To make your Swimsuit last longer, thoroughly rinse it off after each use and get rid of any chlorine/salt residue. Making products on demand instead of in bulk helps reduce overproduction, so thank you for making thoughtful purchasing decisions! This product is made especially for you as soon as you place an order, which is why it takes us a bit longer to deliver it to you. Four-way stretch water-repellent microfiber fabric.Liner composition: 92% polyester, 8% spandex. ![]() Fabric composition: (may vary by 5%) 91% recycled polyester, 9% spandex. ![]() & Check out my other men’s swim trunk designs! §ion_id=38444694 These swim trunks have everything you need for a hot summer day-they’re quick-drying and breathable, have multiple pockets for your belongings, and feature a silky, anti-chafe inner liner. ![]()
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