The launch of a body positivity campaign in Spain with the slogan “Summer is ours too” turned into a huge scandal. It was presented a few days ago by the Spanish Women’s Institute under the Ministry of Equality. Three women complained that the author of the picture used their personal photos on social networks without permission. Also, a prosthetic leg was added to the girl, one missing breast was “added” to another.

The campaign aims to combat stereotypes and protect the rights of women who, for one reason or another, are embarrassed to be seen on the beach. It was announced that the poster was a protest against “fatophobia, hatred and rejection of non-standard bodies”. The picture shows five heroines of different build, age and skin color. One of the women is shown half-naked, her breasts removed.

When the illustration of the artist Arte Mapache was published, it immediately caught the attention of the world media, republished on the page of the Spanish Minister of Social Rights. However, unexpected details soon began to emerge.

British model Shan Green-Lord complained that the illustration showed a photo from Instagram*. The model did not accept this. But most of all, the girl was infuriated that her image was radically edited: she was replaced by a prosthetic leg. Also, the hero of the poster added body hair.

Green-Lord, who lost his leg in a car accident in 2013, says:

Shang said he was shocked “as he had been trying to come to terms with his weirdness for so long”.

Shan Green-Lord

Naomi Nicholas-Williams, a 30-year-old plus-size model from London, said the same thing – her photo was used for a poster, she didn’t know anything about the campaign. According to the girl, this is her personal photo, not a stock photo, so she was very surprised when subscribers sent her a poster. Nayomi gets very angry, but tries to respond with humor:

Niomi Nicholas-Williams

But writer Juliet Fitzpatrick doesn’t see anything funny in what’s going on: her image has also been heavily edited. In reality, both breasts were removed, but the “double” on the poster is a single-breasted woman.

says Juliet.

Juliet Fitzpatrick

Illustrator Arte Mapache has already publicly apologized to the women he photographed without permission. He stated that he didn’t want to offend them, he just wanted to show how inspiring they were with his examples. It seems that the font used in the poster was also not free, but the artist did not know about it and just took it for his work.

As compensation, Arte offered to share the fee (approximately 4.5 thousand euros) among all the real heroines of the poster.

– telegram channel Good morning, Karl! writes about this story.

*Instagram is owned by Meta, a recognized extremist organization in the Russian Federation.