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  • Women's Health Stops Using "Bikini Body Ready"
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  • Introducing RunwayRiot's My Body My Story: a Deeply Confessional Video Series on Women's Body Image
Virgie Tovar’s Fight for Curve Bikinis and Women’s Bodies
by Lindsay Peoples | August 5, 2016 at 8:00 AM
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With so many brands like Torrid, Ashley Graham’s Swimsuits for All, and Gabby Fresh’s line, it’s hard to remember a time when there weren’t options for curve women to buy swimwear. Buy body activist Virgie Tovars remembers times like those–when she first began writing her book, and spreading the gospel of inclusivity and extended sizes, there weren’t mass brands jumping to include curvy woman. Tovars told KQED, “It is an act of bravery in this culture to wear a bikini as a fat person.”

Her book, “Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion” was a sensation and one of the first books to speak truthfully about loving fashion and it literally not loving you back, periods of when she would starve herself, and her journey to finally loving herself and her body. But now that things have progressed, at least in the swim department, it’s a good feeling to walk into stores Tovars says. “To go out and participate in summer is really an important healing act of radical visibility. It is important for people to realize that every body is a beach body. All you need is a beach and a body.”

 

I washed on shore like this ???????????????????????????????? #merbae Story: After 2 weeks of the demoralizing SF summer fog that was slowly eroding my ability to imagine myself having a bright future, I jumped into my hooptie determined to drive until I found some fucken SUN. Over the Golden Gate Bridge onto Hwy 1. This is where I ended up. #losehatenotweight #merbabe #foc #SummerOfFat

A photo posted by Virgie Tovar (@virgietovar) on Jul 18, 2016 at 4:02pm PDT

 

In particular, I find Tovar’s “Lose Hate Not Weight Babecamp”, an online, four-week program she created that examines the way people and the media refer to curvy women, diet culture and body shame while promoting body acceptance. And because of her increasingly popular status with women, who testify of how much she has helped them, she has come across quite a bit of haters. More specifically, men, who don’t understand why someone like her has an authority on being curvy and stylish and often suggest diet plans or trash her appearance on a Reddit page. But of course, that only makes us love her more; her tenacity, and passion for curvy women is seen not only in her book and tweets, etc. but even more importantly, her actions.

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: bikini, Body Acceptance, Body Image, Body Issues, Body Positivity
About the Author

Lindsay Peoples

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