There’s been a lot of talk recently about negative female body image and society’s concepts of what is and what isn’t beautiful. And as people who spend a whole lot of time photographing women of all kinds of shape and size, you can bet your ass we have an opinion on this!
Things kicked off with a pretty dumb advert by a certain fitness supplement company (who shall remain nameless – they don’t need the publicity). To cut a very long story short, their ad featured a honed and toned model in a bikini with the strapline ‘Are you beach body ready? in an attempt to make you buy their weight-loss product. And, needless to say, a lot of people have taken exception to this kind of elitist, body-shaming approach to advertising a diet product.
At Boudoir we believe strongly that EVERY body is beautiful – it’s at the core of what we do and always has been. Our customers are normal women, with normal bodies that come in all manner of different shapes, sizes and ages. And we wouldn’t have it any other way! The joy for us is making every woman who visits us feel special, different and beautiful in her own unique way.
Every body is beautiful
So, as you can imagine, we HATE the idea of people being made to feel like they have to conform to a stereotypical ideal of slimness before they can be seen on a beach this summer. And we’re not alone in thinking this.
The backlash against the ‘Are you beach body ready’ advert was massive, with a counter hashtag of #EachBodysReady trending on Twitter and many women taking to social media to express their disgust at the attitude behind the original campaign. You can read more about the impact of this kind of body-shaming in an excellent blog post from comedian Juliette Burton.
Are you ready for this beach body?
But what we really, REALLY love is the counter campaign by swimwear company swimsuitsforall.com. They produced their own version of the original ad, featuring plus-size model Ashley Graham and with the tweaked strapline of ‘Are you ready for this beach body?’.
It’s a glorious two-fingered salute to the fitness company. It takes their narrow-minded view of beauty and throws it back in their face with the contempt it deserves.
It says ‘You think I’m not slim enough to rock this swimwear?? Well think again, buster! I’m not just gonna rock it, I’m gonna look better than your model AND turn a lot more heads. So put that in your pipe and smoke it!’
We love the sass and style of swimsuitsforall’s ad. And we know that plenty of women out there feel exactly the same.
Beauty is different for every woman
There’s nothing wrong with taking care of yourself, being healthy and taking an interest in your own fitness – some of our fav customers have been gym bunnies and fitness lovers, after all.
But we’re definitely NOT exclusive. We love making a woman feel glamourous whether she’s a size 10 or a size 16. And part of the whole Boudoir experience is about making that woman feel confident, sassy and sexy, regardless of her size and shape.
Being a sexy, self-assured woman has nothing to do with six-packs and ‘beach bodies’. It’s about having the confidence to slip on your slinky swimwear and strut your stuff on the beach without a worry or care about what anyone else thinks.
So, ladies, don’t listen to the haters. You’re all beautiful. And you all have a beach body that’s all your own and ready for any summer action you want to throw at it.
Are you ready for this beach body? You bet we are!
Want to capture your own unique style on camera this summer? Check out our shoot options here