Original post by KingBradlyWell, I don't think they are being disingenous at all when it comes to the burqa, niqab, or "burqini". The fact that you think that makes me assime that you have difficulty thinking beyond our cultural framework.
I find the wearing of these Islamic garbs far more offensive than someone being nude. As a human being myself, I don't find the human body offensive, but I am rather offended by people who think it is, and clothes like the burqini exist in part to cover the body because of the idea that it is offensive. It also tells me that the woman wearing it has been frightened by her religion into wearing it, as it is clearly not particularly practical compared to a standard swimsuit. I dislike the idea that an ideology frightens women into covering their body, and thinking of their body as offensive, by threatening them with eternal damnation. That's pretty messed up. Some women may feel pressured to wear certain things by our culture, but it's certainly rare for them to wear things out of fear of an eternity of torture. So yes, there are two reasons I'm offended by the burkini: it suggests that the human body is offensive or shameful, and it is reeks of subjugation.
Next I'd like to take you up on that "objectification" comment. Maybe if we saw more people naked, we would actually become more used to the body and think of it more than merely an explicit sex object. We always will be physically attracted to other people, and that's a good thing. It's not good though when you get to the point where a flash of flesh is enough to drive men crazy with sexual excitement, and unfortunately in countries where women cover themselves from head to toe this is exactly what can happen, thus why we have had young, repressed men from Islamic countries going crazy and assaulting women in Germany and Sweden. To those men, any display of flesh means "screw me". Not a great situation.
Moreover, is there another item of clothing that reduces a woman's body to merely a sex toy more than the burqa? Think of it this way: the burqa basically exists to hide the body to stop men from getting exicited by seeing it.
Here are two really common metaphors that I always see Muslims use in defense of veiling.
Firstly: "If you leave a sweet unwrapped, why should you be surprised when flies collect on it?"
This is m thinking of the female body as a consumable commodity.
Secondly: "The burqa isn't sexist. If you have a precious jewel, do you go around flashing it to everyone, or do you keep it safe, away from prying eyes? This is how we view our women"
This is reducing women to a purchasable object which you keep simply to look at.
The burqa basically says that a woman's body is an explicit, sordid, sexual object that should be hidden, rather like a dirty magazing being put on the top shelf. Additionally, there is no society that is more utterly obsessed with sex than societies such as Saudi Arabia's. Sure, they are obsessed with repressing it, but they are obsessed none the less, and it probably shapes their society more than anything else.