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Today is international ‘bikini day’. However, nowadays you shouldn’t really talk about being ‘bikini proof’ anymore.
International Bikini Day
Today is international bikini day. The day on which we celebrate the invention of the bikini by Frenchman Louis Reard in 1946.
The bikini was named after Bikini Atoll, an island where the American army conducted nuclear tests. What does that have to do with a bikini? When Reard developed the bikini, he built on the work that a competitor had introduced shortly before. Fellow countryman Jacques Heim had designed a two-piece swimsuit that he called “the world’s smallest swimsuit.” He named it after the ‘atom’ because the fabric was so small. According to today’s standards, that fabric wasn’t particularly small at the time. The bottom just managed to cover the navel.
Louis Reard thought he could do better than his countryman and shortly thereafter developed the ‘string bikini’ consisting of four triangles. He introduced this four days after the first test of an atomic bomb on Bikini Atoll. The bikini also made a big impact and newspapers wrote extensively about it. “The navel is not covered. Imagine!” . “A real Bikini should be able to pass through a wedding ring,” Reard’s slogan read. The new garment was so daring that his usual models didn’t want to wear it. Eventually, he managed to find a nude model for it (who would be rewarded with fan mail from thousands of men).
On the post-war European beaches, the revealing garment quickly became popular. The prudish Americans needed about 20 more years to come around.
Bikini Proof
The bikini is loved and hated. It can be the garment to show off what Mother Nature has given you. Or, of course, what you’ve achieved in the gym and kitchen. With that, it can also be a major source of irritation and stress for many. Those two pieces of fabric that hardly hide or correct anything.
Perhaps it’s not surprising then that we received a negative reaction when we shared an old article on Facebook a while ago. “Ten last-minute tips to become bikini-proof.” Such an article that you, as a fitness blog, should actually write or share every spring, just like about New Year’s resolutions. However, the criticism was not about the content. The tips given by colleague Mart were based on the basics of weight loss, supplemented with a few handy tips. Not the usual “Get ripped in ten days.” So the criticism mainly concerned the fact that in this day and age, we dared to share an article with tips to become
bikini-proof.
Seriously? Aren’t we past this ‘bikini-proof’ nonsense by now? Every body is a bikini body.
My instinctive reaction was: “Let’s agree to disagree. To each their own.” But of course, I couldn’t say that because that would rub more people the wrong way. So I first did the ‘what-would-Oprah-say test’ and then decided not to say anything. I also understand where this reader’s thought came from.
Bikini Shaming
In 2016, a company selling protein shakes advertised massively in London’s public transport.
“Are you Beach Body Ready?” was the slogan with a photo of a model, in a bikini of course. The ad was banned by the Mayor of London after many complaints and a real demonstration. He wanted to protect women, like his daughters, from this kind of imagery that could make them ashamed of their own bodies.
Because we don’t only write about fitness, but also about health in general, we have paid a lot of attention here to the possible consequences of
fat shaming. But we remain a fitness blog and we sometimes see the banning of fat shaming end in fit shaming. Sometimes I’m afraid we’re going a bit too far. Like when we start underestimating our own weight because we’re increasingly presented with heavier body types as examples.
It’s the old debate again: Do you set the bar (too) high, making it unattainable for many and leading to stress, insecurity, and unhappiness? Or do you set the bar too low, removing any motivation to work towards a healthy weight? After all, you don’t have to be a ripped swimsuit model to evoke disgust. Even a less tight, but healthy body, can make people with overweight feel uncomfortable. So where do you set the bar?
I understand that such an advertisement in a public space confronts people with a beauty ideal they may not desire. But as a fitness blog, it would be strange if we didn’t concern ourselves with a beautiful figure as a goal. I’m not saying this should be your goal and I’m not trying to define ‘a beautiful figure’ for someone else. The hundreds of thousands of people who read our articles every month suggest that having a goal for your body is still very normal.
Bikini Fitness
As a fitness photographer, however, I’m happy to see that there are still many women who see nothing wrong with wanting to be
bikini proof. There are even more every year who elevate this to a sport and participate in bikini fitness competitions. Those are the real villains in the eyes of any self-respecting fat acceptor. These women train and diet so hard that on competition day they set the bar so high that even for themselves it would be too high on any other day. An unnaturally low percentage of body fat and muscle mass that provides shape in the right places. Now that it has recently been shown that half of adult Netherlands is overweight, you can imagine how much insecurity these ladies will cause.
As a blogger, I have to take into account the delicate souls and insecure minds. As a fitness photographer, I couldn’t care less. This summer, I have already done several shoots on the beach with models who were all
bikini proof. How dare they?!
