Changes

The modern beach began to form as the bathing rolling machines began to diminish and swimming by both sexes together became more acceptable, allowing also families to enjoy time together either sitting at the beach or swimming. In the early 1900s, people began to accept women and men could swim together or at least swim at the same time and on the same beach. Bathing rolling machines became less popular and soon began to disappear. Clothing still covered most of the body, for men and women, but attitudes in England and the United States began to relax, with continental Europe already having been relaxed about swimming decades earlier. Nevertheless, councilors as late as the 1930s attempted to ban mixed swimming, arguing in some cases that it prevented marriage and made women have loose morals. What probably helped change public attitudes were people becoming increasingly health conscious, not only for men but also women. The Olympics of 1912 were influential in public swimming, as that was the first time women were allowed to compete in swimming competition. This helped to make the public seeing swimming by women more acceptable, including at the beach. Swimming was now seen as part of exercise for a healthy life and both sexes were now taught how to swimin formal lessons and classes. People in the 1930s, particularly as the Depression made other activities more expensive, began to see the beach as a pleasurable and affordable place to visit, with movements against any more socially conservative attempts to prohibit the mixing of sexes in using the beach. The 1920s had begun to loosen swimwear rules for women as well, where it became more acceptable for women to expose themselves somewhat more than they could publicly in the 1800s. However, arrests were still common through the 1920s and early 1930s for indicency indecency even when women and men wore relatively long, by modern standards, single-piece swimsuits.<ref>For more on the changing attitudes toward public bathing and swimming, particularly in the UK, see: Parr, Susie. 2011. <i>The Story of Swimming</i>. Stockport: Dewi Lewis Media.</ref>

Given the relatively lax attitudes in mainland Europe towards public swimming and particularly women swimming and having relatively less clothing, it might not be surprising that in 1946 the bikini made its public debut in France, with Micheline Bernardini modeling the first bikini with the design developed by Jacques Heim. Throughout the 1950s, continental Europe began to embrace the bikini, although there was resistance by the Catholic church, with the pope Pope calling the bikini and some other swimwear as sinful. Nevertheless, as the church continued to lose influence in Europe, and social norms became more liberal, foreigners as well as Europeans began to encounter the bikini more commonly in beaches. In particular, Brigitte Bardot wearing a bikini in the 1953 Cannes film festival did much to popularized the bikini in Europe and the United States. Films began to feature more women and men in beaches together, with male swimwear also becoming more revealing in the 1950s. Once again, French designers influenced this, with simple one-piece and much shorter swimwear developed and by 1960 the minimal Speedo was even developed, although this proved unpopular outside of Europe. What the clothing did was enable public bathing to become more socially acceptable throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, paritcularly as the clothing could be easily worn underneath common clothes or changed into. However, outside of Europe and the United States, attitudes tended to be more conservative, with many other countries not developing resorts and beaches until the 1970s and later. Today, rules for using beaches are very diverse around the world, reflecting that public swimming and what it entails is still diverse in many areas around the world.<ref>For more on the history of swimwear and how that shaped attitudes about the beach, see: Kennedy, Sarah. 2010. <i>The Swimsuit: A History of Twentieth-Century Fashions</i>. London: Carlton Books. </ref>