Abstract:
This article explores the mutually beneficial relationship between the
American swimsuit and film industries during the first three decades of
the twentieth century. Three examples will be used: Fatty and the Bathing
Beauties from 1913 (prior to regulated film content), Footlight Parade
from 1933 (when limited self-regulation had been put in place, but was
not yet rigorously enforced) and the Tarzan film franchise (which spans
both the second period and a later, third period of actual implementation
and subsequent negotiation). Using these examples, the paper will consider
several of the popular associations attached to the swimmer and the
swimsuit. It will discuss the ways in which Hollywood utilised the
swimsuit, the swimmer and swimming in both its films and its
promotional materials and will demonstrate how through the sporting
associations of both the garment and sports stars, film producers
negotiated the processes of censorship and self-regulation while allowing
the continued use of semi-naked and eroticised bodies, to their own profit
and to that of the increasingly fashionable swimwear industry.
