Things I Dislike About Summer

First things first: I really love summer. It’s my favourite season of the year and I live for basking in the sun (even though I burn!). There are, however, a few things that don’t sit well with me about summer, which I think get overlooked! Here is a rant about some of those things:

Disposable Barbeques

As someone who adores cooking, I am a very keen on barbequing. I have my little fold-away barbeque that I take camping with me and it works perfectly in the alleyway of my flat! I usually just cook at home for simplicity and easy-cleaning. Then there are disposable barbeques… Why are people obsessed with them?! Its a very wasteful way to cook.

They come with a whole multitude of problems. They are completely non-recyclable meaning that they end up in landfill after their single use. They’re really difficult to cook successfully on – there is always only one tiny bit in the corner that will actually cook things. If you don’t properly set them up using that silly little wire stand, they burn rectangular patches into the grass. Then, there is the litter! The film often blows away and the metal stand is very often discarded. Some people just put the whole barbeque in the bin – embers and all! This leads to multiple bin fires, which are extremely dangerous!

Yes, I recommend you avoid these single-use barbeques! Their environmental impact is far greater than you may first realise.

Bikini Body Expectations

Where do I start with this one? The indirect body shaming that takes place on social media makes my blood boil. How on earth is it acceptable to promote the idea that people should have to have a certain physique to wear a swimsuit? Its not.

I think think that lockdown has perpetuated the problem even more. I often get targeted with adverts on instagram saying that I should be working on my “summer bod” during lockdown. I don’t appreciate anyone telling me what I should look like. Men don’t escape this treatment. I see similar adverts, aimed at men to “get ripped for summer”. What’s that all about? Leave peoples’ bodies alone and stop pumping them with expectations that they have to visually appear a certain way!

Disposable Cameras

If I’m honest, you’ve probably caught on that disposable anything makes me angry but disposable cameras are just pathetic. I understand that sometimes they are practical for children’s holidays or a festival and I’m not getting at that at all. It’s when people buy them to take photos within day-to-day life only to get them developed and then take a photo of the photo on their IPhone. What’s the point?

Although some parts of the cameras are recyclable, they are normally produced in mass quantities for a cheap price meaning separating components for recycling can be challenging. Therefore, they just go to landfill after taking 20-40 photos. Wow, all of that for maybe 3 good photos (if you’re lucky!) Just download Huji…

Festival Glitter

I really dislike glitter. People were very quick to get on-board with the anti-microbead campaigns but this is no different. Glitter is just lots of tiny shiny bits of plastic. Its all the rage at festivals to put this round your eyes, in your beard, down your hair parting or pretty much any part of your body. Don’t get me wrong, I think it looks very eye-catching but how do you remove this at the end of the day? In the shower? In the bath? However you choose to wash yourself, its more likely than not that you will just wash these micro-plastics straight down the drain.

These tiny micro-plastics get washed into the waterways and are consumed by plankton, fish, birds and eventually us. Detrimental is an understatement. Maybe you should just avoid glitter… just an idea…

Summer Fashion

A lot of fast fashion brands love to persuade you to update your “summer wardrobe” throughout the season. Sunglasses crazes drive me mad. How can they trick us into buying a different shaped pair of sunglasses every year? There is always so much advertising that goes into promoting the summer fashion. From bikinis to bucket hats, from sandals to shorts (or skorts – remember that craze?), from festival wellies to fitness flip-flops. Its all just fast-fashion and it drives me up the wall!

I am a firm believer that people should just be able to wear whatever they feel confident and comfortable in. How the fast fashion brands can convince you that your current wardrobe contents isn’t sufficient for the summer season is ludicrous.

Anyway, that’s probably enough ranting for today! Maybe I will do a post on all of the “things I like about Summer” because there are lots of fantastic things about my favourite season!

Enjoy your day.

Floss

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