I read your reply and was speaking directly to that, making a good faith attempt to help you understand what the author was talking about. The question is not how are people suppose to know her thoughts. The question is why do people assume that a woman in a bathing suit (or anything other than perhaps lingerie) is asking for sexual attention?
You seem to be taking the position that anytime a woman appears in public, dressed in any way, anyone and everyone has the right to comment upon that. Women really ought to just wear burkas then, because any display of a curve, or a bit of skin is an invitation to sexualize her?
Yes, this is the way that social media currently works, but this author's point is that it shouldn't be that way. If our culture(s) didn't teach it in a wide variety of ways, if men hadn't been taught all their lives that women exist in the world to give them pleasure and enjoyment, women might be able to exist in the world in their own skins without having to always be on guard about whether or not some random stranger is going to loudly sexualize them to their face without any indication that this is welcome or wanted.
I often write about sex and sexuality on the internet. It's generally well received in an appropriate manner but some men take that as an invitation that it is not because they assume that my sexuality is for their personal consumption. I mean after all, I've put it out there in public, so it must be. 🙄 The solution to that is not for me to stop expressing myself in the way that I see fit around topics that interest me. It's for the culture to realize we've been teaching and promoting this way of thinking and that it doesn't have to be this way, because it's really harmful to women to have to self-censor all of the time in order to attempt to not be harassed, but then it happens anyway to women who are wearing baggy sweatpants or business suits, or what have you. Because women are too often seen as objects in this culture.
The true question isn't does she have a right to control the reaction to her image that has been put up in a public place. It is, does she have the right to be treated as more than a sex object for the consumption of random men simply because she has dared to enter the public sphere? Do women who walk down public streets deserve to be catcalled and followed by strange men who find them attractive? I mean after all, they are being alluring in public, so maybe they should just stay inside or wear a burka when they go out?
