France once championed the liberation of women’s bodies. The first catwalk in which a woman’s navel was shown was in the Molitor swimming pool, in 1946, where a tiny two-piece swimsuit was presented. It was a scandal. No model wanted to wear it and the designer Louis Réard had to hire a stripper who was not shy about her comments and said that showing the woman’s body in this way was like dropping an atomic bomb on Bikini Atoll, where nuclear tests were scheduled. .
He was right. The garment did not catch on immediately and caused a reaction from Catholic countries that banned it. The navel generated a reaction similar to the nipples of today.
Brigitte Bardot’s bare breasts in the 1960s and 1970s encouraged many French and European women to wear bikinis or even remove their tops and reveal their bare chests. It was the time of free love and female empowerment. Of the uncomplexed body on beaches, swimming pools, parks.
But going topless no longer has the symbolic meaning it once did when some women saw it as a way to remind men that their bodies and sexuality belonged to them. If in the eighties, 43% of French women under 50 showed their breasts, today only 16% do so.
The survey by the French public institute IFOP published two years ago, 2021, reveals that, globally, only four out of ten French women have ever sunbathed topless in a place exposed to the gaze of strangers, and only 12% have done so. in the last three years.
Those who answer in the affirmative also hold their bodies in great esteem, and consider that their breasts correspond to the dominant beauty canons. Or they have a higher social and cultural level than the rest, with a higher proportion of women at the managerial level. For the study, this has to do with vacation destinations.
The more affluent women sunbathe in places far from urban and crowded beaches, more frequented by working girls, and they can reach deserted and exotic beaches.
In fact, topless bathers on crowded public beaches reach 19% (less than in 2019) while on deserted beaches it is 33%. Not all expose their breasts equally. 37% have done it lying on their stomachs, 28% on their backs and only 17% in both positions.
The main reason given by all French women for covering themselves is related to health (53% cite the risk to their skin), but young women under 25 explain it mainly in terms of security and social pressure. Specifically, half fear being leered by men, getting close, assaulted or being an easy target for exploited photographers.
Regarding the appreciation of her body, one in two prefers not to risk hearing derogatory comments. Although the breasts are not the part that worries the most (25% compared to the belly, 35%), it is revealed that women whose bodies conform to current beauty canons show themselves more than the rest. And, specifically, those who are “very satisfied” with their breasts (18%) or who have breast implants (33%). And more those who wear C cup bras than those who wear A, B, D or E.
