Leap In Quotes

“The endless use of these images, as well as the pernicious, corrosive and sly term 'bikini body' are phenomena that I would happily see wiped from the face of humanity. Sure, I get that that phrase refers to you being your best for your two weeks in the sun each year, but the damage done by the implication that we are substandard for the remaining fifty weeks is so much greater than any fun and sunshine could repair. It doesn't matter that most women only need to think about wearing swimwear for a fortnight per year — the language around it works on us daily as it drip drip drips on our souls like the salt water hitting Brighton's beautiful wrought-iron seafront. Eventually we are worn down. We begin to believe that a bikini body isn't one that is simply us, wearing a bikini, by the water, relaxed and enjoying ourselves. We begin to believe that it is an unattainable goal, available only to those who buy the right supplements, trainers and cosmetics. We begin to believe that it is a body whose secret is shared discreetly among magazine editors and Instagram superstars only. We begin to believe that it is a body that belongs to other people. It is not *this* shameful body here, always here, beneath our clothes; the body whose shape we have to reveal if we want to experience the glorious freedom of running around a park on a spring day; the body whose flesh we have to expose if we want to feel the gleeful weightlessness of floating in the sea as the sun hits the water like sequins.”
― Alexandra Heminsley, Leap In: A Woman, Some Waves and the Will to Swim

“It had taken years to accept that yes, my body had value, but that value lay more in where it could take me, what it could show me, than in any perceived visual pleasure it could provide for others.”
― Alexandra Heminsley, Leap In: A Woman, Some Waves and the Will to Swim