Are you beach body ready? Give me a break...

You must have been living under a rock if you haven't noticed the latest scandal in the world of media, advertising and body shaming...Protein Worlds "Are you beach body ready?" posters, plastered here, there and everywhere. I'm sure you've seen them, great, ugly, bright yellow eye sores plastered all over the place.

Women (and I'm sure some men, although I myself haven't seen any) all over the country have been kicking off. Understandably, right? This poster strongly implies that being "beach body ready" involves looking like the model in the poster. Not only is she likely to have been severely photo shopped, how many women naturally look like that? With the average clothing size in Britain being a 14, I doubt many do. 

I have no problem with the woman in the advert- if I was to be on a beach in a skimpy bikini, I know that is how I would like to look. However, I am sensible enough to know with my build, my curvaceous figure and my eating habits, this is very unlikely. It's not the woman in the poster itself that bothers me, but rather the caption. "Are you beach body ready?" Beach body ready? Who has the power, intelligence and knowledge to define what that means?

Nobody. Because anyone can be beach body ready. Put on a swimsuit, a sunhat and some sunscreen- your body is now ready for a trip to the beach. No where is there a rule that states your body has to weigh a certain amount or look a certain way to be "ready" for the beach. The beach embraces everybody, of all shapes, sizes, genders, races, everybody. 

Many girls have done protests against this poster, which have worked, as it has now been banned. Some of the protests I agree with, and some, as a feminist I do not. A fellow blogger, Fiona, did a protest in London's Underground, standing in her bikini, with another friend in front of this poster- their protest has gone viral, with the likes of Zoe Deschanel getting involved, and being written about in The Independent and Cosmo. It's an amazing achievement and shows how, with the right mentality and attitude, we can make the change we want to see. 

However, protests I did not agree with were those where the woman in the poster was being body shamed. There are several posters where both her body and face have been scribbled over and blacked out in an attempt to hide her scantily clad figure, as well as some even being captioned "cover up". 

I find this disgusting behavior. We are a nation of body shamers, only able to celebrate one body shape if we shame another. If you're slimmer build, there is plenty of insults for the bigger ladies. If you're a bigger girl, there's the standard "only a dog want's a bone" retort. My body is somewhere on the inbetween spectrum. At a size 10/12 I am neither regarded as slim or fat by society- just somewhere in between and therefore not worth causing a fuss over (thank god). Yet I have never felt the need to celebrate my body shape by shaming someone else's. How ridiculous for anybody to feel that they can do this? We don't know people's eating habits, their lifestyle choices, their genetic traits- what gives us the right to insult someone's appearance in order to make us feel better about ourselves? 

A perfect example of this is the retaliation adverts to the Protein World one from Dove. They look like this: 

Whilst yes, I suppose we should commend Dove for not using a standard size 6 model for their advert, I can't help but feel disappointed in their approach. The advert consists of models that I suppose society would deem as "larger", "bigger" or even, "fat". This is an over dramatic statement, supporting bigger ladies and at the same time shunning slimmer ones. Whilst it can be argued that Protein World did the same thing but in role reversal, I think a better response from Dove would be to photograph a variety of women, all different shapes and sizes, including slim and bigger women on a beach...to prove the point that everyone is now trying to argue- ANYONE is beach body ready. By fighting back using larger women, we then exclude slimmer women and almost shame them for not having curves. We didn't like when Protein World did this to larger ladies by using a slimmer model- yet we are retaliating in the same body shaming and insulting way. 

I understand Dove's point and what they're trying to prove, I do. But me, I would have gone about it differently. There's still no variety of models and a body type is still being excluded. As I already said, being beach body ready means getting your body ready for the sun and then going to the beach. It is nothing to do with weight, shape or size. Yet both Protein World and Dove have shown that it is. 

Forget both of these adverts, forget all the adverts that are screaming about summer diets and being beach body ready. What is beach body ready? As I said, it's getting in your swimsuit, slapping on your sunscreen, and donning a sunhat. That is when you're ready. 

Be happy, be healthy and above all else, love yourself. Don't let health companies, the media or advertising define you or how you feel about yourself.

Love from,

Florence Grace