Bikini

This article is about the women's bathing suit. For other uses, see Bikini (disambiguation).

American model Michele Merkin poses in a bikini

A bikini is a women's abbreviated two-piece swimsuit with a bra for the chest and panties cut below the navel. The design is simple: two triangles of fabric on top cover the woman's breasts and two triangles of fabric on the bottom cover the groin in front and the buttocks in back. What distinguishes the bikini from other swimsuits is its brevity. It was the first swimsuit design to reveal the naval. The size of the panty can range from full coverage to a revealing thong or g-string design. It is often worn in hot weather and while swimming or sunbathing. The name for the bikini design was coined in 1946 by Louis Réard, who named the swimsuit after Bikini Atoll, where testing on the atomic bomb was taking place.

According to French fashion historian Olivier Saillard, the bikini is perhaps the most popular type of female beachwear around the globe because of "the power of women, and not the power of fashion". As he explains, "The emancipation of swimwear has always been linked to the emancipation of women." The bikini has boosted spin-off services like bikini waxing and the suntanning industries.

Etymology

While the two-piece swimsuit as a design existed in classical antiquity, the modern design first attracted public notice in Paris on July 5, 1946. French mechanical engineer Louis Réard introduced a design he named the "bikini," borrowing the place name of the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, where, four days earlier, the United States had conducted its first peace-time nuclear weapons test, part of Operation Crossroads. The island's English name is derived from the German colonial name Bikini, given the atoll when it was part of German New Guinea, which itself is transliterated from the Marshallese name for the island, Pikinni, ([pʲ]), meaning surface of coconuts.

Historians believe Réard named his design the "bikini" because he hoped its revealing style would create an explosive commercial and cultural reaction, similar in intensity to society's response to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Réard's name stuck with the media and public.

Through inappropriate analogy with words like bilingual, bifocal and bilateral, which contain the Latin prefix "bi-" (meaning "two" in Latin), the word bikini was first misinterpreted as consisting of two parts, [bi + kini] by Rudi Gernreich when he designed the monokini in 1964. Later swimsuit designs like the tankini and trikini were also named based on the erroneous assumption that the "bi-" in bikini denotes a two-piece swimsuit. These new coinages falsely presumed that the back-formation [bi + kini] was purposeful.

History

Main article: History of the bikini

Origins in the Old World

The origins of the bikini can be traced to antiquity, in Çatalhöyük and the Greco-Roman world. In the Coronation of the Winner, a mosaic in the floor of a Roman villa that dates from the Diocletian period (286–305 AD), young women appear in bikini-like garments playing sports including weight-lifting, discus throwing, running and ball-games. The mosaic, which is located in the Sicilian Villa Romana del Casale, features ten maidens who have been dubbed the "Bikini Girls". Other Roman archeological finds, particularly in Pompeii, depict the goddess Venus in a bikini. A statue of Venus wearing a bikini was found in a cupboard in the southwest corner of Casa della Venere, while others were found in the front hall. Another statue of the bikini-clad Venus was recovered from the tablinum of the House of Julia Felix, and yet another was unearthed from an atrium in the garden of Via Dell'Abbondanza.

Prior swimsuit designs

Annette Kellerman in the one-piece bathing suit that got her arrested in 1905.

In 1907, Australian swimmer and performer Annette Kellerman was arrested on a Boston beach for wearing a form-fitting one-piece swimsuit—a style that was acceptable beach attire only three years later. In 1913, inspired by the debut of women's Olympic swimming the previous year, designer Carl Jantzen made the first functional two-piece swimwear, a close-fitting one-piece with shorts on the bottom and short sleeves on top.

By the 1930s, necklines had plunged at the back, sleeves disappeared, and sides were cut away. Hollywood endorsed the new glamour with films such as Neptune's Daughter in which Esther Williams wore provocatively named costumes such as "Double Entendre" and "Honey Child". With new materials like latex and nylon, by 1934 the swimsuit started hugging the body and had shoulder straps to lower for tanning. By the early 1940s two-piece swimsuits were frequent on American beaches. Hollywood stars such as Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth and Lana Turner tried similar swimwear or beachwear. Pin ups of Hayworth and Esther Williams in the costume were widely distributed.

First modern design

Micheline Bernardini modeling the first modern bikini. It was so small it could fit into a matchbox like the one she's holding.

The modern bikini design was first introduced during the 20th century by fashion designer Jacques Heim, who owned a beach shop in the French Riviera resort town of Cannes. In May 1946, he began advertising a two-piece swimsuit for his shop that he named the “Atome,” the world's "smallest bathing suit". The bottom of his design was just large enough to cover the wearer's navel. To promote his new design, Heim hired skywriters to fly above the Mediterranean resort advertising the Atome as “the world’s smallest bathing suit.”

Louis Réard, a French mechanical engineer, was running his mother's lingerie business near Les Folies Bergères in Paris. He noticed women on St. Tropez beaches were rolling up the edges of their swimsuits to get a better tan. He hired his own skywriters who flew above the French Riviera three weeks later, advertising his design as “smaller than the smallest bathing suit in the world." When Réard sought a model to wear his design at its debut presentation, none of the usual models would wear the suit, so he hired nude dancer Micheline Bernardini from the Casino de Paris to model it.

Réard's design was a string bikini with a g-string back consisting of four triangles made from only 30 square inches (194 cm²) of fabric printed with a newspaper pattern. He introduced it to the media and public in Paris on July 5, 1946 at Piscine Molitor, a public pool in Paris. Heim's design was the first to be worn on the beach, but the name given by Réard is the one that stuck.

Public reception

Modern Girl magazine sneered: "It is hardly necessary to waste words over the so-called bikini since it is inconceivable that any girl with tact and decency would ever wear such a thing." In 1949 the Los Angeles Times reported on Miss America's visit to Paris: "The bathing beauty queen—blond Bebe Shopp, 18, of Hopkins, Minneasota—got an enthusiastic welcome in Paris, but she said she hasn't changed her mind about French swim suits... 'I don't approve of Bikini suits for American girls,' Bebe told her French interviewers. 'The French girls can wear them if they want to, but I still don't approve of them on American girls.'"

The bikini was banned from future beauty contests after the first Miss World Contest in London in 1951. The swimsuit was declared sinful by the Vatican and was also banned in Belgium, Italy, Spain and Australia.

Gradual acceptance

Though a success in postwar France, Americans deemed the bikini too risqué until Hollywood stars like Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner were photographed wearing them.

Appearances in film

Brigitte Bardot popularized the bikini in early films such as Manina, the Girl in the Bikini (1952), in appearances she made at Cannes, and in many photo shoots. Bardot's appearance in a bikini in the film And God Created Woman (1957) received wide attention.

Ursula Andress as Honey Rider in Dr. No

Ursula Andress, appearing as Honey Rider in the 1962 James Bond film, Dr. No, wore a white bikini (also known as the "Dr. No bikini"). It is cited as the most famous bikini of all time and an iconic moment in cinematic and fashion history. The bikini top has narrow shoulder straps, the band is creased at the bottom of the breasts, and the cups are tied delicately in the middle. The bikini bottom features a wide, white British Army-style belt with brass buckles and fittings along with a scabbard on the left side that holds a large knife. Sales of the bikini rocketed after the film came out. Andress said that she owed her career to that white bikini, remarking, "This bikini made me into a success. As a result of starring in Dr. No as the first Bond girl, I was given the freedom to take my pick of future roles and to become financially independent." In 2001, the Dr. No bikini worn by Andress in the film sold at auction for US$61,500.

Later in the 1960s Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon made a series of Beach Party movies (Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) that depicted teenage girls wearing bikinis, frolicking in the sand with boys, and having a great time.

Raquel Welch wore a deer skin bikini in One Million Years B.C. (1966) that made her an instant pin-up girl. Welch was featured in the studio's advertising as "wearing mankind's first bikini" and the bikini was later described as a "definitive look of the 1960s". Her role wearing the leather bikini raised Welch to a beauty icon and the photo of her in the bikini became a best-selling pinup poster. One author said, "although she had only three lines in the film, her luscious figure in a fur bikini made her a star and the dream girl of millions of young moviegoers". In 2011, Time listed Welch's B.C. bikini in the "Top Ten Bikinis in Pop Culture".

In 1982, Phoebe Cates wore an iconic red bikini in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Cates dropped the top of her bikini in the film, a scene that has been described as "the most memorable bikini-drop in cinema history."

In the 1983 film Return of the Jedi, Star Wars' Princess Leia Organa was catured by Jabba the Hutt and forced to wear a metal bikini complete with shackles. The costume was made of brass and was so uncomfortable that actress Carrie Fisher described it as "what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell." The "slave Leia" look is often imitated by female fans at Star Wars conventions. In 1997, the Miss America Pageant allowed contestants for the first time to wear two-piece swimsuits.

Bikinis in media

Brian Hyland's novelty-song hit Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini became a Billboard No. 1 hit during the summer of 1960. The song tells a story about a young girl who's too shy to wear her new bikini on the beach at a time when bikinis were still considered risqué. In 1962, Playboy featured a bikini on its cover for the first time. Two years later, in 1964, Sports Illustrated editor Andre Laguerre couldn't find a story for the cover and and asked fashion reporter Jule Campbell to help find a model for the cover. She found Berlin-born fashion model Babette March and featured her on the cover wearing a white bikini wading in the surf on Cozumel, Mexico. The issue was the first Swimsuit Issue. It gave the bikini legitimacy, become an annual publication and an American pop-culture staple, and sells millions of copies each year.

Changes in design

Girls wearing mid-rise bikinis on the Pensacola, Florida beach in 1969.

Women modeling a low-rise bikini with tie sides at the 2009 Run to the Sun fashion show in Anchorage, Alaska.

Bikinis gradually became briefer and lower with narrower sides in the 1970s, and by the late 70s/early 80s very low hipster bottoms with string sides and ties became the fashion. By the 1990s however, fashions changed and high-cut bottoms and bandeau tops were in vogue. Bikinis went brief again in the early 2000s as they followed the trend for everything hipster ('low rise'). Despite the high popularity of skimpy thongs and g-strings as underwear from 1998 to 2006, thong bikinis never made it into high-street fashion. Low-rise bikinis with string and tie-sides are currently fairly standard, reminiscent of late-70's designs but not so low-cut.

By the mid-2000s, bikinis had become a $811 million business annually, according to the NPD Group, a consumer and retail information company.

Bikini variants

Main article: Bikini variants

Bikini underwear by Chloé

A bikini design today is characterized by its simple, brief design: two triangles of fabric that form a bra and cover the woman's breasts and two triangles of fabric on the bottom forming a panty cut below the navel that cover the groin in front and the buttocks in back. The amount of coverage can vary widely, from a string bikini with very little coverage to a full design with maximum coverage. A topless swimsuit may still be considered a bikini, although technically it is no longer a two-piece swimsuit.

The bikini has spawned many stylistic variations and an array of spinoff styles like the "monokini" (single, topless swimsuit), "seekini" (transparent swimsuit), "tankini" (tank top and a bikini bottom), "camikini" (camisole top and bikini bottom), "granny bikini" (bikini top and boy shorts bottom), and "hikini".

Bikini tops

There are four fundamental types of bare-midriff bikini tops: the brassière, halter, bandeau, and vest. These styles are differentiated by the number of shoulder straps and the resultant number of edges to the garment. Some of these tops include a halter-style neck strap that offers more coverage and support, a strapless bandeau, a rectangular strip of fabric covering the breasts that minimizes large breasts, a top with cups similar to a push-up bra, and the more traditional triangle cups that lift and shape the breasts.

Bikini bottoms

Bikini Science identifies 30 different types of bikini bottoms that vary in style, cut and the amount of rear coverage they offer. The coverage ranges from full, as in the case of more modest bottom pieces like briefs, shorts, or briefs with a small skirt-panel attached, to almost none (full exposure), as in the case of the thong bikini. Skimpier styles have narrow sides, including V-cut (in front), French cut (with high-cut sides) and low-cut string (with string sides). In just one major fashion show in 1985 were two-piece suits with cropped tank tops instead of the usual skimpy bandeaux, suits that are bikinis in front and one-piece in back, suspender straps, ruffles, and daring, navel-baring cutouts. Subsequent variations on the theme include the monokini, tankini, string bikini, thong, slingshot, minimini, teardrop, and microkini.

Bikini underwear

Types of underwear worn by both men and women are identified as bikini underwear, similar in size and revealing nature to the bottom half of a bikini bathing suit. For women, bikini underwear can refer to virtually any tight, skimpy, or revealing undergarment that provides less coverage to the midsection than traditional underwear, panties or knickers. For men, a bikini is a type of undergarment that is smaller and more revealing than men's briefs.

Materials

The fabrics and other materials used to make bikinis are an essential element of their style and crucial modifiers of swimsuit design. Bikinis have been made out of just about every material known. The use of cotton made the swimsuit more practical, and the increased reliance on stretch fabric after 1960 simplified construction; alternative swimwear fabrics such as velvet, leather, and crocheted squares surfaced in the early '70s.

Bikinis in athletics

Sina Schielke (192) and others after the 100m race at the 2006 Internationales Stadionfest athletics meet

There is evidence of ancient Roman women playing Expulsim Ludere, an early version of handball, wearing bikini-type garments.

Modern women competing in athletic events often wear bikinis. Female athletes who play professional beach volleyball usually wear bikinis. Amy Acuff, a US high-jumper, wore a black leather bikini instead of a track suit, at Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics. Runner Florence Griffith-Joyner mixed bikini bottoms with one-legged tights in Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics, which earned her more attention than her record-breaking performance in the Women's 200 meters.

Beach volleyball

In 1994, the bikini became the official uniform of women's Olympic beach volleyball, sparking controversy, with some sports officials considering it exploitative and unpractical in colder weather, and athletes admitting that the regulation uniform is intended to be "sexy" and to draw attention. The sex appeal of bikinis worn by women players as much as the women's athletic ability made beach volleyball the fifth largest television audience of all the sports at the Games at Bondi Beach in Australia in 2000 Olympics. The popularity of Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball, a video game for Xbox, was attributed to the scantily clad women.

Men's bikini

Men's bikini worn by bodybuilding competitor

The term men's bikini is used to describe types of men's swimsuits, men's underwear, or similar garments. Men's bikinis can have both high or low side panels, string sides or tie sides, and most lack a button or flap front. Unlike swim briefs, bikinis are not designed specifically for drag reduction and many do not have a visible waistband like swim briefs. Suits less than 1.5 inches wide at the hips are less common for sporting purposes and are most often worn for recreation, fashion, and sun tanning. An example of this style, known as the posing brief, is the standard for competitions in the sport of bodybuilding. Male punk rock musicians have performed on the stage wearing women's bikini briefs. The 2000 Bollywood film Hera Pheri shows men sunbathing in bikinis, who were mistakenly believed to be girls from a distance by the protagonist.

Swimsuits shown in men's wear collections by Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana or Paul Smith have tended to be black and snug fitting, throwbacks to the designs of the 1930s and '40s, while Gianni Versace's ads with their heroic depictions of Miami bathers in contrast to popular, sports-inspired beach wear—bright and baggy Bermudas or boxer shorts. The Greek designer Nikos Apostolopoulos put a different spin on his bathing suits (for both sexes, but with the focus on the male), making them anatomical creations, cut and stitched to outline the body and its sexual characteristics. Bikini tops for men are seen as an amusement factor.

A mankini is not a form of a bikini, despite its name. It is a type of sling swimsuit worn by men. It was popularized by Sacha Baron Cohen when he donned one in the film Borat.

Legal and social issues

Different cultures have varying opinions and values, including formal and informal dress codes, that influence when a girl or woman can or should wear a bikini. In Dubai during 2010, a British woman was visiting The Dubai Mall, fully dressed but wearing a low-cut top, when she was accosted by an Arabic woman who criticized her for wearing 'revealing clothing'. In anger, the British woman took off her clothes to reveal a bikini underneath and wore it through the five-star shopping mall. Dubai is a conservative Muslim country. Security guards at the mall detained the woman and called police who arrested the woman, charging her with public indecency. The charges were later dismissed.

In the Philippines, a picture of two female college students was posted by a friend on Facebook. The girls were wearing bikinis and one of them was also holding a bottle of liquor and a cigarette. St. Theresa's College in Cebu barred the students from attending their graduation ceremony. They cited a rule in the student handbook that bar students from posting photos that display "ample body exposure." The students filed suit complaining that had not been given due process and their freedom of expression had been violated. They won a temporary stay in a regional court.

In June 2013, the British watchdog agency Advertising Standards Authority banned a commercial starring Pamela Anderson from the air after four viewers complained of offensive content. In the ad, Pamela and another woman are shown in business suits displaying a lot of cleavage, and then in a fantasy sequence, Anderson and her co-worker are wearing gold bikinis while writhing and splashing cream over each other. The watchdog agency agreed that the depiction of the women was "intended as a parody," but said it portrayed female workers as "sexual objects to be lusted after" and "was likely to cause serious offense to some viewers on the basis that it was sexist and degrading to women."

There is some controversy over what age is appropriate to both begin and stop wearing a bikini. In June 2013, actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who also is interested in fashion, produced a bikini for her clothing line that is designed to be worn by girls 4 to 8 years old. She was criticized for sexualizing young children by Claude Knight of Kidscape, a British foundation that strives to prevent child abuse. He commented, “We remain very opposed to the sexualisation of children and of childhood.... is a great pity that such trends continue and that they carry celebrity endorsement.”

More Magazine conducted a survey that asked if women should stop wearing certain kinds of fashion, including bikinis. A majority of those responded agreed that "is she's got it, rock on.", at a certain age. The largest number of respondents felt that a woman should not wear a bikini after age 47. The Today Show conducted a similar online survey on May 13, 2011 asking if women over the age of 47 should stop wearing bikinis.

Four women were arrested over the 2013 Memorial Day weekend in Myrtle Beach, North Carolina for indecent exposure when they wore thong bikinis that exposed their buttocks.

In Atlanta, Georgia, a school administrator used a photo of a 17 year old student in a bikini without her permission to make a point during a school presentation to parents and students about the danger of social media. Chelsea Chaney, who was currently attending the school, had posted the relatively tame photo of her on vacation on her Facebook page, believing that it would only be visible to friends. The school's director of technology copied the photo from the girl's Facebook account and included her real name. He captioned the photo for his presentation, “Once it’s there, it’s there to stay.” He was emphasizing that personally embarrassing photos that students post online can negatively affect them later in life. The family sued the Fayette County School District asking for $2 million for its unauthorized use of the picture as well as defamation and violation of her right to privacy. The suit alleges that the district violated federal law, state law and Chaney’s constitutional rights. The Cheney family said that the district presentation suggested that "Chelsea is a promiscuous, abuser of alcohol."

In Leesburg, Florida, an ad featuring a woman in a bikini provoked a shouting match between a resident and a city commissioner who felt the ad was too racy and would be confused with a scholarship pageant.

In Yaphank, Long Island, Robin Corrente suffered a second degree burn when she wore an old swimsuit that contained underwire in the bra cups. She sued the manufacturer, Fire Island swimsuit, Swimwear Anywhere, in New York Supreme Court.

Issues in athletics

Xue Chen (China, left) and Vita Nel (South Africa, right) in Pool D of women's Beach Volleyball, 2008 Summer Olympics

Skimpy bikinis have become a major component of marketing various women's sports, raising some objections. As noted above, in 1994, the bikini became the official uniform of women's Olympic beach volleyball, sparking controversy, with some sports officials considering it exploitative and unpractical in colder weather, and athletes admitting that the regulation uniform is intended to be "sexy" and to draw attention. In 1999, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) standardized beach volleyball uniforms, with the swimsuit becoming the required uniform both for men and women. This drew the ire of some athletes.

According to FIVB rules, female beach volleyball players have the option of playing in shorts or a one-piece swimsuit. Most players, however, prefer the two-piece bikini. Competitors such as Natalie Cook and Holly McPeak agree with the FIVB's statements that the uniforms are practical for a sport played on sand during the heat of summer, but British Olympian Denise Johns argues that the regulation uniform is intended to be "sexy" and to draw attention. During the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games bikini-clad athletes drew some criticism

During the 2004 Olympics, an exotic dance team from the Canary Islands entertained fans but drew some criticism from female competitors. During breaks in between points and matches, the group, wearing bikinis, raced on to the sand and danced to techno-pop music.Australian athelete Nicole Sanderson commented, "It's kind of disrespectful to the female players. I'm sure the male spectators love it, but I find it a little bit offensive."

Kimberly Bissell conducted a study on the camera angles used during the 2004 Summer Olympic Games beach volleyball games. Bissell found that 20% of the camera angles were focused on the women's chest and 17% were focused on their buttocks. Bissell theorized that the appearance of the players draws fans attention more than their actual athleticism.

Some countries with predominately conservative cultures have expressed moral objections to requiring the swimsuit as a uniform. At the 2006 Asian Games at Doha, Qatar, only one Muslim country fielded a team in the beach volleyball competition because of concerns that the uniform was inappropriate. The Iraqi team refused to wear bikinis.

In the 2007 South Pacific Games, the rules were adjusted to allow players to wear less revealing shorts and cropped sports tops instead of bikinis. At the West Asian Games in 2006, organizers banned bikini-bottoms for female athletes and asked them to wear long shorts. In 2007, fans voted for contestants in the WWE Diva contest after watching them playing beach volleyball in skimpy bikinis.

In early 2012, the International Volleyball Federation announced it will allow shorts (maximum length 3 cm (1.2 in) above the knee) and sleeved tops at the London 2012 Olympics. Richard Baker, the federation spokesperson, said that "many of these countries have religious and cultural requirements so the uniform needed to be more flexible". At the time of the event, the weather at the evening games in London during 2012 was so cold that the players sometimes had to wear shirts and leggings. String bikinis and other skimpy clothes are also common in surfing. During the Ocean Pacific Pro Surfing Championships in 1983 and in 1986 at Huntington Beach, a disturbance broke out when men tried to pull the bikinis off of women on the beach and at a bikini competition.

Cultural controversies

In 1996, when the Miss World contest was held in Bangalore, India, dozens of Indian groups who opposed the event claimed that the contest degraded women by featuring them in bikinis. Social activist Subhashini Ali commented, "It's not an IQ test. Neither is it a charity show. It's a beauty contest in which these things have been added on as sops." The protests were so intense that the organizers were finally compelled to shift the venue of the "Swimsuit Round" to Seychelles.

Vida Samadzai an Afghani contestant for the Miss Earth title in 2003, was severely condemned by the both the Afghan authority and community. Samadzai was born in Afghanistan but raised in the United States. She was living in India at the time of the contest. The Afghan Supreme Court banned swimsuit contests and said that appearing naked in beauty contests is completely un-Islamic, and is against Afghan tradition, human honour and dignity. Habiba Sarabi, the Afghan women affairs minister, said Samadzai's semi-naked appearance "is not women's freedom but in my opinion is to entertain men". Afghanistan's embassy in Washington DC declared that claims by Afghan American Samadzai to represent Afghanistan is baseless. Samadzai, the second woman to be crowned Miss Afghanistan after Zohra Daoud's crowning in 1972, received a number of death threats and had to be under the protection of FBI for three months. She said she was a bit uncomfortable wearing the skimpy "70s style red bikini", and was aware of the risks involved.

In April 2004, responding to protests by followers of Buddhism, Victoria's Secret withdrew a bikini design that featured images of Buddha. Buddhists were again upset in 2005, when organizers of Miss Universe photographed bikini-clad contestants in front of Buddhist religious sites in Thailand. In May 2011, Barcelona, Spain made it illegal to wear bikinis in public except in areas near the beaches. Violators face fines of between 120 and 300 euros.

Bikini-related wardrobe malfunctions including wedgies, whale tails or bikini tops falling off have also stirred controversies.

Bikini Island culture

While the bikini was named for the Bikini Atoll, the bikini's design ironically violates traditional female modesty customs of Bikini Atoll islanders and Marshallese culture because it exposes the woman's thighs and shoulders. Traditional Marshallese modesty does not apply the social stigma common in much of Western society to bare breasts, which the bikini does cover. In modern Marshallese society, it is generally fashionable for women to wear cotton muʻumuʻus or similar clothing that covers most of the body. Wearing a bikini in the Marshall Islands is mainly limited to restricted-access beaches and pools like those at private resorts or on United States government facilities, like those on the Kwajalein Atoll within the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.

Health issues

Wearing a bikini exposes large amounts of skin to potentially dangerous UVB light. Overexposure to UVB radiation can cause sunburn and some forms of skin cancer, among other harmful effects. In humans, prolonged exposure to solar UV radiation may result in acute and chronic health effects on the skin, eye, and immune system. Moreover, UVC radiation can cause adverse effects that can be mutagenic or carcinogenic. On April 13, 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization classified all categories and wavelengths of ultraviolet radiation as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning there is enough evidence to conclude that it can cause cancer in humans.

As a result, medical organizations recommend that bikini-wearers protect themselves from UV radiation by using sunscreen, which contain ingredients that have been shown to protect mice against skin tumors. However, some sunscreen chemicals produce potentially harmful substances if they are illuminated while in contact with living cells, and the quantity of sunscreen that penetrates the skin may be sufficient to cause damage.

People who wax or shave their bikini areas also face the risk of folliculitis, an infection around the hair follicle. Some of these infections can develop into more serious abscesses that require incision with a scalpel, drainage of the abscess, and antibiotics. Staphylococcus aureus is the most common cause of folliculitis. Family physician Emily Gibson, M.D. expresses the view that shaving pubic hair "removes a cushion against friction, leaves microscopic open wounds and exposes you to infections".

A study originating in Nice, France, also found an association between pubic hair removal and an increased risk of sexually transmitted Molluscum contagiosum, a skin virus causing raised bumps or growths.

Body image issues

In the 1960s Emily Post decreed, "(A bikini) is for perfect figures only, and for the very young." In The Bikini Book by Kelly Killoren Bensimon, responding to a question on who should not wear a bikini, swimwear designer Norma Kamali says, "Anyone with a tummy." Since then, a number of bikini designers including Malia Mills have encouraged women of all ages and body types to take up the style. The 1970s saw the rise of the lean ideal of female body and figures like Cheryl Tiegs, who possessed the figure that remains in vogue today. The fitness boom of the 1980s led to one of the biggest leaps in the evolution of the bikini. According to Mills, "The leg line became superhigh, the front was superlow, and the straps were superthin." Women's magazines used terms like "Bikini Belly", workout programs were launched to develop a "bikini-worthy body", while the tiny "fitness-bikinis" made of lycra were launched to cater to the hardbodied ideal. The ideal was carried further by models like Elle Macpherson, featured six times on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 1993, Suzy Menkes, then Fashion Editor of the International Herald Tribune, suggested that women had begun to "revolt" against the "body ideal" and bikini "exposure." She wrote:

So exposure has become an issue. It is as if the sexy stretch outfits, the bras, corsets and carelessly revealed flesh of the 1980's reached a flood tide that is now on the ebb. Faced with the sexpot supermodels and the cult of body consciousness, women have begun to stage a silent revolt, offering passive resistance to the concept that if you've got it, you have to flaunt it. Significantly, on the beaches as on the streets, some of the youngest and prettiest women (who were once the only ones who dared to bare) seem to have decided that exposure is over.

Nevertheless, professional beach volleyball player Gabrielle Reece, who competes in a bikini, claims that "confidence" alone can make a bikini sexy.

See also

• Bikini in popular culture Template:Nb10
• Bikini variants
• Bikini waxing

• Mankini
• Swimsuit
• Swimsuit competition

References

Notes

Citations

External links

• Bikini Science: A comprehensive site on the bikini
• Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition—The Bikini