After several women reported they had been prevented from going topless, the Catalan government launched an advertising campaign to protect the right of women to do so.
The sexualization of women begins when they are young and follows us throughout our whole lives.” In a film made as part of the campaign, it was said that the fact that we must cover our breasts in certain places was evidence.
Following complaints that some women had been prevented from swimming topless in public pools, Spanish authorities have decided that women should do so in order to avoid the sexualization of their bodies and to combat discrimination.
The film also criticizes gender inequality, highlighting the fact that males are more likely than women to go topless.
After Spain’s Left-wing government unveiled its own summer ad campaign urging plus-size and elderly women to enjoy the beach this summer, Catalonia’s Department of Equality and Feminism announced its own initiative.
Slogans like “all bodies are beach bodies” and “summer is ours too” were scrawled over photographs that had been altered in some way, including in one instance over a picture of a lady who had had a mastectomy.
Some people criticized the government for the campaign, calling it patronizing, while others criticized the billboard because their bodies had been altered.
After receiving complaints from two women about being instructed to cover their breasts in public pools, officials at Catalonia’s equality department made the decision to start the campaign.
The initiative, according to Neus Pociello, executive director of the Catalan Women’s Institute, is an effort to push back against prejudice.
“We wanted to attempt to fight the prejudice that women sometimes experience when they wear no top in specific settings, including swimming pools. According to Pociello, women should have the ability to express themselves via their bodies.
This prejudice is caused by the sexualization of women’s bodies, which begins in young girls who wear bikinis even before they reach puberty. With this campaign, we intend to change that.
An image of a guy without a top that has been cropped starts the department’s advertisement. This nipple is free, reads text above the photo (pictured)
It is not usual for you to hide your breasts; this is prejudice, the text states (pictured). We remind you of your rights on World Topless Day because of this, it says, while displaying a pink bikini lying on the ground next to a pool.
An image of a guy without a top that has been cropped starts the department’s advertisement. This nipple is free, it states in the text over the picture. The next image shows a topless lady hiding her nipples with her arm. The text states that this one is not.
It goes on to say, “It’s been that way for as long as you can remember,” while showing a younger girl plunging into a pool.
“Having to conceal your breasts is not natural; it is discrimination,” the speaker said.
The inscription reads, “We remind you of your rights on World Topless Day,” with a pink bikini laying on the ground near to a pool in the background.
Women are permitted to expose their breasts on beaches in Catalonia and the rest of Spain. While restrictions at publicly accessible pools are decided by the local government, those at privately owned pools are decided by their owners.
In 2021, Mariona Trabal, a co-founder of the Free Nipples movement, triumphed in a fight to legalize topless swimming in Barcelona’s public pools.
Despite winning, she admitted to The Telegraph that she thought more young women wore tops at pools than beaches.
The Spanish “beach body” equality billboard has drawn criticism for using Photoshop to alter women’s bodies.
Last month, ladies included in a billboard for a Spanish government “beach body” campaign pointed out that their bodies had been photo-shopped, while others criticized the campaign for being patronizing.
The goal of the poster, which was created by Spain’s Ministry of Equality, was to inspire women to embrace their bodies and enjoy the beach no matter what.
Instead, once those behind the campaign utilized and edited photographs without permission, one of the ladies included called it “rude and insulting.”
The concept of the body positive campaign, according to Juliet Fitzpatrick, 60, who appeared topless in 2019 after a double mastectomy, appears to be “completely against” utilizing and expressing her body without consent.
The text reads, “The summer is ours too,” and the image shows five women of various body shapes unwinding on a beach, one of whom is topless and has had a breast removed after a mastectomy.
The graphic designer who created the billboard insulted two of the ladies by adding a breast to Juliet’s picture and removing the prosthetic leg from model Sian Green-Lord, 32.