Bikini in popular culture

The modern bikini first appeared in 1946, and since then it has become a part of popular culture. It is one of the most widely worn women's swimsuits, used for swimming and in a variety of other contexts. Today, bikinis appear in competitions, films, magazines, music, literature, and video games. Despite the availability of more revealing glamour wear, bikini modeling remains popular and can still create controversy. Portrayals of the bikini in popular culture led, to a large extent, to its acceptance by Western society at large. In 1960, Brian Hyland's pop song " Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" inspired a bikini-buying spree. The white bikini worn by Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder in the 1962 James Bond film '' Dr. No'' has been cited as one of the most famous bikinis of all time. By 1963, the movie ''Beach Party'', starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, led a wave of films that made the bikini a pop-culture symbol. ''Playboy'' first featured a bikini on its cover in 1962. The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue debuted two years later. This increasing popularity was reinforced by its appearance in such contemporary films as ''How to Stuff a Wild Bikini'' featuring Annette Funicello and ''One Million Years B.C.'' (1966) featuring Raquel Welch.James Kitchling
Short History of Bikinis and Swimsuits
, 3X24 News Magazine Raquel Welch's fur bikini in ''One Million Years B.C.'' became a famous moment in cinema history. Hollywood stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Gina Lollobrigida and Jane Russell further helped the growing popularity of bikinis. Pin up posters of Monroe and Mansfield, as well as Hayworth, Bardot and Raquel Welch distributed around the world contributed significantly to the popularity of the bikini.Lorna Edwards,
You've still got it, babe
''The Age'', June 3, 2006

Bikini contests

Bikini contests are a form of adult entertainment where women compete against each other in bikinis as beauty contests. They can take place in bars, nightclubs, strip clubs, on beaches, and at beauty pageants, as well as during intermissions of boxing or wrestling matches, and at car shows. Bodybuilding competitions may also feature bikini contest segments. It is becoming more common for women to wear bikinis at swimsuit competitions. Bikini contests can also take place over the Internet by women submitting pictures of themselves in bikinis.

Bikini contests may be organised or sponsored by related companies for marketing purposes or to try to find and attract new talent to promote their products. Miss Hawaiian Tropic is organized by Playtex to promote "Hawaiian Tropic", its suntan lotion. NOPI runs the annual "Hot Import Nights" bikini contest, which is held in conjunction with the import car-show in Atlanta, Georgia, and the annual Hooters bikini competition.

Some contestants in bikini contests undergo plastic surgery for breast and lip augmentations. Bikini contests can still generate controversy in some parts of the world. When Mariyah Moten competed in the Miss Bikini of the Universe pageant in Beihai, China in 2006, she was the first Pakistani girl to participate in a bikini pageant, creating outrage in her home country. She also became the most photographed participant of the contest and won the Best in Media/Miss Press title. A year later she was 2nd Runner-up in the Miss Asia International contest and Miss Asia World, and was featured on the cover of ''Sexy South Asian Girls'' 2007 calendar.

Bikini in major beauty pageants

Miss World

Origin

In 1951, the first Miss World contest, originally the '' Festival Bikini Contest'', was organized by Eric Morley as a mid-century advertisement for swimwear at the Festival of Britain. The press welcomed the spectacle and referred to it as ''Miss World'', and Morley registered the name as a trademark.Keith Lovegrove, ''Pageant: The Beauty Contest'', page 1967, teNeues, 2002, When the winner Kiki Håkansson from Sweden was crowned in a bikini, countries with religious traditions threatened to withdraw delegates. Håkansson remains the first and last Miss World to be crowned in her bikini, a crowning that was condemned by Pope Pius XII who declared the swimsuit to be sinful.Various, ''Selvedge: The Fabric of Your Life'', page 39, Selvedge Ltd., 2005 Bikinis were outlawed from the pageant and evening gowns introduced instead.Han Shin, ''Beauty with a Purpose'', page 193, iUniverse, 2004, After the controversy, bikinis were banned from other beauty pageants around the world as well.

Controversy

Bikinis reappeared in later contests amid additional controversy. In the 1970s and 1980s the contest was regularly picketed by feminist protesters, who distributed flyers against the indecency of the contest. The pageant disappeared for a while and 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. Countering these claims, the contest organizer says that the organization has raised £300 million for charity in many of the countries where it operates since 2000. Feminist groups published fliers against bikinis in the contest in 1970.

In 2013, the Miss World event is to be hosted by Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country. The country's top Muslim clerical body, the Indonesian Ulema Council, suggested that the event should be cancelled because it promotes "hedonism, materialism, and consumerism", and is nothing but "an excuse to show women's body parts that should remain covered." The organizers later announced that the bikini would be replaced by one-piece swimsuits and even sarongs, traditional beachwear on the resort island of Bali. Critics accuse the Miss World organizers of caving to extremist pressures. They point out that Bali is a destination for tourists from across the world who often wear minimal swimwear.

Miss Earth

Vida Samadzai was the 2003 Afghani contestant for the Miss Earth title. She was severely condemned by both the Afghan authorities and community for seeking the title.Gersh Kuntzman,
Beauty is a Beast
, ''Newsweek'', November 3, 2003 Samadzai was born in Afghanistan but raised in the United States. She was living in India at the time of the contest.Ayesha Matthan,

, ''The Hindu'', December 18, 2007 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 of the event "appearing naked before a camera or television 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 "70s style red bikini" and was aware of the risks involved. Curiously, when Samdzai's compatriot Zallascht Sadat won the crown of Miss Deutschland 2010, which she kept through 2011 because the contest was not held that year, wearing a bikini, before going on to become Miss Globe 2012, there was not much controversy.

Miss America

Era of one-piece swimsuits

Miss America began as a swimsuit competition between eight contestants in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1921 as National Beauty Pageant Tournament, bikinis were dropped from its list of acceptable swimwear in 1947. After the bikini is introduced in Paris in 1946, Miss America contestants are issued identical two-piece swimsuits that clearly show their midriff. The following year, the two-piece swimsuits are replaced with identical cable-knit swimsuits. The pageant grew to include formalwear and talent and its popularity increased.Roger Chapman, ''Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices'', pages 38–39, M.E. Sharpe, 2010, Swimsuits issued by the pageant were nicknamed "bulletproof vests". Two of the 17 swimsuit finalists wore two-piece swimsuits, and Erika Kauffman, representing Hawaii, wore the briefest bikini of all and won the swimsuit competition. In 1949 the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported that Miss America BeBe Shopp on her visit to Paris said she did not approve the bikini for American girls, though she did not mind French girls wearing them. Feminist protesters protested against that swimsuit in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1994 Miss America Organization asked viewers to vote to decide whether to keep the swimsuit round. Viewers overwhelmingly voted to keep it.

Era of the bikini

In 1997, 51 years after the bikini's debut, and 77 years after the Miss America Pageant was founded, the 51 contestants in the contest were, for the first time, allowed to pick their own swimsuits. On September 9, 1997, Miss Maryland Jamie Fox became the first contestant in 50 years to compete in a two-piece swimsuit during the Preliminary Swimsuit Competition at the Miss America Pageant.

Various major pageants

Movies

Beach party films

Beach Party films were an American 1960s genre of feature films which often starred Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. Walt Disney reluctantly consented to Funicello, a former main cast member of The Mickey Mouse Club, wearing a bikini. The series was originally intended as a low-budget imitation of both the Elvis Presley musical and the Doris Day sex comedy, aimed at the teen market, but they ended up taking on a life of their own. The "classic" series was produced by American International Pictures (AIP), and imitated in turn by numerous other studios. AIP produced a series of seven beach films:''Beach Party'' (1963), '' Muscle Beach Party'' (1963), ''Bikini Beach'' (1964), '' Pajama Party'' (1964), '' Beach Blanket Bingo'' (1965), ''How to Stuff a Wild Bikini'' (1965), and ''The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini'' (1966).

The 1965 AIP film ''Ski Party'' (with Dwayne Hickman, Yvonne Craig, Lesley Gore and James Brown) employed many of the same actors and schticks, only transplanted to a ski resort in the Sawtooth National Forest. Susan Hart, wife of AIP co-founder James H. Nicholson, was in ''The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini'' and ''Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine'' as well as two non-AIP beach films, '' For Those Who Think Young'' and ''Ride the Wild Surf''.

The 1996 movie ''That Thing You Do!'' touches briefly on the phenomenon, with the Wonders making an appearance in a fictional beach party movie, ''Weekend at Party Pier''. A 2001 episode of ''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch'' ("Beach Blanket Bizarro") also paid homage to the series, with Avalon appearing as himself. Avalon and Funicello starred in Paramount Pictures ''Back to the Beach'' in 1987, playing off their original roles and subsequent careers. Kelly Killoren Bensimon wrote in '' The Bikini Book'', "It was really all about Annette Funicello. If the girl next door wanted to wear a bikini, then everybody wanted to wear a bikini. We didn't want to be a bad Bond girl. We all really wanted to be the good girl." However, when Annette Funicello was cast in her first beach movie ''Beach Party'' (1963), Walt Disney, who held her contract, insisted that she only wear modest bathing suits and keep her navel covered, to preserve her wholesome persona, though she was the only one of the ample number of young women in the film not showing her navel.

Film bikinis

In 1962, Bond girl Ursula Andress emerged from the sea wearing a white bikini in '' Dr. No''. The ''Dr. No'' bikini scene has been quoted as one of the most memorable scenes from the British spy film series. That white bikini has been described as a "defining moment in the sixties liberalization of screen eroticism". It is regarded as one of the most important bikinis in history as sales of the two piece bikini rocketed after the appearance of Andress in ''Dr. No''. Channel 4 declared it the top bikini moment in film history,100 Greatest Sexy Moments (in film)
Channel 4 Virgin Media puts it ninth in its top ten, and top in the Bond girls. ''The Herald'' (Glasgow) put the scene as best ever on the basis of a poll. British Broadcasting Corporation observed, "So iconic was the look that it was repeated 40 years later by Halle Berry in the Bond movie ''Die Another Day''." In a survey of 1000 women to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the bikini, Andress in her white bikini was voted "The Ultimate Bikini Goddess".

It also helped shape the career of Andress, and the look of the quintessential Bond movie. 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." Because of the shocking effect from how revealing it was at the time, she got referred to by the joke nickname "Ursula Undress". In 2001, the ''Dr. No'' bikini worn by Andress in the film sold at auction for US$61,500.

Raquel Welch wore a fur 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". She was strategically promoted to increase the value of the film by repeating "Raquel Welch in a fur bikini" five times in the trailer making it the reason to watch the film. Her role wearing the leather bikini raised Welch to a fashion 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". When Phoebe Cates dropped her red bikini in teen film ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), it became "the most memorable bikini-drop in cinema history." The bikini scenes in ''B.C.'' and ''Fast Times'' were ranked 86 and 84 in Channel 4 (UK)'s list of the 100 Greatest Sexy Moments in Film. In 2011, ''Time'' listed both Welch's ''B.C.'' and Cates' ''Ridgemont High'' bikinis in the "Top Ten Bikinis in Pop Culture".

In the 1983 film ''Return of the Jedi'', Princess Leia (played by Carrie Fisher) wears a metal bikini,''Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi'' (DVD, 20th Century Fox, 2004), disc 1Carl Silvio, Tony M. Vinci, ''Culture, Identities, and Technology in the Star Wars Films'', page 117, McFarland & Co., 2007, a slave girl costume often imitated by female fans at ''Star Wars'' conventions. The metal string bikini consisted of a patterned copper brassiere with a curved, plunging neckline that fastened behind the neck and back with string. The thong bottom had copper plates at the groin in front and back partially covered by a red silk loincloth. Leia wore high leather boots, a hair fastener that positioned her braided ponytail to cascade over her right shoulder, two bracelets, and a snake arm-wrap. She also wore a chain and collar that bound her to Jabba the Hutt, her captor, which she used to kill him. 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 costume has been elevated to pop culture icon status, spawning various spoofs and parodies (including the episode of '' Friends'', " The One with the Princess Leia Fantasy").

Actresses fighting in bikinis in movies like '' Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle'' and ''Blue Crush'' have made the two-piece, according to Gina Bellafonte of ''The New York Times'', "the millennial equivalent of the power suit." The ''Full Throttle'' scene showing actress Demi Moore walking out of the ocean wearing a bikini was credited with reviving her career. In the film '' Varsity Blues'' (1999), Ali Larter attempts to seduce James Van Der Beek sporting a "bikini" made of whipped cream over her otherwise naked body. In the film ''Not Another Teen Movie'', Chris Evans tries to recreate that scene.

Bikini films

''Bikini Bloodbath'' (2006), '' Bikini Cavegirl'' (2004), ''Bikini Bandits'' (2002, featuring Dee Dee Ramone) '' Never Say Never Mind: The Swedish Bikini Team'' (2001, featuring the Swedish Bikini Team), the bikini car wash series including ''The Bikini Carwash Company'' (1992), '' Bikini Hotel'' (1997), '' Bikini Island'' (1991), '' Dangerous Curves'' (1988), '' Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity'' (1987), ''It's a Bikini World'' (distributed by AIP, 1967), ''Operation Bikini'' (produced by AIP, 1963, featuring Frankie Avalon), and '' Bikini Baby'' (1951) are some of the many films with plotlines revolving around the bikini.

Among non-English films '' Yit long kau oi jin'' (US title: ''Beach Spike'', Hong Kong, 2011), '' Bikinisesongen'' (US title: ''The bikini season'', Norway, 1994), '' Poveri ma belli'' (UK title: ''A Girl in Bikini'', Italy, 1957), and '' Manina, la fille sans voiles'' (US title: ''Manina, the Girl in the Bikini'', France, 1952, featuring Brigitte Bardot) are some of the films that revolve around the bikini.

Movie poster

The promotional cinema poster for '' For Your Eyes Only'' (1981), the twelfth spy film in the James Bond series, featured a woman holding a crossbow photographed from behind in a bikini bottom with half of her buttocks exposed. Morgan Kane, the photographer, achieved the skimpy look by making model wear her bikini bottom backwards. The poster caused some furor—largely in the US—with ''The Boston Globe'' and the ''Los Angeles Times'' edited out everything above the knee, while the ''Pittsburgh Press'' editors painted a pair of shorts over the legs. There was significant speculation as to identity of the model with three models claimed the thighs in question – Nancy Stafford, Jane Sumner and Joyce Bartle – before photographer Morgan Kane identified the model to be Bartle, though the arm holding a crossbow belongs to Sumner.

Music

As people with roots in the Indian subcontinent who reside in the Caribbean were more receptive of the bikini than people of their original homeland, bikinis remain a repeating theme in Calypso music ("Whole day she jumping shamelessly/In a tiny little bikini" etc.). Australian pop-rock band Screaming Bikini (led by Sarah McLeod), Hungarian rock band Bikini, American dance-rock band Bikini Robot Army, punk rock band Bikini Kill and Los Angeles based electropop duo Cherry Bikini – all had names inspired by the bikini. In 1997 the French-German Electronic band Stereo Total released an album named ''Monokini''. Spanish rock band Hombres G released its seventh album '' Historia del bikini'' in 1992. In 1994, ''Martinis and Bikinis'', the seventh (studio) album from American singer-songwriter Sam Phillips, came out. Dutch breakcore musician Bong-Ra released his album ''Bikini Bandits, Kill! Kill! Kill!'' in 2003.

Songs

"Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini", a single written by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss, has become a part of the history of the bikini. Released on August 8, 1960, it was also the first single sung by Brian Hyland to enter ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The song features in 1961 Billy Wilder film comedy ''One, Two, Three'', as well as films like ''Sister Act 2'' and '' Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise''. It also features in commercials for Yoplait light yogurt, YWCA, and TV Easy magazine. "Do The Bikini Dance", a single by Dee Dee Ramone, was released on the day Ramones were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. " Bikini Girls with Machine Guns" is a song released by the American garage punk band The Cramps in 1990.

Performances

MTV Video Music Award (VMA) 2013 had pop stars Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus appearing on stage in bikinis. Gaga appeared in a white seashell string bikini and Cyrus in a flesh colored latex bikini. Pop star Britney Spears, who won a Celebuzz poll as the best bikini body over Kate Upton, Jessica Alba and Holly Madison and stripped down a to black bikini in Late Show Top Ten List hosted by David Letterman, performed at VMA 2007 in a rhinestone bikini. Pop star Beyoncé Knowles, winner of the VH1 celebrity bikini award in 2012, appeared on the cover of ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue'' (February 2013) and modeled for H&M bikini line (Summer 2013), including a black two-piece bikini with tassels that she helped design.

Music videos

Pop stars Nicki Minaj and Rihanna donned bikinis for the music videos in 2012. Minaj wore a neon pink bikini for " Starships" and Rihanna wore a micro bikini for " Where Have You Been".

Print media

Magazines

Since 1964 ''Sports Illustrated'' has published an annual swimsuit issue featuring bikini-clad fashion models on the cover and in a pictorial section. The issues have become a cultural icon.Laurel R. Davis,
The Swimsuit Issue and Sport: Hegemonic Masculinity in Sports Illustrated
', page 5-10, SUNY Press, 1997, For the original ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue'', magazine editor Andre Laguerre asked fashion reporter Jule Campbell to help find a model. 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 annual ''Swimsuit Issue'' features fashion models wearing swimwear in exotic locales. Inclusion is considered a standard whereby supermodels are measured. In 2005 the issue carried million in advertising.

The ''Swimsuit Issue'' is released around the middle of February or later. It is credited with making the bikini a legitimate piece of apparel. The issue that received the greatest number of letters was the 1978 issue.Sports Illustrated 50: The Anniversary Book, Rob Fleder, 2005, p.286, The best selling issue was the 25th Anniversary Issue with Kathy Ireland on the cover in 1989. ''Media Watch'', a feminist newsletter, reported that there were protests at the Time-Life Building. Magazines such as ''Sport'' and '' Ebony Man'' publish their own versions, while many other magazines imitate the swimsuit issue. '' Spin'' brings out a parody of the swimsuit issues.

'' Urbe Bikini'' (UB) is a Venezuelan, ''Maxim''-style monthly magazine created in 2003 by Urbe's editor-in-chief and creative director Gabriel Torrelles and the publisher Carlos Lizarralde. Lizarralde subsequently sold the company to Cadena Capriles, the largest publisher in Venezuela. It is the largest circulation glossy magazine in the country and a cultural and circulation phenomenon. Sports magazines like ''Inside Sport'' and automotive magazines like the ''Lowrider Magazine'' regularly feature bikini-clad women on the cover to appeal to a predominantly young male audience. In 2006, ''Maxim'' magazine created a wide vinyl-mesh bikini in the desert of southern Nevada, United States featuring Eva Longoria from '' Desperate Housewives'', claiming that it could be seen from outer space.

In 2011 ''Lilac'' magazine became the first Arabic magazine to show a bikini on the cover. The 22-year-old model, Huda Naccache, from Haifa, Israel is pictured posing in a black sequinned bikini. The Japanese magazine ''Young Animal'' (''Yangu Animaru'') includes color pinup photos of teenage girls in bikinis (generally pop stars and gravure idols). The editor of '' The SFWA Bulletin'', Jean Rabe, resigned in 2013 over a controversy about sexism in a cover image of the ''Bulletin'', which depicted a woman in a scalemail bikini.

Comic books

Most artists depict Red Sonja, a Marvel Comics character created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith who frequented Conan the Barbarian books and was ranked first in ''Comics Buyer's Guide's'' "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list, wearing a very brief bikini-like costume of scale armour