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Economic Effects of Bikini Wear

The modern bikini has celebrated its 60th anniversary this week, and in honor of that we?re going to talk a little bit about the financial impact of this female swimwear item. Thousands, possibly even millions, of people have made money in one way or another off of bikinis. Movie producers and directors from the 1940s through today have increased their box office draws by including scantily-clad, bikini-topped actresses such as Ursula Andress and Halle Berry in James Bond movies, and do we really want to think about a world where ?Girls Gone Wild?, those videos about female college students on Spring Break lifting up their shirts or bikinis, doesn?t exist?

No, we probably don?t, and you can be sure that the fashion designers of the world, and magazine publishers as well, don?t either. The bikini is more than just a symbol of fashion, women who wear it well become symbols of beauty, not decadence. The beaches of the world have seen their fair share of bikini wearers, and those who make money selling ice cream, drinks, or chairs on the beach bank on not the women, but the men, coming to the beach each summer for the sole purpose of trying to catch a glimpse of as many bikini-wearing (as well as bikini-less) girls or women as they can.

Unless Muslims win the War on Terror, it isn?t likely that bikinis are going to go out of fashion anytime soon. They are so nice to look at, so simple to design, and such iconic symbols of our modern times that you?d not only have to get rid of all bikinis, but also erase humanity?s memory of them, in order to create a world where bikini-inclined women (and the men who buy for their girlfriends or watch women wear them) are no more.