Ilona Maher posed in a bikini for Sports Illustrated. It matters more than you think.
She's won a historic bronze medal at the Olympics. She's the most followed rugby player on Instagram. And now, she's a swimsuit model.
Ilona Maher, a 28-year-old professional rugby player and now-social media star, has burst into the spotlight this year and is continuing to make waves in pop culture − most recently by posing on the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition.
The athlete − whose muscular physique has drawn both praise and cruelty online − opened up to the magazine about the discourse around her body.
“I was always like, you know, called masculine or whatever,” Maher told the outlet. “But I never felt that way. But I don't think you're going to bully the girl who could probably beat you up in a rage. I love that (rugby) showed me what I can do. It showed me how capable my body is and it's not just like a tool to be looked at and objectified.”
Mental health experts encourage people not to underestimate the significance of Maher's words or her bikini shoot. By owning her athletic physique with confidence, experts say, Maher is challenging society's view of what's considered an acceptable body for women, proving it's possible to embrace both strength and femininity.
The message plays into a larger trend among body positivity proponents: Love your body for what it's capable of rather than for how it looks.
"She's saying, 'Appreciate what your body does for you,' " psychotherapist Stephanie Sarkis says of Maher's cover shoot. "Instead of the negativity that many people have, or many women particularly have about their bodies, let's appreciate what it does for us, that it's pretty miraculous that our bodies function the way that they do."
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What has Ilona Maher said about her body?
Maher told the outlet she wasn't always confident in her body. “I was a big girl growing up so I didn’t love being in pictures," she said.
Now, however, she says she appreciates her body for what it's capable of. After all, this body took her to the Olympics, and, soon, it's going to take her to "Dancing with the Stars," where she'll be a contestant.
“If my cellulite was lower in that perfect range, I wouldn't be doing what I could do,” Maher said, “I wouldn't be that powerful for it (so) I just really think sports have been so helpful.”
The fact that Maher is posing for Sports Illustrated's swimsuit cover is also significant. Historically, the magazine has featured women of a specific body type in its swimsuit edition, though in recent years that has begun to shift. By posing on the cover, Maher is saying women of other body types can feel beautiful too.
"Seeing body diversity has a really important impact on mental health," says Alexis Conason, a psychologist, certified eating disorders specialist and the author of the book "The Diet-Free Revolution." "Even for people who don't struggle with eating disorders, research shows that most women are unhappy with their body in some way. And I think that's because we're sold this ideal that there's this incredibly narrow vision or range of acceptable body types, and we should all be striving to fit into that ideal and that it's even possible for us to all fit into that ideal if we just try hard enough."
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Why Ilona Maher's Sports Illustrated cover matters
What's also unique about Maher's swimsuit cover, experts say, is how typical it is. Yes, she's an Olympic athlete. Yes, she's more muscular than most models who have graced the cover. But, other than that, Maher's photoshoot is pretty standard.
It's subtle, but it's important. By treating Maher like any other cover model, the magazine is also sending a message that women with all types of bodies are just as worthy as anyone else.
"Sexiness is not correlated to one specific body type," Sarkis says. "Sexiness can be all different body types. There's no one way that someone needs to be in order to feel attractive or to be attractive."
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Though Maher's cover is a step in the right direction, the athlete cannot singlehandedly solve our culture's issues when it comes to body image. What's more important, experts say, is for parents to model healthy discourse around bodies and beauty standards for their children.
"It starts with how we talk to our kids, how we talk to other people about health and body type and especially educating younger people that any body type is OK," Sarkis says. "A lot of it is role modeling for others body acceptance. And again, I think she's been a real champion of body acceptance, which I think is so important."