Swimwear and beach attire is a specific context that we have not really touched on, prior to you posting that pic. It raises two (to me) interesting aspects.
The first is that of all the situations in which people wear revealing clothing but have a reason for doing so other than sex, this is one where the odds of it being anything to do with sex are likely much lower.
The second thing is, away from swimwear, how do men, generally, dress if (if) they
do want to indicate sexual intent or display? I'm thinking (and it's only my impression) that we don't, really, do that, at least not in the same way. We might dress to indicate wealth or status (we might even park the Porsche outside where it can be seen, or at least flash the car key) but..
dressing to indicate that we might want sex.....? Any thoughts? Obviously we can indicate such things through behaviour, but I'm not talking about that. And again I'm temporarily talking about heterosexuality here.
Perhaps someone can find pics to illustrate than we men can and do sometimes dress for that, but would they be the norm? Furthermore, would it generally be misinterpreted as often as the reverse scenario? Probably not, imo, because (again speculating) women are by and large less often 'looking' to have sex (and may indeed not be as 'visual' in terms of decoding what they see or how it may or may not attract them anyway). Plus there may be fewer misattributions because the perceptions may more often be correct.
And if (if) there is misreading of situations, for women misreading men, it may be that that could involve (a) not realising what men are thinking, including what they are misattributing and (b) not being fully aware of how far, how badly wrong, it can go, how, in other words what a man is capable of doing or might do. And don't tell me that girls and women already know this. There is truth in that, yes (depending on the girl or woman), and it would be wrong to patronise and assume lack of knowledge, and most girls and women
will know relevant stuff, but I think the way harassments, assaults and rapes play out (perhaps especially date rapes, including with boys and men the girl or woman knew or thought she knew beforehand) there is still room for caution and misattribution, and not just on the part of the woman, since men and boys themselves may not be fully self-aware regarding what they might or might not do, and this is borne out in statements made by rapists expressing surprise and remorse after the event. Some will say that it was as if 'the animal' in them took them over.
This is all very general of course. It will not necessarily apply to individuals, and there are surely overlaps in terms of the sexes sharing similarities as well as differences and everything will be on a spectrum.
