First, it's only a cartoon, a spsnahot of the artist's idea of how contradictory and inexplicacable a woman can be in his experience - meaning, it can't be about all women. It's the artist's subjective confusion that's funny, not the images themselves.
Second, it's possible to read the cartoon in a different way. On the beach, the woman is turned away from the onlookers. Nothing says she knows they are there; her gesture could be a stretch after standing up from dozing and sunbaking; her smile could be her delight at the view of the sea.
At home, we see no onlooker; she could as easily be alone, seeing herself in a mirror and feeling distress that she's not the ideal she thinks she must be in order to win the man of her first choice. Or, if her romantic partner were in front of her --perhaps the one through whose eyes we are looking (the artist) -- he might have, just that moment, insulted her in the midst of an arguement, with an insult doomed to destroy their relationship.
In my view the cartoon itself is ridiculous. Most women are not as contradictory as that.
Most women don't preen and show off at the beach. And most women don't cover themselves at home as though they were Eve trying to hide from God.
In Western cultures,
a polite, decent and responsible man is expected to be able to look at a woman without overtly showing his reactions to what he sees (whether desire, revulsion, or nothing at all).
Women may dress as they wish and have the right to move about in public without being approached or molested by men, regardless of what they're wearing. And there is an approximate standard of "correctness" which applies to different social settings and weather conditions for both men and women.
If a woman's clothing and presentation happens to be alluring to a man, the attraction is inside the man and it's his taste.
Taste is only and always the result of the onlooker's personal and cultural preferences.
Some forms of relative undress are only permitted in certain public places, like the beach, swimming pool, gym, doctor's office, etc.
A bikini is practical at the beach because full clothing creates a risk of drowning while swimming. It's also beneficial to get a little bit of sun and Vit D into the skin.
To be clear, wearing a bathing suit is not a request to be ogled by others; it's just the correct apparel for the time, place and activity.
Men in these places are usually wearing less, just shorts - they're not obliged to cover their tits.
Notice how, if nudists go to a nudist camp, everyone quickly gets bored with all the different sizes and shapes of bodies. There's nothing sexual or lascivious about it.
As for how a woman reacts to being seen near-naked at home - it most likely depends on who is looking at her, why and how he's looking at her, the nature of their relationship, and whether she's tired, stressed, not feeling well or has her period. It may also depend on how she feels about her own body.
We women get blasted by media (from the time we're very small) with ideas about how we ought to look. Almost none of us measure up to that ideal (which changes over time) - and most of us are far less than confident about how we look. We're lucky (or perhaps earned it) if we're healthy and have to try to be content with that. We want the one we love to desire us, and no other. If he doesn't, we're quite likely to think it's our fault and feel miserable about it. Not realising that it might just be that he's finally getting old.
Sorry it's so complicated.
