Wednesday 26-10-2016 - 10:41

 

Think kicking balls. Think boxing. Think swimming. Think rugby. That’s right ladies, we rock at all of them. The Sport England campaign “This Girl Can” is our time to recognise and celebrate this fact together.

 

The campaign was launched in 2015 to inspire more women to exercise and was in response to research in the UK that discovered a significant gender gap in exercise levels. According to the official stats, 1.73 million more 14-40-year-old men play sport regularly than women. Further research attributed this to more women being afraid of being judged whilst exercising than men.

 

This Girl Can is about changing these perceptions and picturing women of all shapes, sizes and abilities doing exercising, playing sport and most importantly having fun doing it. The promotional film, which pictures an honest portrayal of women without the usual airbrushing or touching up, has totalled 37 million views. The campaign’s official hashtag has been tweeted over 660,000 times and the Facebook page has over 325,000 likes.

 

Even more impressively, its empowering message and honesty has inspired a staggering 2.8 million of us to do more activity as a result, which is nothing but fantastic. 

 

And now it’s time for This Girl Can to come to Bristol SU. On the week of 7^th November there will be a huge range of classes, trainings and events for us to enjoy! Forget the classic ‘beach body ready’ chat and unrealistic images of touched up models. Getting sweaty, red-face and exhausted is way more fun. Come and get involved, post your pictures on social media and hashtag #ThisBristolGirlCan.

 

“I kick balls. Deal with it.” That’s what she said.  

 

#ThisGirlCan