When Elizabeth Fournier stopped by Bloomingdale's on Tuesday, she expected to find Nespresso, not body-shaming. However, when the writer reached the 8th floor of the NYC department store, that's exactly what she saw. She was greeted with a sign next to the juicers that had an odd message.
Hey @Bloomingdales how about in 2017 we don't body shame/let women eat what they like? P.S. If your bikini speaks to you pls seek help pic.twitter.com/RLFNSgZPeM
— Lizzie Fournier (@ej_fournier) January 3, 2017
"My mind says pancakes but my bikini says JUICE!" the sign reads, held by the arms of a headless mannequin. It doesn't take much thought to understand the what it's saying: If you want a "bikini body," you better stop eating and start drinking juice.
A lot of old-fashioned ideas lie behind this sentiment, mainly that if you want to wear a bikini you have to lose weight. That small, skinny bodies are required if you want to go to the beach. That now that the new year has begun, a woman must be trying to change her body to fit society's standards. Wrong, wrong, and wrong.
According to a Bloomingdale's spokesperson, that's not at all the message the company was trying to send. "This poster was in no way intended to offend anyone, it is displayed with juicers in our housewares department and was meant to play off how many of us feel in January after over-indulging throughout the holiday season," they told Refinery29. "Our top priority is always customer satisfaction so we have removed the sign."
Let's hope this was just a blip at the beginning of an otherwise body-shaming-free year.