Off to Spain? With its ‘All bodies are beach bodies’ message, it’s encouraging women of all shapes and sizes to hit the beach

Spain’s equality ministry has launched a creative summer campaign encouraging women of all shapes and sizes to hit the beach. The colourful campaign’s promotional image features five women of different body types, ages and ethnicities enjoying a day in the sun. “Summer is ours too,” it says. “Enjoy it how, where and with whomever you want.” The campaign also features a topless woman who has had a mastectomy.

“All bodies are beach bodies,” Ione Belarra, the leader of Podemos, who serves as social-rights minister in Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government, says. “All bodies are valid and we have the right to enjoy life as we are, without guilt or shame. Summer is for everyone!”

Antonia Morillas, head of the Spanish women’s institute and the organisation behind the initiative, says physical expectations affect women’s self-esteem and deny them their rights. “Diverse bodies, free of gender stereotypes, occupying all spaces. Summer also belongs to us. Free, equal and diverse,” she tweeted on Wednesday alongside an image from the campaign. The women’s institute said: “Today we toast a summer for all, without stereotypes and aesthetic violence against our bodies.”

When United Left leader Cayo Lara said the campaign was absurd and trying to “create a problem where it doesn’t exist”, Podemos hit back in a tweet with: “If bodies bother you, you can stay home tweeting.” – Guardian