Adidas has recently launched a new campaign that is all about body positivity whilst wearing swimwear. The ‘My Body, My Swim’ campaign was modelled by a range of supposedly ‘body-diverse’ women and headlined by presenter Maya Jama. The collection invited women to discuss their experiences of accepting their bodies in the hopes of empowering other women. The campaign was intended as a cry for women to “embrace and befriend” their bodies, however, it has received much backlash. Many have expressed their disappointment with the use of already stereotypically desirable bodies. Whilst the models themselves were not blamed for taking part, many feel as though the brand should have made a conscious effort to include a wider range of body diverse models for their shoot.

The use of conventionally attractive models to sell products under the guise of body positivity defeats the object of the cause. The notion of spreading the message of body positivity becomes futile when those who represent it are not showcased. Many have criticised the choice to place Maya Jama at the front of the campaign, rather than just being a part of it when she represents the ‘ideal’ female image. This does not
suggest by any means that women with the ‘ideal’ body type should feel attacked or that they do not deserve to be represented, it simply notes that they should not be the sole representation of the female form. The media has become almost obsessed with this one body type in mind, therefore attempting to embrace what you are given is almost impossible when it is never represented by brands in the first
place.

In today’s society, brands should not only be making more of an effort to feature all body types but to ensure that their clothes are inclusive. The campaign highlighted another common issue within clothing brands – that they do not always provide enough sizes so that people of all shapes may wear their clothes. There were limited styles of swimwear available over a size XL on the Adidas website. This sends a negative message out to women who do not fit the size bracket, it suggests that to wear beautiful clothes you too must fit into the socially acceptable view of beauty. For far too long, women who do not fit into ‘standard’ clothing sizes have had difficulty walking into shops and leaving with something they could wear. It is absurd that a brand focusing on body positivity does not accommodate its clothes to a large number of women, making fashion a negative experience for many, rather than something that empowers them.

Diversity within the modelling industry is without a doubt improving, however, it is happening at a very slow pace. People are heavily influenced by the media and so it comes as no surprise that women are frequently negatively impacted by the pressure to look like the women that are plastered all around them. There is nothing wrong with what is deemed as a ‘skinny’ body yet it is unacceptable that a size two should be considered superior to a size twelve as the media suggests.

Bodies should not be labelled as desirable or ideal, people cannot change who they are or how they look and they should not be expected to change just because the media says so. Body positivity and diversity is crucial because all body types need to be normalised and embraced. We must teach people that the most significant part of a person is not their appearance and their worth is not based on the numbers on a
scale.