Hollywood, Bikinis, and Breasts

Several early films of the silent era featured rampant full nudity and acts bordering on pornography. In 1921 the U.S. Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America Inc. asked W. H. Hays, a prominent Republican, to be their president in an effort to ward off plans for government censorship. One of the first Hays initiatives was to insert a "morality clause" into all actors' contracts forcing them to maintain at least a facade of clean living. In 1930 his Production Code was adopted by the industry; in 1934 it was made mandatory, with fines and sanctions on any film-maker who ignored it. After the implementation of the Hays Code, nudity and depictions or even inferences of sexual matters was deep-sixed.

In 1941, Howard Hughes films The Outlaw starring Jane Russell. Her generous figure is prominently featured in the movie and only after some editing is the film shown. It is not widely released for another seven years however.

Brigette Bardot broke new boundaries in 1958 when she wore a bikini in the film "And God Created Woman." If you saw the uncensored film in Europe, you got to see her bare bottom as well.

The Decency Leagues put huge pressure on Hollywood to keep the bikini out of movies, and succeeded until 1958, when actress Brigitte Bardot created a sensation by wearing a bikini—and less, if you lived in Europe—in the film "And God Created Woman." Bardot was followed in the movies by Anita Ekberg and Sophia Loren, but the bikini was still considered scandalous. In 1957, Modern Girl magazine held up their nose, and wrote, "It is hardly necessary to waste words over the so-called bikini since it is inconceivable that any girl with tact and decency would ever wear such a thing."

Then, in 1960, Brian Hyland came out with his popular hit, Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. In 1962, Ursela Andress emerged from the surf wearing a bikini in the James Bond movie Dr. No. During 1963, the bikini goes to a "Beach Party" worn on the generous form of ex-mouseketeer Annette Funicello. In 1964, Babette March appeared in a two-piece on the cover of Sports Illustrated's first swimsuit issue. Bikini sales went through the roof.

Carol Doda was the first topless dancer in San Francisco, igniting a trend in the United states. Here she appears in Reard's famous monokini, before a 20-week series of silicon injections that increased her bust size from 34B to 44D.

Also in 1964, swimsuit designer Rudi Geinreich showcased the first monokini, a topless swimsuit. In San Francisco on June 16, 1964, Davey Rosenberg, the publicity manager for the Condor Club, asked one of his exotic dancers, former prune picker, file clerk, and cocktail waitress Carol Doda, to model Geinreich's monokini, and the next night the line at the door was around the corner. Many area bars and clubs immediately went topless. As the booby bar craze took off, Doda underwent breast enlargement surgery to increase her bust size from 34 to 44 inches.

By the late 1960s Europeans had introduced the topless beach into film. Topless sunning spread to even the Catholic countries of Spain. Portugal, and Italy, who had banned the bikini in the 1940s. Ironically, while the conservative Catholic countries permit topless women in public, the mainly Protestant United States is very resistant to the trend.

On March 29, 1965, in the movie The Pawnbroker, starring Rod Steiger, Thelma Oliver plays a Negress. She bares her breasts, challenging Section 7.3 of the Hollywood Production Code: "Indecent or undue exposure is forbidden." It is the first such exposure since the advent of the Hays Code in 1930. The Pawnbroker later became the official United States entry in the 1964 Berlin Film Festival.

Movies continue to push the boundaries of societal limits, as witnessed by Sharon Stone in the 1992 Basic Instinct, who in a brief three-second shot bares her vulva to the camera as she crosses her legs. The Motion Picture Association of America's rating board is made up of members whose opinions about the suitability of movies are supposed to reflect the opinion of average American parents. The rating is based on "theme, violence, language, nudity, sensuality, drug abuse, and other elements... Each member present estimates what most parents would consider to be that film's appropriate rating."

On television, the series NYPD Blue bared the naked derriere of Detective Kelly (David Caruso) on network TV in 1994.

Meanwhile, nudity on stage is more common but still draws a crowd. In London, Kathleen Turner took off "her kit" for the theatre adaptation of The Graduate. The box office went bananas, taking in a staggering $188,000 in one day. She was followed by Jerry Hall, then Amanda Donohoe, Anne Archer and Linda 'Sue Ellen' Gray.

Full nudity has gained much wider acceptance in European cinema, where audiences accept that there is a difference between simple nudity and overtly sexual situations. Excessive violence draws greater public reaction in Europe.

More recently, HBO has drawn attention from shows like Sex and the City and The Sopranos which have depicted full nudity.

Depending on an individual's political persuasion, some believe it is Hollywood who is breaking new territory in what is acceptable on screen, while the MPAA says Hollywood merely reflects what the society at large has grown to find acceptable. Today, it is possible for a 13 year-old at a PG-13 movie — "some material may be inappropriate for children under 13" — to see from the waist up a semi-clothed couple having sexual intercourse against a wall ("Out of Time," 2003). Most parents do not believe their 13 year old children have seen this kind of behavior at home or in their neighbor's home.

Next in our tour is Attitudes Towards Breasts and Breastfeeding >