Paper Monitor
12:26 UK time, Friday, 24 July 2009
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
If there's one thing that Her Majesty's Press can keep its head held high over is that it's never insular about world affairs (not like those dreadful foreign papers). What more evidence does one need than the attention which has been shown to, of all things, the .
Why, only this week, a report in those pages highlighted an aspect of fashion among young people in France, which has dutifully been repeated here. It's all been sparked by the publication of a sociological study into people's attitudes towards summer. How good that the Brits are so interested in the concerns and reading matter of our continental siblings.
Of course the fact that the trend in question is the decline of topless sunbathing is purely incidental. It's no doubt something of an inconvenience that pictures of bronzed bodies with only tiny triangles of fabric in key locations must be somehow fitted into the news pages. Especially when there's news from Italy about sex tapes apparently involving Silvio Berlusconi to include as well.
So here you are, a handy print-out and keep vocab guide for discussing French attitudes towards topless bathing, garnered from the UK newspapers.
- la nouvelle pudeur - "new modesty" (Daily Telegraph)
- monokini - "the bottom half of a bikini with no top" (Guardian)
- la pudibonderie - "prudishness" (Telegraph)
- le topless - wearing a monokini
- Les Tumultueuses - "a group of young militant feminists, are still fighting for topless bathing rights in public swimming pool" (Guardian)
The Sun is much exercised, asking the question on many people's minds: "[D]o we really want to ban Kelly Brook going topless on the beach?" How on earth to illustrate THAT question is a job for specialists.
Anyone wanting to know exactly what Sun readers think about the issue might consider the online poll the paper is currently running: Do you think it's ok for girls to go topless on the beach? In a shock result, putting even Norwich North into the shade, TWO PER CENT of Sun readers answered "no".
, editor of the Riviera Times, who writes in today's Guardian: "I am happy to advise you that toplessness on the Riviera is no longer an issue, except perhaps for visiting Anglo-Saxons. Women are free to sunbathe topless for whatever reason they choose, without having to analyse the decision in terms of liberation and/or the body beautiful. The bare facts are that the battleground has moved on to total nudity. Many French beach users have reacted to global warming by wearing no clothes at all. But this can also raise Gallic eyebrows, as has happened recently in Cannes. Members of the local yacht club have been disturbed by the sight of totally naked bathers from the windows of the club restaurant. Freedom to parade around nude has rubbed up against the freedom to dine in true French style, totally concentrated on the task to hand. So the nudists have been told to move or face a fine. These are the real issues on the Riviera. Get a grip."
The 
