Bodies at the beach: sea bathing on the Athenian seafront, 1870–1940

ABSTRACT Drawing from Greek newspapers from the period 1870–1940, which preceded the advent of the international massive tourism in Greece, this article examines the relationship between bodies and the beaches on the Athenian seafront within the context of sea bathing. The ways in which this relationship was experienced, represented and regulated became inextricably linked with power dynamics articulated in terms of class, gender and sexuality. Similarly, the practice of sea bathing emerged as an activity vested in meaning that was ascribed by doctors, newspaper chroniclers and gymnasts, while beaches became arenas of contention between the authorities and bathers. Over the last decades of the nineteenth century, the naked bodies of working-class men provoked the fierce reactions of middle-class observers. From 1910 onwards, when a vibrant beach culture had already taken shape, the dissemination of bains-mixtes brought to the fore the female body and its spectacularisation. From this perspective, beach could be considered as one of the social arenas where the expression of modern womanhood emerged.