There was once a time when getting your breasts out on the beach was a little bit of a middle finger to a society told us that women can’t (or shouldn’t) be just as sexually liberated as men - especially so in France, where topless sunbathing really took off in the 1960s as a bold statement of emancipation. But now it turns out that young French women are turning their backs on going topless on the beach, apparently viewing the whole thing as outdated and dangerous.
A new survey shows that 35% of French women now think consider it unthinkable to go topless on the beach. Amongst young women the number is even higher at 50%, with only 2% of under-35s in France admitting they'll now sunbathe topless. All of which goes against the (pretty universally accepted) idea that we’re the most liberal generation of young women in centuries.
But it’s not just French women – young women in the UK aren’t exactly chomping at the bit to sunbathe topless either. A quick (very scientific) straw poll of our office shows that none of us actually do it with any regularity and those of us who have only did it in the relative safety of a hotel villa surrounded by other women. It all seems a bit odd – especially considering how many of us are staunchly behind the Free The Nipple Campaignon Instagram and Facebook. French Elle seems to think the stats are down to porn making men assume topless sunbathers are ‘loose’ and* *call it a ‘worrying sign of regression in the place of women’. But why have we all become so staunchly anti-breast in public now – what’s the REAL reason we’re now afraid to get them out on the beach?
Whilst being tanned hasn’t become any less appealing, it seems for a lot of us the major worry is sun damage. ‘The simple fact of the matter is I just don’t really sunbathe any more,’ 27 year-old Georgia Williams explains to The Debrief. ‘I’m worried about what it’s going to do to me health and aging-wise and, to be honest, I find it really really boring just lying in the sun all day. I like swimming in the sea and I guess I’d consider going topless then, but I never have because part of me thinks they’d just kind of get in the way. I don’t judge anyone who does go topless on the beach, but most of my holidays are spent either in the bar, or wearing factor 50 trying not to go bright red, so not getting tan lines isn’t a massive concern of mine. I’d rather fake my tan than waste my holiday worrying about topping it up.’
But it’s not just healthy concerns, 26 year-old Olivia Brooke accepts that part of the problem is body worries. ‘I find being on the beach wearing a bikini hard enough for the first few days of my holiday before I relax, let alone getting almost completely naked. I think it would be ok if loads of people were doing it, but whenever I’ve been away recently, no one does bar women in their 60s who by that age really don’t give a fuck. There would be safety in numbers, but doing it solo would just make me feel like I’d be inviting scrutiny and criticism from other people. Especially because the women in Europe - where I tend to go on holiday - all have amazing, tanned bodies!’ So, for Olivia at least, it looks like the pressure we put on ourselves to have the perfect beach body seems to be playing on our minds. Is Elle right? Is porn to blame? ‘I’m sure that porn has played a part, but not in making me feel self conscious about my body because I don’t want to look like a porn star – it’s not the kind of body that appeals to me. If anything, though, I think porn might have made women who like to show a bit of skin viewed as automatically up for sex. I’d be worried about the guys on the beach assuming I was down to shag just because my boobs were out.’
Porn culture has had another charming side-affect – the proliferation of ‘creep shots’ or pictures of women taken without their consent. ‘I just know that everyone has an iPhone on them all the time and it would be so easy for someone to take a picture of me with my top of and for it to end up online,’ Sophie Trevour, 27, explains to The Debrief. ‘I used to sunbathe topless when I was a bit younger, but there wasn’t sharing pictures online wasn't as much of a thing then as it is now and I’d be worried that pictures of me with my breasts out would be taken out of context. I never went topless with the intention of being massively sexual – it was just about feeling a bit free and getting a nice tan – but you can’t get that across in a picture that ends up online. You think you’re free to get on with on the beach without anyone stealing your image and posting it wherever they like, but the fact is that isn’t the case anymore.’
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane
Picture: Ada Hamza
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.