I’m happy to ignore beach-body ads
THREE years after fitness and nutrition brand Protein World’s ‘beach body ready’ ads provoked a backlash across the internet, Irish gym chain Flyefit is telling us to “escape Love Handle Island”.
Everyone seems to have an opinion about women’s bodies these days, and they’re not afraid to share them.
It’s late June, which means that too many women’s publications are in full bikini-body crisis mode. “There’s no escaping Love Island,” Flyefit tweeted at us this week. “But you can escape Love Handle Island!”
Honesty, I’m bored with being told what an acceptable shape and size for a woman’s body is. And we all know that all you need for a bikini body is to buy a bikini and to put it on you. However, sometimes all it takes is one tedious but pernicious ad to make us doubt ourselves.
The National Women’s Council of Ireland’s “Looking Glass Survey” found that 41pc of Irish women reported being unhappy or very unhappy with how they look. Negative feelings about how they look stops one-in-five young women from applying for certain jobs.
Social media has the most negative influence on young women’s body image, while advertising has the most negative influence overall on women’s body image. Interestingly, men were far less sensitive to these outside influences, by margins of about 20pc across almost all categories.
The thing is that we rarely see love handles on social media or in magazine shoots. We don’t get to see the wedge of flesh between arm and boob or the slightly furry armpits you forgot to shave. These are all bikini bodies too, but because we rarely see them represented we forget that they exist until we catch a glimpse of ourselves in the mirror.
Referencing ‘Love Island’ in this ad with its participants’ lips pumped with filler, their foreheads smoothed with botox and their breasts inflated to Kardashian proportions isn’t helpful. The reality series has come under fire this year for its lack of body diversity. I’m already tired of watching the usual assortment of dancers and glamour models parading around in their skimpy swimwear and wish they’d throw some girls with bodies like mine into the mix.
I think most people are smart enough to recognise that ads like Flyefit’s promote an unrealistic body type and lifestyle. But the advertising industry needs to take more responsibility for the messages it is sending to women about their bodies, and it should be more honest and inclusive in the ways it portrays us.
Am I beach body ready for 2018? By Protein World and Flyefit’s standards, I’m not. Of course, by real-life standards, I am. We all are. I still question my body when I see myself in a changing room mirror or wear a bikini in public. But I try to remember how I felt when I was a child, when I didn’t think of my body as a collection of problem areas to be fixed and instead thought about all the things I could do with it – like run around in the summer sunshine.
I really enjoyed Amy Schumer’s latest film, ‘I Feel Pretty’, where she plays an average New York woman with insecurities about how she looks that are stopping her from getting ahead in work and love.
After getting a head injury during a particularly intense SoulCycle class, Amy’s character starts believing that she’s somehow been transformed into a supermodel, and it gives her the confidence she needs to start really living her life.
It’s a message that is quite important amid the constant criticism that normal women aren’t hot enough, thin enough or blonde enough.
Being genuinely body positive can be tough. When you’re surrounded by imagery of the body or face or tan that you should have, it can make you question yourself in a way that is very damaging. And crawling out from the hole of self-hate that society has dug for you is a steep climb.
But there are now so many more body positive activists and representation of diverse women on our screens. We have Irish body positivity activists like Sarah Tyrell and Rebecca Flynn.
Actresses like Jennifer Lawrence, Mindy Kaling and Kristen Bell are breaking down Hollywood’s size-zero norm. Online retailer ASOS has made a commitment to diversifying body types, and women of different shapes and sizes are finally being featured in mainstream media.
We’re nowhere near close enough to living in a body positive paradise, but things are getting better and Flyefit has missed a trick in not celebrating diversity.
Now if only all gyms could stick to promoting the amazing health benefits – mental and physical – that come from all types of bodies exercising.
Because I’m staying on Love Handle Island.
‘I’m tired of watching the usual assortment of models parading around in skimpy swim wear. I wish they’d throw some girls with bodies like mine into the mix’