The Spanish equality ministry has launched a campaign to combat the beauty ideals that pile pressure on women. The message? Come and enjoy the beach just as you are, however you are. The initiative focuses on promoting body positivity while challenging the tyranny of the famous "summer body."
Eating only seeds and fruit while torturing yourself each morning with a series of squats and lunges. Many of us will be familiar with this kind of routine as summer approaches, as we set our sights on the illusive "summer body."
And while this pressure to look good can be felt by everyone, it weighs especially heavily on women. The "summer body" is an idealized body -- thin, muscular and with all requisite parts -- that we feel we "must" reach before the summer, to be able to strip off without shame on the beach or by the pool. But this kind of body goal can be difficult to achieve, and merely serves to reinforce the stigmatization of those who don't succeed in achieving it.
But the Spanish government sees things differently. The country's equality ministry has just launched an extensive awareness campaign on social networks to celebrate all body types. Entitled "El verano tambien es nuestro" ("Summer is ours too"), the campaign features five women of different ages, ethnicities and body types, all enjoying some downtime at the beach.
Beyond the poster's eye-catching kitsch style, the main takeaway is that all bodies are welcome at the beach. Indeed, on closer inspection, the campaign image features one woman has undergone a mastectomy, which isn't stopping her taking to the beach topless.
Antonia Morillas, head of the Spanish women's institute -- the organization that led this initiative -- tweeted in support of "diverse bodies, free of gender stereotypes, occupying all spaces."
El @InstMujeres lanza #ElVeranoEsNuestro. Cuerpos diversos, libres de estereotipos de género, ocupando todos los espacios. El verano también nos pertenece. Libres, iguales y diversas. pic‧twitter.com/BjS3YDaEYR
In recent years, more and more voices have been raised to call out the aesthetic standards imposed on women, paving the way for "body positivity." This movement originated in the United States and advocates the acceptance of all bodies, regardless of their shape, their size, their color or their scars.
And while the notion of the "summer body" has not disappeared, it seems to be less popular than it once was. According to a recent study conducted by Pinterest, the number of searches relating to weight loss on the social network has dropped by 20% as summer approaches.
