Woman Fumes As Spanish Government Edits Out Prosthetic Leg In Body Positivity Campaign

A woman who featured in a body positivity campaign from the Spanish government says they edited out her prosthetic leg.

The campaign features illustrations of five women together on a beach with the slogan 'summer is ours too',

The image depicts the five women of different ages and ethnicities, including a topless woman who has had a mastectomy, enjoying the summer weather together.

However, according to the BBC, Sian Green-Lord only found out she was in the campaign when a friend told her about it.

Posting in an Instagram story, she said she had been left 'shaking with rage' after she saw that pictures of her had been edited to remove her prosthetic leg for the promotional image.

Green-Lord, shown in the bottom left of the image, said she didn't 'know how to even explain the amount of anger that I'm feeling right now'.

She said it was one thing to use her image without permission and 'another thing editing my body'.

Describing the campaign's use of her image without her permission as 'beyond wrong', she is not the only model in the image to call out the unauthorised use of her image in the campaign.

British model Nyome Nicholas-Williams also called out the advert on Instagram for featuring her likeness without her permission.

She told UNILAD: "When Instagram censored my images in 2020 it made me feel like I wasn’t in control of my images and how they are received by the public because Instagram removed them.

"In this instance with the Spanish campaign they took my image without my permission edited it without my permission and published it without my permission and consent went out of the window!"

"Women should be in control of their bodies and how it is put out there."

Abro hilo👇🏼

Primero de todo me gustaría pedir públicamente disculpas a las modelos por haberme inspirado en sus fotografías para la campaña “El verano también es nuestro” y por haber utilizado una tipografía sin licencia (pensando que era libre.)

— ArteMapache (@ArteMapacheArt) July 28, 2022

Spain's ministry of equality has not commented on the criticism, but earlier said in a statement: "The campaign is intended as a response to fatphobia, hatred and the questioning of non-normative bodies – particularly those of women, something that’s most prevalent in the summertime."

The artist who made the image has issued a public apology for using people's likeness without their permission, saying she had wanted to use them as an inspiration and never intended to 'abuse' their images.

Arte Mapache said: "Given the justified controversy over the image rights in the illustration, I have decided that the best way to make amends for the damages that may have resulted from my actions is to share out the money I received for the work and give equal parts to the people in the poster."

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