Bikini boys

Last updated
Bikini boys
Kino Stolica w Warszawie w latach 50.jpg
Bikini boys queue outside the Iluzjon Cinema in Old Mokotów, 1955. [1]
Years active1940s-1950s
Country Polish People's Republic
Major figures Leopold Tyrmand
Influences Tombakowa młodzież
InfluencedGitowcy

Bikini boys, known as bikiniarze in Polish, were members of a subculture that originated among youths in Warsaw, Poland, in the 1940s and 1950s. From the capital the movement spread to other parts of the country and provoked a moral panic from the communist authorities. Members of the subculture were known for embracing jazz and elements of western fashion.

Contents

Name and etymology

In Polish culture the term bikini boys has developed similar connotations to the English language term beatnik, [2] the label was first pejoratively applied by the communist authorities before being adopted by the subculture itself. [3] [4]

The name for the subculture derives from Bikini Atoll, rather than the bikini swimsuit. A common element of their clothing were neckties which featured exotic imagery, often palm trees or bikini-clad women on an exotic island with an atomic mushroom cloud in the background, assumed to be a reference to the explosion of the nuclear bomb at the Atoll. [5] [6] [4]

Although English sources often translate the name bikiniarze into English as "bikini boys"; the Polish term is more gender- and age-neutral (lit. "bikini people"). While it implies masculinity, the term does so less than the English translation suggests. Female members of the movement were called "bikiniarka" or "kociak" (lit. kitty). [4]

History

The subculture is sometimes considered to have begun amongst the youth of the intelligentsia [7] in Warsaw however it soon spread to other urban areas of the country such as the Tricity [8] and notably Nowa Huta. [9] The height of the subculture's popularity has generally been seen as reaching a peak in 1952. [10] As the Polish thaw led to a liberalisation in the cultural sphere the bikini boys petered out with some elements becoming absorbed into the cultural mainstream. [11]

Notable bikini boys include the novelist Leopold Tyrmand, who helped popularise the subculture in his writing, [12] and the film director Roman Polanski, who has referred to himself as an adherent of the bażant style, as a youth in Cracow. [13]

Moral panic

Polish authorities lumped Bikini boys with street hooligans into one category of undesirables. However the police, as the population as a whole, feared true hooligans, which were often dangerous indeed, therefore the police were mostly after harmless bikini boys. [14] [15]

In 1951, a court case involving four youths from Falenica, originally accused of theft, was dubbed the ‘trial of the bikini boys’ when they were additionally charged with espionage and two of the group were subsequently sentenced to death. Following the trial, the bikini boys subculture became the target of an anti-American moral panic. The group of youths were derided on the pages of Sztandar Młodych as servants of American Imperialism. [16] In a bulletin of the Polish Film Chronicle the actor Andrzej Łapicki attacked the bikini boys for their apparent drunkenness, anti-social behaviour, and the vacuousness of their Westernised fashion. [17]

Władysław Matwin, the chairman of the Union of Polish Youth (ZMP), called on his members to form themselves into ORMO platoons to physically confront bikini boys in the streets. [18] Fighting between bikini boys and zetempowcy (a nickname derived from the acronym ZMP) became increasingly common with the former being targeted at dances and even having their hair and ties cut off. [19] As a former member of the ZMP, the dissident Jacek Kuroń has said that activists were encouraged to physically confront bikini boys, and has recalled seeing such an assault perpetrated against a bikini boy who had attended a music event at Plac Komuny Paryskiej in the early 1950s. [20]

Etymology

The term "bikini boy" is believed to have derived from the neckties that were a noticeable visual element of the subculture. Such items were hand-painted with exotic images of the Bikini Atoll, occasionally referencing the atomic tests that took place there, and the emergence of the Atomic Age. [21]

Female members of the subculture were sometimes known as kociaki (kittens). [22] Other names for the subculture included the derogatory bażant (pheasant), and regional variations such as dżoller and biglarz in Kraków and Wrocław respectively. [23]

Style

The bikini boys often wore a quiff with hair combed down the back of the head, either a wide brimmed hat, colloquially known as a 'pancake', or flat cap stuffed with newspaper was worn, a long jacket, occasionally one made of corduroy, which was sometimes accompanied with a checkered shirt. Tight fitting trousers ending above the ankles were worn, revealing colourful socks, along with thick soled shoes. The outfit was matched with a wide necktie in a Windsor knot onto which tropical scenes or scantily clad women were hand painted. [24] Male members of the subculture were often perceived to be effeminate due to their dress sense, which clashed with the idealised working class man of communist propaganda. [25] Female adherents of the subculture dressed in narrow colourful skirts with a tight fitting blouse, scarf, and hair cut short. [26]

Towards the latter 1950s the style of the bikini boys became more refined, emulating the perceived sophistication of the Parisian Rive Gauche . This look was to be deemed to be more socially acceptable and promoted in the magazine Przekrój . [27]

Analysis

Analysing Tyrmand’s attire as a symbolic form of resistance, the poet Agnieszka Osiecka described his style as a declaration of individuality that acted as "a charter of human rights." [28] While the writer Marek Hłasko described the youthful rebellion typical of the bikini boys as inherently political,[ citation needed ] there has been some dispute over what politics exactly the bikini boys did represent. Some historians have portrayed the bikini boys as an anti-communist movement [29] [30] others have argued that they were, in fact, often enthusiastic supporters of the communist project. In this latter regard the subculture can be understood as a reaction against traditional social hierarchies, analogous to their British contemporaries the Teddy Boys for example, rather than the Stalinist system itself. [31]

Similar subcultures

A Czech pasek, 1953 Pasek Dikobraz 1953.png
A Czech pásek, 1953

Their style and way of life corresponded to the stilyagi subculture of the Soviet Union. [29] In particular, the modern Russian nostalgic musical film Stilyagi was dubbed as Bikiniarze in Polish cinema. [32] The subculture has also been compared to English Teddy-boys and the French Zazous, and described as a part of a Europe-wide phenomenon. [33]

A person that belonged to a similar Czech youth subculture of 1940-1970s was called pásek  [ cs ], who were preceded by potápky . [34]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polish Scouting and Guiding Association</span> Polish Scouting organization

The Polish Scouting and Guiding Association is the coeducational Polish Scouting organization recognized by the World Organization of the Scout Movement and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. It was founded in 1918 and currently is the largest Scouting organization in Poland. The first ZHP was founded in 1916, the current one is the fourth organization with this name. It is a public benefit organization as defined by Polish law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tadeusz Mazowiecki</span> 1st Prime Minister of Poland (1989–91)

Tadeusz Mazowiecki was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime minister since 1946, having held the post from 1989 to 1991.

<i>A Generation</i> 1955 Polish film

A Generation is a 1955 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It is based on the novel Pokolenie by Bohdan Czeszko, who also wrote the script. It was Wajda's first film and the opening installment of what became his Three War Films trilogy set in the Second World War, to be followed by Kanał and Ashes and Diamonds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1968 Polish political crisis</span> Political crisis in Poland regarding antisemitism

The Polish 1968 political crisis, also known in Poland as March 1968, Students' March, or March events, was a series of major student, intellectual and other protests against the ruling Polish United Workers' Party of the Polish People's Republic. The crisis led to the suppression of student strikes by security forces in all major academic centres across the country and the subsequent repression of the Polish dissident movement. It was also accompanied by mass emigration following an antisemitic campaign waged by the minister of internal affairs, General Mieczysław Moczar, with the approval of First Secretary Władysław Gomułka of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). The protests overlapped with the events of the Prague Spring in neighboring Czechoslovakia – raising new hopes of democratic reforms among the intelligentsia. The Czechoslovak unrest culminated in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia on 20 August 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leopold Tyrmand</span> Polish novelist, writer, and editor

Leopold Tyrmand was a Polish novelist, writer, and editor. Tyrmand emigrated from Poland to the United States in 1966 and five years later married an American, Mary Ellen Fox. He served as editor of an anti-communist monthly Chronicles of Culture with John A. Howard. Tyrmand died of a heart attack at the age of 64 in Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kazimierz Wyka</span> Polish literary historian

Kazimierz Wyka was a Polish literary historian, literary critic, and professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków following World War II. He was a deputy to the Polish parliament (Sejm) from 1952 to 1956 during the era of Stalinism in Poland.

The Polish People's Republic pursued a policy of agricultural collectivization throughout the Stalinist regime period, from 1948 until the liberalization during Gomułka's thaw of 1956. However, Poland was the unique country in the Eastern Bloc where large-scale collectivization failed to take root. A legacy of collectivization in Poland was the network of inefficient State Agricultural Farms (PGRs), many of which can still be seen in the countryside of modern Poland, especially in its northern and western provinces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powązki Military Cemetery</span> Military cemetery in Warsaw, Poland

Powązki Military Cemetery is an old military cemetery located in the Żoliborz district, western part of Warsaw, Poland. The cemetery is often confused with the older Powązki Cemetery, known colloquially as "Old Powązki". The Old Powązki cemetery is located to the south-east of the military cemetery.

Anti-communist insurgencies continued in Central and Eastern Europe after the end of World War II. They were suppressed by the Soviet Union and its satellite states. Prominent movements include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1953 Show trial of the Kraków Curia</span> Show trial in Stalinist Poland

The 1953 trial of the Kraków Curia was a public show trial of four Roman Catholic priests and three lay persons of the city's Curia who were accused by the Communist authorities in the People's Republic of Poland of subversion and spying for the United States. The staged trial, based on the Soviet Moscow Trials, was held before the Military District Court of Kraków from 21–26 January 1953, at a public-event-hall of the Szadkowski Plant.

Ludwik Hass (1918–2008) was a Polish historian who specialised in the history of Freemasonry in Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bogusław Tadeusz Kopka</span> Polish historian

Bogusław Tadeusz Kopka – a Polish historian, PhD, a professor at the Akademia Zamojska; an associate professor at the Warsaw University of Technology Faculty of History and Social Sciences and at the Warsaw Family Alliance Institute of Higher Education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomasz Fornal</span> Polish volleyball player (born 1997)

Tomasz Fornal is a Polish professional volleyball player who plays as an outside hitter for Jastrzębski Węgiel and the Poland national team. Fornal won silver medals at the 2024 Summer Olympics and the 2022 World Championship as well as the 2021 Polish Champion title with Jastrzębski Węgiel.

Censorship in Poland was first recorded in the 15th century, and it was most notable during the Communist period in the 20th century.

Krzysztof Jakub Stanowski is a Polish journalist, columnist and businessman, co-owner of the Weszło group and Kanał Zero.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open Letter to the Party</span>

The Open Letter to the Party was a document written, and then distributed in March 1965, by Jacek Kuroń and Karol Modzelewski critiquing the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR).

The tombakowa młodzież were members of a youth subculture in Warsaw during World War II.

Pasja is an installation art by Dorota Nieznalska, a contemporary Polish artist, belonging to the trend of 'critical art', exhibited at the Gdańsk Wyspa Gallery in 2001. The installation consisted of two parts: a video showing a man exercising in a gym and a metal cross suspended on a chain with an embedded photograph of a penis in the central place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jampec</span> Hungarian subculture

A jampec ([ˈjɒmpɛt͡s]) or jampi is someone associated with the Hungarian youth movement, from the Rákosi-era. It was a counter cultural movement, mainly consisting of middle-class inner-city young adults, especially in the 50s and 60s. It comes from the Yiddish word jampoc meaning crazy or stupid. They became known as a hooligan group.

References

  1. ↑ Bretan, Juliette (23 January 2022). "The Striped-Sock-Wearing Polish Beatniks: The Life & Styles of the Bikiniarze". culture.pl. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  2. ↑ Lerska, Misia (20 March 2021). "Polish Jazz and Politics". Polish Jazz Podcasts: The History and the Current Events in Polish Jazz (Podcast). Polish Jazz Network. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
  3. ↑ Lebow, Katherine. "Kontra Kultura: Leisure and Youthful Rebellion in Stalinist Poland". In Crowley, D. & Reid, S. (eds.), Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the Eastern Bloc. United States of America: Northwestern University Press, (2010). p.80.
  4. 1 2 3 Stefańska, Katarzyna (2023-11-15). "Bikiniarze w "Przekroju". Podwójna narracja". Zagadnienia Rodzajów Literackich / The Problems of Literary Genres (in Polish). 66 (2): 219–233. doi:10.26485/ZRL/2023/66.2/4. hdl: 11089/49072 . ISSN   2451-0335.
  5. ↑ Literatura współczesna "źle obecna" w szkole: antologia tekstów literackich i pomocniczych dla klas maturalnych (in Polish). Zakład Narod. im. Ossolińskich. 1990. p. 206. ISBN   978-83-04-03698-7 . Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  6. ↑ "Przęglad artystyczno literacki" (in Polish). WIT-GRAF. 2002. p. 45. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  7. ↑ "Subkultury: Bikiniarze i Gitowcy". To My Kibice! (in Polish). 10 (121): 42. October 2011. ISSN   1642-6991.
  8. ↑ Sołtysiak, Grzegorz; Williams, Dorota (January 2017). "Plereza pod naleśnikiem". Tygodnik Przegląd (in Polish). Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  9. ↑ Lebow, Katherine (2013). "The Enlightenment of Kasza". Unfinished Utopia: Nowa Huta, Stalinism, and Polish society, 1949-56. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN   978-0-8014-6886-5.
  10. ↑ Junes, Tom (18 June 2015). "Between political and apolitical: Youth counterculture in communist Poland". eurozine.com. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  11. ↑ "Subkultury: Bikiniarze i Gitowcy". To My Kibice! (in Polish). 10 (121): 42. October 2011. ISSN   1642-6991.
  12. ↑ Lebow, Katherine. "Kontra Kultura: Leisure and Youthful Rebellion in Stalinist Poland". In Crowley, D. & Reid, S. (eds.), Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the Eastern Bloc. United States of America: Northwestern University Press, (2010). p.84.
  13. ↑ Bartlett, Djurdja (June 2013). "Socialist Dandies International: East Europe, 1946-1959" (PDF). Fashion Theory . 17 (3): 266–67. doi:10.2752/175174113X13597248661701. ISSN   1362-704X . Retrieved 18 May 2024.
  14. ↑ Grażyna Kuźnik Chuligani to są ludzie tacy, co mają gdzieś dyscyplinę pracy. Bikiniarze też,, Dziennik Zachodni , February 16, 2019
  15. ↑ Piotr Ambroziewicz, Złote lata polskiej chuliganerii 1950-1960, 2018, ISBN   9788301198527
  16. ↑ Applebaum, Anne (21 November 2012). "Before There Was Pussy Riot..." huffpost.com. The Blog. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  17. ↑ Kowalska, Justyna (15 February 2023). "Trendy w modzie "robotniczej" w Polskiej Kronice Filmowej" [Trends in ‘Working-Class’ Fashion in the Polish Film Chronicle](PDF). repozytorium.uwb.edu.pl (Article) (in Polish). pp. 133–134. ISSN   2451-3539.
  18. ↑ Sołtysiak, Grzegorz; Williams, Dorota (January 2017). "Plereza pod naleśnikiem". Tygodnik Przegląd (in Polish). Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  19. ↑ Applebaum, Anne (21 November 2012). "Before There Was Pussy Riot..." huffpost.com. The Blog. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  20. ↑ Junes, Tom (18 June 2015). "Between political and apolitical: Youth counterculture in communist Poland". eurozine.com. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  21. ↑ Bretan, Juliette (23 January 2022). "The Striped-Sock-Wearing Polish Beatniks: The Life & Styles of the Bikiniarze". culture.pl. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  22. ↑ Mruk, Joanna. "Buty na Słoninie: Bikiniarze i Zbuntowana Moda w Powojennej Polsce". Historia Poszukaj (in Polish). Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  23. ↑ Pasewicz-Rybacka, Magdalena (October 2017). "Communists and bikini boys: The struggle for a proper look in the People's Poland". Contemporanea. The clothing of politics (XIXth-XXth centuries). 2 (4): 617. doi:10.1409/88344. ISSN   1127-3070 . Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  24. ↑ Sołtysiak, Grzegorz; Williams, Dorota (January 2017). "Plereza pod naleśnikiem". Tygodnik Przegląd (in Polish). Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  25. ↑ Bartlett, Djurdja (June 2013). "Socialist Dandies International: East Europe, 1946-1959" (PDF). Fashion Theory . 17 (3): 271. doi:10.2752/175174113X13597248661701. ISSN   1362-704X . Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  26. ↑ Sołtysiak, Grzegorz; Williams, Dorota (January 2017). "Plereza pod naleśnikiem". Tygodnik Przegląd (in Polish). Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  27. ↑ Bartlett, Djurdja (June 2013). "Socialist Dandies International: East Europe, 1946-1959" (PDF). Fashion Theory . 17 (3): 285. doi:10.2752/175174113X13597248661701. ISSN   1362-704X . Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  28. ↑ Lebow, Katherine (2013). "The Enlightenment of Kasza". Unfinished Utopia: Nowa Huta, Stalinism, and Polish society, 1949-56. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 145. ISBN   978-0-8014-6886-5. [They] were a challenge and an appeal, they were a charter of human rights. These socks spoke for the right to be different, or even to be silly. They declared: 'This is me, this is me. I don't want to be one of many; it's enough to be one of two.'
  29. 1 2 Potocki, Rodger P. (1994). "The Life and Times of Poland's "Bikini Boys"". The Polish Review. 39 (3): 259–290. ISSN   0032-2970. JSTOR   25778801.
  30. ↑ Pasewicz-Rybacka, Magdalena (October 2017). "Communists and bikini boys: The struggle for a proper look in the People's Poland". Contemporanea. The clothing of politics (XIXth-XXth centuries). 2 (4). doi:10.1409/88344. ISSN   1127-3070 . Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  31. ↑ Lebow, Katherine. "Kontra Kultura: Leisure and Youthful Rebellion in Stalinist Poland". In Crowley, D. & Reid, S. (eds.), Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the Eastern Bloc. United States of America: Northwestern University Press, (2010). p.72-73.
  32. ↑ BIKINIARZE @ Filmweb
  33. ↑ Fahlenbrach, K.; Klimke, M.; Scharloth, J.; Wong, L. (2012-01-02). The Establishment Responds: Power, Politics, and Protest since 1945. Springer. p. 200. ISBN   978-0-230-11983-3.
  34. ↑ Potápky, páskové, chuligáni
  1. ↑ Lemańska, Helena; Szelubski, Jerzy; Łapicki, Andrzej; Janik, Wiktor; Zawarski, Stefan. Kaźmierczak, Wacław (ed.). Operator was podpatrzył [An Operator Snooped on You](Newsreel) (in Polish). Warsaw: Polish Film Chronicle.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.