When I say hot girl summer, I don’t mean women celebrating their bodies and each other, I’m talking about women and girls feeling pressured to diet so they look good in a bikini. If you use the phrase for what I assume Meg Thee Stallion meant, to big yourself or your friends up, then you go hot girl summer, I’m here for it. But if you say it to stop yourself or someone doing something, then I’m not.
Sorry I’ve been M.I.A for so many months, uni work has been my focus, but I have finally finished and I’m looking forward to a summer of eating amazing food, seeing my friends, sipping cocktails, and (hopefully) getting a job before I head off travelling.
Trigger warning: talking about diets, body image and eating disorders.
Since Boris announced the stages of getting back to normality, I have heard and seen on social media so many women talking about losing weight or not eating something because summer is approaching. I’m all for people being healthy and working on themselves for themselves, but I don’t like when we feel we must to look okay or be accepted. If someone doesn’t accept you for how you are, then they don’t deserve your time or consideration anyway.
There are a lot of diets out there so it can be confusing what is good. If you do decide you want to do a particular diet, make sure you research them all and weigh up the pros and cons, and please avoid all these diet teas and products that promise to make you lose loads of weight. Even if your favourite celebrity or influencer is promising they work, they’ll probably make you ill and some have long term health effects. And make sure you are doing it for you and only you, and not to look like anyone else!
Lockdown has meant for a lot of people, myself included, they’ve put on a bit of weight or aren’t in the shape they were last summer. But who cares!! This past year has been a weird one for everyone and we haven’t all been able to pop to the gym or have a home gym set up. Your body looked after you through a global pandemic, so give it a break. When you’re feeling pressured to go to the gym or diet just because you feel you have to and not because you want to, remember that and we’re all in a similar position. I have personally found myself going to the gym just because I wanted to stay slim for bikini season, and not because I wanted to or enjoyed it.
There is already too much pressure on everyone to fit into society’s expectation of our bodies, so why place more on ourselves by turning something meant to be positive into a reason to change. So, when I say hot girl summer, I mean I’m fine the way I am and I’ll look amazing in a bikini no matter what size my thighs and stomach are. I’ll also be saying, size up girl summer, fed girl summer, all the pasta you want girl summer, gimme the gin girl summer, cocktails all around girl summer.
Don’t get me wrong, I say all this but I do still feel pressure to look a certain way, especially when summer comes around. A lot of the time it isn’t out right comments or someone telling me I’ve put on weight, it is subtle comments or jokes like hot girl summer that make me feel I need to lose weight and tone up. Most people use it as a joke or about themselves but this can be particularly triggering for people with a previous or current eating disorder.
So ladies, let’s use it to celebrate each other rather than pressure each other, and have a truly hot girl, appreciating each other, amazing food eating, good times, cocktail drinking summer.
