Spain has a message for women enjoying a summer of beach fun: “All bodies are beach bodies.”
That’s what Ione Belarra, the country’s social rights minister, tweeted alongside an announcement for a new ad campaign that encourages a carefree season unencumbered by “stereotypes.” The joint effort between the government’s Equality Ministry and Women’s Institute urges women to enjoy the summer “however, wherever, and with whoever you like.”
A poster featuring five women of various body types lounging on a beach is at the heart of the campaign. Some are clad in bathing suits, while one beachgoer appears topless and has a mastectomy scar. The image began circulating Thursday with the slogan “El verano también es nuestro” or “Summer is ours, too.”
The initiative “came about as a response to the fatphobia, hate and questioning of non-normative bodies, particularly women’s bodies that is more pronounced in the summer period,” the Women’s Institute, a Spanish government body, said in a press release, NBC reports.
Society’s standards for how women should look “[take] away our rights and limits how we behave and whether we enjoy public spaces,” Antonia Morillas, the head of the Women’s Institute, told state news outlet Efe, according to the Associated Press,
The Socialist party currently in charge has prioritized women’s rights since coming to power four years ago, the AP reports.
