Fatkinis

So I spend the majority of my time on Instagram looking at hashtags like #weightlossbeforeandafter or #70poundsgone. In my idle searching today I stumbled across an image that also had the hashtag #fatkini, which made me go, "huh?" So I followed it. What I came across was hundreds of images of women of all sizes in bathing suits of this cut:

There were different patterns and different makes but the message from all the women was all the same: "hooray for this bathing suit! hooray for the way it makes me feel! hooray for allowing me to show off what I've got!"

So I went online and google searched "fatkini," which lead me to this blog post: http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/07/10-reasons-i-love-my-fatkini/ . The whole article is worth a read but her reason number four is what really hit home for me:

4. My fatkini is my claim to visibility and an open invitation to admire me, flirt with me, and worship me (do please make sure to ask first!).

What resonated was the idea of needing to extend that invitation. My mother has, for a long time, told me that the weight I carried was a barrier, a go away sign, a huge wall put up between myself and intimacy. I listened and I heard but I didn't truly believe it until I started to take these walls down. It's frightening and exhilarating to begin extending that invitation, to believe that I am worth admiration, flirtation, and worship. It's difficult and I've used countless people and tools to let me do it. What I loved about these images and messages and tumblrs and instagrams and everything I've been looking at today is that all of these women are actively inviting. Personally, it took half a year or so and 50 pounds or so for me to feel like I could/can start inviting. It was inspiring to see that just a swimsuit enabled thousands of women to extend that invitation.

According to the articles I've read, when the designer GabiFresh (pictured above, modeling her own work) first released these suits they sold out nearly immediately. There are still orders on back-order as the production company scrambles to keep up with the demand. To that I say: amen. A-fucking-men. Because we all deserve to be adored, flirted with, and worshiped. And  more importantly: we all deserve to feel like we should be adored, flirted with, and worshiped.