The campaign’s colorful promotional photo features five women of different builds, ages and ethnic backgrounds enjoying a day in the sun. “Summer is ours too,” it reads. “Enjoy it how, where and with whomever you want.” The campaign also features a topless woman who has undergone a mastectomy.
“All bodies are beach bodies,” said Ione Belarra, socialist minister for the socialist party Podemos. “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 organization behind the initiative, said physical expectations erode women’s self-esteem and deny them their rights. “Diverse bodies, free of gender stereotypes, occupying all spaces. Summer is ours too. Free, equal and diverse,” she tweeted on Wednesday alongside a photo of the campaign.
“Today we toast to a summer for everyone, without stereotypes and aesthetic violence against our bodies,” said the Spanish Women’s Institute.
When leftist leader Cayo Lara said the campaign was absurd and tried to “create a problem where it doesn’t exist”, Podemos hit back in a tweet saying: “If bodies bother you, you can stay home tweeting.”