In the history of the bikini, there are bikinis of all sizes and colors, textures and materials, but, without a doubt, it is and will continue to be a garment that causes a stir.
On a day like today, but in 1946, the bikini came into the world. A garment that not only innovated women's clothing, but also became a symbol of revolution in body expression and sexual liberation that continues to cause a stir in the 21st century.
While it is true that the two-piece garment that becomes popular every summer is part of many women's wardrobes, it would be contradictory to think that a garment, a symbol of female sexual liberation, was designed by a man.
The history of the bikini dates back to the post-war era when a French automobile engineer named Louis Reard designed a swimsuit for women that broke with the standards of heavy fabrics that covered much of the female body when on vacation by the pool or on the beach.
At that time, no woman accepted the challenge of showing her body in the controversial but now famous swimsuit divided into three triangles of fabric. However, on July 5, 1946, stripper Micheline Bernardini agreed to pose in the garment at the iconic Molitor Pool in Paris, France.
However, the acceptance of the garment turned out to be nothing less than a bombshell for the conservative sector, which exploded on the same magnitude as the one that exploded after the war on Bikini Island, from which the swimsuit acquired its name.
The powerful swimsuit had an impact in various parts of Europe, reaching Spain, where General Francisco Franco censored the use of this garment on Spanish beaches in 1951, as he considered it immoral for a woman to expose her navel.
This garment was not accepted as completely natural until renowned actresses such as French actress Brigitte Bardot in Willy Rozier's "The Girl in the Bikini" (1952), who made the bikini an attribute of women, or in the Golden Age of Hollywood with Marilyn Monroe, as well as Ava Gardner and Rachel Welch who popularized this garment.
Nowadays, the exposed female body in a bikini within politics is as scandalous as it was with politics Ségolène Royal, socialist candidate for the presidency of the French Republic who in 2006 competed with the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, and she walked along the beaches at the age of 53 in a bikini, being considered unserious.
Although the acceptance of the bikini garment is currently normalized, it is not the same with the female body.
Currently, campaigns that seek to destigmatize the rigid beauty standards that have been created around the bikini, such as opinions on women's weight and physical appearance, have become popular in advertising campaigns that seek to democratize the garment.
The popular protein ad phrase that in 2016 caused anger among London society “Are you beach body ready?” for showing advertisements on the subway with extremely thin bodies in women and muscular bodies in men.
So, at the time, London Mayor Sadiq Khan pledged during his election campaign to ban ads that pressured people to meet beauty standards that undermined their health.
In response, society popularized the phrase: What does it take to wear a bikini? Generating a response that continues to be controversial: "Easy, have a body and wear a bikini."
In 2022, there are still women who still cannot wear a bikini, either due to sexism, social pressure, religion, or perhaps because women today experience more pressure regarding the decisions they make about their bodies.
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