Spain’s equality ministry has launched a creative summer campaign encouraging women of all shapes and sizes to hit the beach, with the slogan: “Summer is ours too.”
The colourful campaign’s promotional photo features five women of different body types, ages and ethnicities enjoying a day in the sun. “Summer is ours too,” it says. “Enjoy it how, where and with whomever you want.” The campaign also features a woman who has had a mastectomy topless.
“All bodies are beach bodies,” said Ione Belarra, the minister for social rights in Spain’s Socialist-led Podemos party, said. “All bodies are valid and we have the right to enjoy life as we are, without guilt or shame. Summer is for everyone!”
Antonia Morillas, head of the Spanish women’s institute and the organisation behind the initiative, said physical expectations affected women’s self-esteem and denied them their rights.
“Diverse bodies, free of gender stereotypes, occupying all spaces. Summer also belongs to us. Free, equal and diverse,” she tweeted on Wednesday alongside a photo of the campaign.
The women’s institute said: “Today we toast a summer for all, without stereotypes and aesthetic violence against our bodies.”
When left-wing leader Cayo Lara said the campaign was absurd and trying to “create a problem where it doesn’t exist”, Podemos hit back in a tweet with: “If bodies bother you, you can stay home tweeting.”
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