The angst of the suit

Credit: ABC Family

I’m at the beach getting ready to spend the day in a swimsuit, so I thought it was appropriate to give a little shout out to Nikki Blonsky, not only for literally being the poster girl for big-bodied girls on the show “Huge,” but for appearing IN the show in a bathing suit. It’s one thing to be in a photo that can (and has been) retouched, but quite another to appear on video.

I found the composition of this poster shot to be fascinating. Nikki’s character is supposed to be very confident in her appearance and have no desire to loose weight. However, this poster image is not the picture of confidence. What’s the message here? I can think of several possibilities:

Is it the positive-body-image-is-fake attitude? There are those who will claim that, even though this girl claims to be confident, at heart, she really isn’t. Or, is it that, no matter how confident a girl may be in her body, putting on a bathing suit is a confidence-shaking experience? Or, is it that the vast majority of women, no matter the size, feel uncomfortable in a bathing suit, and feel “Huge”?

Whatever the message, I think she looks cute in the suit, and I post the image to encourage you to get out there and enjoy the summer, and to not avoid activities that you want to participate in due to swimsuit phobia.