Beauty and the Beach

This entertaining, thought-provoking documentary combines interviews, vintage film and advertising footage, and period music to present a lively history of women's bathing suits since the Victorian era. Canadian filmmaker Joan Prowse shows how women once were forced to change into their bathing suits in "bathing houses," rolling shacks from which bathers stepped out the back doors directly into the ocean, still covered from head to toe in heavy garments. During the 1920s, women were liberated and wore form-fitting suits in a time when boyish figures were "in." In the 1940s and 1950s, full bosoms came back into style, followed by the anorexic Twiggy look. We hear from costume and advertising historians, former models and swimsuit designers, and everyday people. Cathy Guisewite, who created the comic strip "Cathy" in 1976, is perhaps the most thoughtful commentator, noting the tensions and contradictions of the women's movement. Why was it that as women became more "liberated," they felt more pressure to have the perfect body and flaunt it in ever-more-revealing bikinis? While this paradox, and many other issues, remain unresolved at the end of this video, Beauty and the Beach will be a wonderful resource for cultural and historical studies classes. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (M. Pendergrast)