Now is Summer 2009.

Bikini Open (Credit to the rightful owner of the photo)

Have heard of bandini (a bikini using a bandeau-style top), tankini (a long tank-style top paired with bikini bottoms), camikini (quite similar to the tankini in its design, however, it generally pairs a more structured, camisole-type top with bikini bottoms to provide more support for women with large breasts), and Rudi Gernreich’s monokini (topless swimsuit)? They’re just offshoots of the bikini of 1946.

Who’s never danced into the groove of Brian Hyland’s Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini? This song of the 60’s spoke of the mildly indecent way bikini was perceived by people in those years and inspired them to a bikini-buying spree. But, you never know that the song was immortalized only after 14 years of bikini’s breakthrough. Summer of 1946, it was a year after the end of WWII when simultaneously America had conducted nuclear tests on July 1 off Bikini Atoll, one of the 29 atolls and five islands that compose the Marshall Islands located north of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, and at stake were two French designers contesting as to who could introduce to the public a revolutionary 2-piece swimsuit. On July 5, fashion designer Jacques Heim's creation, which he called the Atome (after the particle), dubbed as “the world's smallest bathing suit,” was first shown to beachgoers in Cannes and in a fashion show at Piscine Molitor in Paris. Two months later, Louis Réard, a mechanical engineer-turned-fashion designer, worked with a mere 27½ inches from a bolt of cloth, took his design a step further — dropping the bottom half of his two-piece suit below the navel. It was barely a couple of hankies stitched together with string. Delighted with his provocative invention, he introduced his masterpiece as “The bikini — smaller than the smallest bathing suit in the world.”

The term bikini was never having an etymology to refer to its physical structure and origin of existence or language. Many etymologists assumed that the term was originated on Réard’s belief that his creation would create the same jaw dropping and shockingness equal in its reverberation to that of the atomic bomb’s detonations.

For men’s bikini, speedoes go likely to mean the same.

However, the world’s acceptance of bikini was taken aback due to its scandalous makeup. The United States even had 15 years of sublimation. Media’s influence through films made bikini a pop-culture symbol. Its wide acceptance was levered through the introduction of a bikini icon in 1962’s Dr. No, first James Bond series, Ursula Andress in here filmed white bikini. The rest followed.

There was the making. There was the sophistication. There was the scandalous apprehension.

Today, there’s the rub. It’s not the rub of the past struggles of the designers but rather the rub of a maligning use of this thing to cultural inflection. There’s something working ineffectively in today’s culture with what Heim and Réard had awfully pieced into craft. The wonder of bikinis had even got a rude interest even in the 1950’s Miss World Pageant. Exactly, it was because of the conservatives who wanted to outdo sensuous and exposed life.

Here in the Philippines, bikinis have never spurred much in acceptance as Westerners do. Bikinis do not form part as a beach apparel prototype for every Pinoy and Pinay doing summer clothing list. There is a very good deal on the matter such that there’s still the presence of conservatism among Filipinos in today’s age. But, the explosion of bikinis as one clothing line is not the major concern; it’s all about its existence of use as adhered by Pinoys and Pinays in an immodest way – the bikini contest.

The Philippines has its simple history of bikini contest. It all started in 1990 with a body building contest whose objective is to display men and women’s physique. Today, it has definitely shifted its course from a wholesome image and body projection to a daring glamorous sexual activity.

In the Philippines’ social status quo, celebrities define the use of bikinis through presenting it publicly in the modest fashion showcase. There’s the lineage of presenting bikinis only for advertisement or promotion. For these celebrities, dressing up, going up on stage, romping, and strutting are just designs of their work on the limelight as star-studded and privileged individuals. They’re not into money but they’re into that prestige of being one of those body-beautiful Filipinos which are to be adored and be idolized by the mass. On the other hand, there are those individuals who are seeking the limelight courageously and painstakingly. These individuals are ordinary fortune seekers who make headway to join contested limelight to earn money for daily financial stability and to help support the family. It is undeniably a condition, set in every Filipino’s mind, of seeking easy money using the body rather than risking oneself to jobs which need higher qualifications.

Summer time is always bikini time. It’s always a time to spend a lot more watching bikini contests rather than wearing bikinis. Bikini contests can take place in bars, nightclubs, at beaches, beauty pageants, and even in the internet. These are the avenues of those ordinary fortune seekers. There are those who love watching these shows conditioned upon the idea of belongingness, socializing, orienting with pleasure, and going with the in thing. But, in a more indiscreet reason, individuals love to watch the sexiness upfront to what’s always expected – men and women in few pieces. With the kind of viewing measure, the bottom line is that these individuals engaged on stage as contestants who are just being used by viewers for self gratification are prostituting themselves, showing off their bodies for an exchange of remuneration. That does not end in there, the worlds of lesbians and gays, and the worlds of dirty handlers who form themselves as event organizers and/or sponsors are greatly involved in each contestant’s plight before and after the show. After all, they are the table turners of these ignorant contestants. In an impoverished world such as ours, many people are still interested in playing games of easy money. From an ordinary bartender to the night’s winners in this provocative industry, nobody gets the fair share.
The 1946’s explosion in Bikini Atoll that released a fraction of its energy to the two French designers is still reverberating in today’s time. Today, the explosion is sending a bad energy to Filipinos making use of the piece as an avenue for pimping and another culture of prostituting. #