Bikini figure

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Bikini figure and beach body are names for ideals of beauty , which are mainly used in lifestyle and fitness magazines, women's magazines and tabloids in articles about fitness training and diets for weight loss .

Bikini figure

Young women with bikini figures at the 2008 Boryeong Mud Festival

In English, the terms bikini shape and bikini body (alternatively also beach body ) appear in advertising from the 1970s.

In German, the bikini body was discussed in connection with department store catalogs and men's magazines as early as 1979. Bikini figure is mentioned in the magazine Bunte in 1980 in comments on cosmetic surgery .

Today the term can be found mainly in lifestyle and fitness magazines (as well as in blogs on these topics), women's magazines and tabloids, especially in the spring months, in connection with fitness training and diets for rapid weight loss .

In spring, the corresponding media propagate the bikini figure for the bathing season. The most effective, fastest, best "way to a bikini figure" is promised mainly through dieting or fitness exercises over very short periods of time - usually two to four weeks.

Fashion history

In the fashion history of the 20th century, the ideal figure for female swimwear changes according to fashion trends. In the 1950s and early 1960s, bikini cuts with high waists and elastically reinforced stomach inserts dominated, so that the ideal of beauty - embodied by numerous pin-up girls - was the so-called clock or hourglass figure.

In the 1960s, an extremely androgynous , slim look, embodied by the Twiggy ("thin branch") model, dominated the ideal.

Beginning in the 1980s, triggered by the emerging fitness boom , the styles of bikinis changed to better accentuate the muscular body. Jane Fonda became a cult figure of the ideal type . In particular, high leg cutouts and the minimalist use of fabric were hallmarks of this era.

In the 21st century, the ideal of beauty is embodied in the slim size zero models.

Beach body

Young men with beach bodies, Australian national rugby union team, 2009

Since the 1990s, the idea that how you look is very important for your self-worth has spread among men. This gave rise to the fear of not being muscular enough , known as muscle dysmorphism . Fitness programs for the beach body are regularly promoted in fitness magazines at the beginning of the bathing season.

Criticism of the media use

The "longing for the bikini figure" is evoked by manufacturers of non-prescription food supplements (saturation capsules , fat burners , fat and carbohydrate blockers , etc.) with before and after pictures, although studies have shown that such products are hardly suitable for slimming down.

While a cross-season and consciously healthy, balanced diet (with little sugar and fat ) and regular physical activity are beneficial for well-being and appearance, the media demand for a bikini figure that can be achieved at short notice with "perfect dimensions" and the ability to present the body in the bikini -Season, especially among young people , can lead to eating disorders : "When the photos with bikinis get into the magazines in spring, the fear level rises for many that one would have to show oneself like that." Medical professionals also respond to the questioning of the media "illusion" Bikini figure occasionally pointed out.

The comparison with the ideal figure propagated in the media often leads to a negative self-perception, especially among young women, which manifests itself in depressive moods, fear of failure, withdrawal from social life, helplessness and frustrations . In addition to eating disorders, expressions of this sometimes exaggerated striving for the ideal bikini figure are, among other things, an exaggerated obsession with sports and fitness (anorexia athletica), numerous diets in rapid succession, abuse of laxatives and anorectics, and an increase in cosmetic surgeries in adolescent and post- adolescent years .

An advertising campaign for a protein supplements manufacturer on the London Underground that asked a slim model, "Are you beach body ready?" (for example: 'Do you already have a beach figure?'), led to massive protests. The posters were commented or changed by passers-by, e.g. B. in “#each bodys ready” ('Everyone is ready'). In response to this "vandalism" as well as protests on Facebook and Twitter in which the advertising was labeled as sexist and discriminatory, the company's marketing director said that many of their customers wanted to see exactly these types of images and that the point was, " to motivate ”.

The body positivity movement is critical of the external pressure to be beautiful; on a lonely island there would be no such pressure. The pressure influences the body image that people have of themselves.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ New York Media, LLC: New York Magazine . New York Media, LLC June 15, 1970, p. 68: “Unconvinced? Then call today for a free unharried visit. If we can't put you in bikini shape we'll hang up our leotards. ", ISSN  0028-7369 .
  2. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Müller-Schwefe: Men's things: communication texts . Suhrkamp, ​​1979.
  3. ↑ Colorful . Burda, March 1980.
  4. Jump up to your bikini figure with just 5 exercises , Today, May 16, 2012; accessed on April 11, 2020.
  5. ↑ The Fastest Way To A Bikini Figure In: Girlfriend. May 2, 2014; accessed on March 5, 2015.
  6. ↑ The best way to get a bikini figure , t-online, November 23, 2007; accessed on March 5, 2015.
  7. ↑ 1985–2010 Fitness makes fashion . In: fashion. 3000 years of costumes, trends, styles, designers. Dorling-Kindersley, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-8310-2389-9 , p. 388 f.
  8. ↑ Veronika Rauchsteiner: Eating disorders in sport: body cult - slimming mania - anorexia athletica. Diplomica, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8428-8909-5 , p. 13 ff.
  9. ^ Muscle dysmorphism: The secret ailments of strong men , Marion Sonnenmoser, Ärzteblatt, March 2010 edition, page 130
  10. ↑ Body Positivity , Juliane Frisse, August 11, 2019, Die Zeit
  11. ↑ beach body , MensHealth.de
  12. ↑ Slimming products - quick profits , www.konsument.at, edition 4, 2000.
  13. ↑ Stiftung Warentest slimming products are hardly suitable for losing weight , Stern, January 30, 2014; accessed on February 6, 2015.
  14. ↑ Anette Le Riche: Bikini figure: Summer crash diets put young people at risk , Spiegel Online, July 12, 2013.
  15. ^ Adelheid Müller-Lissner: The myth of the fast bikini figure , Die Zeit, May 31, 2012; accessed on February 6, 2015.
  16. ↑ The timetable for the bikini figure , interview with Dr. A. Moosburger, January 5, 2010
  17. ↑ Martin-Franz Hanko: Beauty in the age of the mass media. In: Andreas Hergovich: Psychology of beauty: physical attractiveness from a scientific perspective. Facultas, Vienna 2002, ISBN 978-3-85114-705-6 , p. 147 ff.
  18. ↑ Veronika Rauchsteiner: Eating disorders in sport: body cult - slimming mania - anorexia athletica. Diplomica, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8428-8909-5
  19. ^ Protest against sexist advertising: "Everyone has a beach figure". In: Spiegel Online . April 27, 2015, accessed June 10, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Body Positivity , Juliane Frisse, August 11, 2019, Die Zeit