Strong is Beautiful

A campaign to encourage young women to stay in sport has raised quite a few conversations and concerns. It has had some negative opinions but personally I believe in the campaign. It has a deeper meaning. 

Bluebella have created a campaign with women’s GB athletes for a reason. It’s not about sexualising women, in fact quite the opposite. Classic societal stereotypes create a negative narrative that is the reason this campaign has been created. Women in sport have always had the perception of looking manly because they are strong, muscular or play a “man’s sport”. Sport is a place where men dominate and women don’t get the same representation. What this campaign is trying to highlight is that no matter the sport you play, as a woman, you can still tap into your feminine energy. 

It creates an argument that if male athletes were to do the same, which they have campaigns in their underwear, there isn’t the same judgement and negativity that women face. Men are seen as successful strong characters when topless but women are sexualised no matter if they are clothed or not. The campaign is portraying strong, determined women. That is a positive thing and should be celebrated. The campaign wants to encourage women and young girls to feel confident within themselves and love sport. The GB female athletes are wearing lingerie purposefully to grab the attention of society knowing it’s always been a negative or taboo subject, rather than something that is celebrated: being a women. Strong muscular women are often perceived as manly or not very feminine. Their success is often overlooked by the way they look. The purpose of this campaign is to switch that narrative and show that strong is beautiful and strong is feminine. 

Society needs to change their backwards attitudes and open their eyes to why this is such a positive campaign. Stop sexualising women being successful and confident in themselves. That’s why this campaign has been made in the first place, society pushes women down to feel worthless when there is so much to celebrate. A successful male athlete in a shirtless campaign doesn’t lose his credibility however, for women they do? Just goes to show that the societal views on women have not changed.

https://www.bluebella.com/pages/strong-is-beautiful