Popular women's health magazine bans phrases 'bikini-body' and 'drop 2 sizes'

A popular women’s magazine has an interesting New Year’s resolution that will encourage women to accept their bodies. The magazine is banning two phrases - “bikini body” and “drop 2 sizes” - from its cover.

Women’s Health magazine’s editor-in-chief Amy Keller Laird announced in a blog post that the staff would no longer use the phrase “bikini body” as it is “actually a misnomer, not to mention an unintentional insult” to women. The magazine arrived at the decision after conducting a survey to find which word or phrase the readers want ban.

“We’re still using two other phrases—'Bikini Body' and 'Drop Two Sizes'—that you want retired. Since our goal is always to pump you up, and never to make you feel bad, here’s our pledge: They’re gone. They’ll no longer appear on Women’s Health covers,” Laird said.

She added that the phrase “bikini-body” implies that a body must be a certain size to wear a two-piece. But the magazine believes that “any body—every body—is a bikini body. You’ve got a shaming, negative undertone that’s become more than annoying.”

The magazine would rather focus on “greater benefits of getting a strong-as-hell core: running, surfing, dancing, climbing, being able to carry a 2-year-old up and down the stairs 10 times a day.”

The blog post then quotes one of the letters it received from a reader who complained that the phrase “bikini-body” emphasizes being skinny, or that wearing bikinis is more important and undermines the need to be healthy. The magazine reiterated that it doesn't want to be “that type of magazine” that focuses on being skinny, so it has decided to drop the phrase.

Laird added that it is common for people to drop a few sizes to look good, but at the same time, she believes it is not healthy and practical to lose “two sizes in a month,” which the magazine has been propogating in its earlier issues. “Sorry, but women in 2016 want stories that, as one reader so aptly suggested, “focus on wellness and less on unrealistic weight-loss goals.” Simply put, 'Drop Two Sizes,' it’s over,” the post concludes.

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