23 July,2009 08:31 AM IST | | Agencies
Unlike their moms and grandmoms, young French women chose to cover up on beaches that first saw the 'monokini' experience
French women on the beaches where Brigitte Bardot first introduced topless sunbathing have begun covering themselves up.
Forty years after their mothers and grandmothers first claimed the right to flaunt their femininity, today's young women have discovered what has been dubbed "la nouvelle pudeur" new modesty.
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summer trend: female holiday-makers who go in for topless sunbathing on our beaches are fewer and fewer in number," said Le Parisien newspaper.
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"Some have decided to put their tops back on. Others especially the younger generation have never dreamed for a minute of trying out the monokini experience."
50% to 2 %
At a private beach at Bormes-les-Momosas on the Mediterr- anean coast, less than two per cent were topless this week. "It used to be about half," said one sunbather in her 40s.
Elle magazine noted the return of a value la pudeur which it thought "had been put firmly in the discarded goods cupboard since 1968".
According to a recent poll, 88 per cent of French women describe themselves as shy. Nearly half say they are shocked by the sight of bare breasts on a beach, and 57 per cent by breasts in the garden.
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Jean-Claude Kauffman, a sociologist said it was a sign of less showy times. "We are witnessing a return to more safety and family-oriented values. Modesty and discretion are the order of the day," he said.
Elle magazine urged older feminists not to be outraged by their juniors' refusal to keep fighting the sameliberation battles. After all, when the war has been won, there is not the same need to flash one's weapons.
However, many French women fear a return not to la pudeur, but to la pudibonderie or prudishness.
They say that the modern-day reluctance for women to show their bodies has less to do with "modesty" than with a consumer-rooted obsession not to appear ugly.
Reasons
Younger women who had chosen to cover up gave a variety of reasons.
Some said it was because of the risks of skin cancer, but more attributed it to changes in society.
"On the beach, it's only the older ones who show their boobs now. Having boys look at you is too annoying," said Clara (17).
"There's a real difference between the generations. It's hard to find girls of 20 these days who want to go topless," said Manon (20).
Meanwhile, Kaufmann advised French men not to ogle if they wanted bare breasts to remain on their beaches at all.
