#DropTheTowel Campaign Busts Boring “Beach Body” Stereotypes

It’s summer—the time for complaining about humidity, loading up on SPF 2 million, and heading to the beach. While most people are excited about a good beach trip (screw the sand—the snacks!!), for many women, the experience provokes deep anxiety. That’s why Wear Your Voice magazine created #DropYourTowel, a body-positive hashtag campaign encouraging women to drop their towels and embrace their “beach body,” especially if it doesn’t meet society’s exhausted beauty standards.

Classical beach bodies all tend to look alike—tanned, toned, traditional—which is why Wear Your Voice wanted to create way more diverse (and way more interesting) standards of representation. As Monica Cadena, senior editor of the campaign, told The Huffington Post: “This is a movement for all shapes, sizes, colors, disabilities and genders to proudly proclaim that they are done hiding their already beautiful summer body -- and are ready to lose that cover-up and drop the towel.” Too often, too many women feel the need to hide their bodies under a miserable loose t-shirt or mediocre pair of shorts. While the campaign certainly isn’t dissuading women from wearing what they want, their goal is simple, and meaningful: to make women feel comfortable.

It’s a smart use of social media to solve a slowly-dissipating problem. Check out #DropTheTowel’s photos below, or on Twitter.

(Via The Huffington Post)

[tweet url="https://twitter.com/WearYourVoice/status/622151182262382597/photo/1" author="WEARYOURVOICEMAG" handle="WearYourVoice" text="#Take10MinutesADayTo to say nothing but positive things about yourself. http://bit.ly/1HlkWES #DropTheTowel " date="2015-07-17" time="14:09"]

[tweet url="https://twitter.com/RadicalBodyLove/status/620774835963207680/photo/1" author="Unapologetic Body" handle="RadicalBodyLove" text="#DropTheTowel This Summer! http://buff.ly/1GhIOat " date="2015-07-13" time="19:00"]

[tweet url="https://twitter.com/HighfashionUK/status/622080997824315393/photo/1" author="HIGH FASHION SOCIETY" handle="HighfashionUK" text="Body-Positive Campaign Is Empowering Women To #DropTheTowel by @lannadelgrey http://buff.ly/1J4OqeO @HuffPostWomen " date="2015-07-17" time="09:30"]