Many women spend the worst moments of their lives in the fitting room when choosing a bathing suit. Sometimes it seems that this thing was created in order to cause complexes.
And if not complexes, then a change in how others perceive you, for sure. In one experiment, subjects were presented with a photograph of a girl. Half of the participants saw only her face, the other half saw her face and upper body in a swimsuit. Looking at naked flesh was enough to judge the model as a person in need of pleasure (and not as a moral person, which the first group considered her to be).
In another experiment, men looked at pictures of girls in bikinis. And in their brain, the area that is responsible for the use of things, and not for dialogue with a person, was activated. In other words, a swimsuit objectifies a woman, turning her into a way to satisfy sexual desires. Apparently, unknowingly feeling this, you feel embarrassed when chatting on the beach with a dressed man.
And yet another study showed that a swimsuit negatively affects self-esteem: before the bathing season, women are more dissatisfied with their bodies than in other months of the year. True, the swimsuit has become so revealing quite recently - a little over 50 years ago.
The emergence of clothing for water treatments
Since the beginning of the 18th century, bathing has developed into a healthy procedure. But to get it, women had to overcome many difficulties. They could not afford to enter the water and not ruin their reputation. To prevent outsiders from seeing a lady from high society swimming, special bathing houses were invented.
The booth was brought into the sea or lake, the woman changed into long clothes (to the edges of which weights were attached so that the hem did not rise to the surface of the water) and went down the ladder to wander in the water.
The situation did not change dramatically until the beginning of the 20th century: women wore dresses and pantaloons, which were shortened over time, but still did not show too much body. It is worth noting that on separate beaches, women swam in full uniform anyway, while men swam naked.
The first changes in beach fashion
Perhaps we would have continued to swim in bag dresses or tights, if not for the brave woman Annette Kellerman. She was a swimmer, participated in a show and came up with a tight one-piece swimsuit. In 1907 she was arrested in it for obscenity. But this did not stop Annette - she continued to fight for the rights of women to swim in comfortable clothes.
The breakthrough happened in the 1920s. Women started coming to the beach wearing clothes that opened their hips! True, modesty still remained a priority: special "moral units" made sure that the hem of the clothes was no higher than 15 cm from the knee. And in order to completely preserve chastity, small aprons were sewn in front, which covered the intimate area.
The swimsuit, as we know it, appeared in the 30s of the last century. If you wear a model from that time, you are unlikely to cause shock and panic on the beach. In the 1940s, Hollywood often made films about synchronized swimmers. To visually narrow their figure, the swimwear was turned into a corset. In this form, it remained popular for two decades.
Maximum openness
The bikinis were created in 1946 (to present them to the public, the inventor Louis Rear, according to rumors, had to hire a stripper because professional models refused). Bikinis began to be worn only in the 60s - and then thanks to two events.
First, Brigitte Bardot wore them. Secondly, they were literally sung by Brian Hyland in a funny song about a girl who was embarrassed by wearing a miniature yellow swimsuit with polka dots. And although in the finale the singer argued that the heroine of his song would hardly wear this thing a second time, the opposite effect was achieved: everyone wanted a bikini!
A little later, the scandalous monokini appeared - an option that opens the chest. Although you could see elderly German women sunbathing topless on the beaches, the model has not gained popularity either in the daring 70s or now. The next stage in the evolution of this garment was the 80s with their cult of the athletic body.
Surely you recall with horror the huge cutouts for the legs, which almost reached the waist. Such swimsuits went only to some supermodels and heroines of the movie "Rescuers Malibu", so they quickly left the coastal areas and TV screens.
Since then, a compromise has been reached in the world of swimwear: all options are possible, including the Muslim burkini, which leaves only the hands, feet and a small window for the face open.
In the wake of body positivity, modern women are less and less ashamed of their bodies and, perhaps, will soon stop preparing to go to the beach as a test, before which you need to work hard in the gym.
