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.
Juliet Fitzpatrick, 60, posed for photographer Amy Barwell in 2019 as part of her ongoing ‘Mastectomy’ photo series
According to Juliet, the issue is “about how my body has been utilized and depicted without my consent,” adding that this appears to be “completely against” the campaign’s message.
Ami Barwell, the photographer who captured a courageous Juliet sitting topless after a double mastectomy, believes the shot was taken from her “Mastectomy” album.
Without doing more digital investigation, she told Mail Online, “I cannot prove 100% that the base picture was stolen from my “Mastectomy” series” given the clear and crude levels of photoshopping used in the advertisement.
There seem to be many parallels, but the so-called “artist” in charge of the advertisement campaign is the only one who can be absolutely certain of the origin of these photos.
“I am angry if these photographs have been used and altered without my authorization.”
Juliet and Amy both claim to have been in touch with the poster’s creator, Arte Mapache, but as of August 1 they had not heard back.
Another British lady, Nyome Nicholas-Williams, 30, of London, has also filed a claim alleging that her picture has been stolen.
The photo, which she claims was altered from one she shared on her Instagram profile, shows her wearing a gold bikini.
When one of her 78,000 followers informed her about the poster, she became aware of it.
The editing of Sian Green-prosthetic Lord’s limb, a 32-year-old mother of one, model, and motivational speaker from Leicester, was described as “beyond unacceptable.” Nyome told the BBC, “I was very taken away since I had never seen it before.” It’s a shot I took on my Instagram; it’s not a stock image.
“It’s disrespectful and impolite,” you say.
She said separately to Metro, “It is simply a reminder that as a Black woman, my body is still policed and as women in general, our bodies are still not ours.”
Amputee Sian, meanwhile, was “shaking with wrath” when she saw the ad.
Mapache altered a bikini photo from her Instagram account by adding a leg and armpit hair that weren’t in the original shot.
The Leicester-based model and motivational speaker who is a mother of one said that the editing was “beyond inappropriate.”
In a video uploaded to Instagram, she stated, “I don’t know how to even convey the amount of rage that I’m experiencing right now.” One of my friends recently informed me that the Spanish government is using my photo for a body-positive campaign, but they have removed my prosthetic limb. I’m really trembling. I am very furious.
The photo shows Nyome Nicholas- Williams, 30, wearing a gold bikini; she claims the photo was altered from one she posted to her Instagram account.
One thing is using my image without my consent. But my body is also being edited by something else.
“My body with my artificial leg.” My God, I’m trembling.
It’s so awful that I literally don’t know what to say.
When she was 24 and on vacation in New York in 2013, Mrs. Green-Lord was hit by a taxi, resulting in the need for a limb amputation.
On Instagram, Ms. Nicholas-Williams goes by the name Curvy Nyome. She claims the campaign’s creator has contacted her and verified she would be paid, but the Spanish government has not yet responded.
A Brazilian model named Raissa Galvao allegedly claimed that her picture had also been used without her permission. The ad was launched last week by Spain’s Institute of Women and Ministry of Equality.
Mapache has apologized publicly, but she hasn’t yet gotten back to all the ladies whose pictures she shot without their consent.
Given the understandable controversy over the illustration’s image rights, the artist said, “I have decided that the best way to make up for any harm that may have come from my actions is to split out the money I got for the work and give equal shares to the persons in the poster.”
“I recognize my faults, and that is why I am now attempting to rectify the harm created,” the speaker says, “I hope to be able to remedy all this as quickly as possible.”
The poster was defended by the Women’s Institute.
The ad, according to a statement from the organization, “is designed as a reaction to fatphobia, intolerance, and the questioning of non-normative bodies, especially those of women, something that’s most common in the summer.”