Nudity or semi-nudity as it is practiced today in France is more a matter of private spaces than of public spaces, and total or partial denudation can only be carried out without incident in specific places such as the changing rooms of a sports facility.
Thus, exposing one’s breasts in public is not a trivial gesture. This exposure can be a militant act as during the recent emergence of Femen activists at a Jordan Bardella rally, but exposing one’s topless can also be a simple bathing practice, with the primary goal of providing comfort through the absence of a swimsuit top and avoiding tan lines.
Bare breasts tolerated at the beach
Thus, the beach is one of the only places where it is not inappropriate to lie down partially undressed next to strangers. It is therefore a perfectly delimited space-time: the sand marks a strict and impassable border beyond which certain practices, such as the undressing of the body in a swimsuit, or even more so when it comes to bare breasts, would not be accepted.
On the beach, it is therefore possible to undress without it disturbing good morals. How can women then show themselves topless on the beach without being eroticized by all the men present? Simply because, according to the sociologist Jean-Claude Kaufmann, “exposing nudity makes the nude less apparent”.
It is then possible to speak of “construction of the invisible”of trivialization. One of the arguments frequently used by women is the following: “We are all made the same.” Thus, still according to Kaufmann, “the trivialization would come from the impersonality of the breast in general. The archaic visual attraction would then only be due to the rarity of the good which, transforming itself today into abundance, would remove all attraction.”
However, this apparent liberation is in reality only the displacement of norms from external frameworks to intimate mechanisms. The fact of undressing at the beach then represents a process of civilization and self-control, since individuals can see themselves almost naked without showing sexual emotions. It is a proof of control, internalization and even repression of immediate impulses.
Thus, the exposure of bare breasts on the beach is not a trivial practice and has required the learning of particular techniques. For example, concerning the way of positioning oneself, the lying position represents the one that offers the most intimacy. For women who are adept at the practice, standing up has a different connotation: they are observed more and many get dressed again when they get up.
There are, however, certain “exceptions” when, for example, the action is justified (one does not walk without a goal) and particularly if the movement is not premeditated (such as getting up to retrieve a parasol that has flown away). This can also be allowed when the distance covered is not too great (some women then settle down at the edge of the shore to shorten the journey to the bathing area). In addition, the attitude adopted is essential: to get up and remain topless, one must not adopt a dragging gait, have a goal in mind. In short: one must not appear to want to “show oneself”.
A declining practice
Despite this learning of specific techniques, the practice of bare breasts, which appeared in Saint-Tropez in the 1960s, declined sharply in the 2000s. According to an IFOP studyif 43% of women said they regularly went topless on the beach in 1984, this figure is now only 19% in 2019. The phenomenon is therefore currently out of fashion. But for what reasons?
At first, it would seem that the medical discourse encouraging people to protect themselves from the sun had a strong impact, since 56% of French women surveyed mentioned the risks incurred by the sun on the skin as a deterrent to the practice. However, if this argument is indeed the first one mentioned, it would seem that the way others, and particularly men, look at them is in reality the most important deterrent.
Thus, 35% of them mention the “lustful gaze of men”28% mention “the fear of negative criticism” on their physique, 27% mention “the fear of being subjected to verbal, physical or sexual aggression”and 23% mention “the fear of being perceived as an immodest or indecent woman”The way others look at you is all the more significant when the question is asked of those under 25, since medical risks only come in fourth place behind the way men look at you (59%), the fear of aggression (51%) and the fear of negative criticism of your appearance (41%).
On the beach, we can therefore identify limits that separate what can be done and what is not recommended. These limits are geographical (the sand) and morphological (women may be judged too old or their breasts judged too large to be acceptable to show them).
So, while giving the impression of looking at nothing but the overall landscape, everyone is actually observing what is happening all around them and the slightest deviation in behavior or morphology catches the eye, whatever the person’s desire not to look may be. Everyone observes everyone else, and everyone observes the way they are observed. In reality, communication is rarely done through speech; almost everything is played out in the gaze.
Thus, breasts, usually hidden, once naked, attract the gaze. They therefore imply an effort to control the gaze and emotions which should nevertheless not be seen as such. The beach is “the art of seeing without seeing”. There is therefore no action which is banal by nature and get naked on the beach, “Taking off your swimsuit top is not a simple, natural, problem-free gesture; it is part of a historical process and a set of extraordinarily sophisticated rules of behavior, defining who has the right to do what and how.”to quote Jean-Claude Kaufmann.
Although bare breasts on the beach can encourage a desexualization of nudity, this desexualization is not systematic and requires learning on the part of practitioners, but also of observers.
Thelma Bacon is a doctoral student in sociology on the theme of naturism in France at theUniversity of Angers.
This article is republished from The Conversation sous licence Creative Commons. Lire l’article original.
Source: www.slate.fr
