Greta Tolich is an environmental management and protection senior and a political opinion columnist for Mustang News. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
Online influencers documenting restrictive “what I eat in a day” routines, celebrities appearing dramatically thinner on red carpets and Clavicular promoting “looksmaxing” — the visibility of weight-loss drugs and peptides is hard to ignore. The underlying message is hard to miss: thinness is back in fashion. So is the rise in “skinny culture” — the idolization of thinness that promotes disordered eating habits and views body size as a measure of beauty and self-worth.
While the idolization started with celebrities and influencers, it’s now spread to the general public. We all probably know someone who has taken or is taking a weight loss drug.
Why is skinny culture a problem?
Skinny culture has become politically divided. Today’s idealization of thinness has been repackaged as a culture that prioritizes health, wellness and discipline — values frequently emphasized in conservative rhetoric about individual responsibility.
Critics believe the spread of this ideology on social media has turned restrictive eating, obsessive food tracking and unhealthy weight loss into aspirational content. The New York Times found that within 30 minutes after downloading TikTok, a teenager will be exposed to eating disorders or self-harm content.
I have heard a peer quote Kate Moss: “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” This phrase glorifies eating less at a time when restrictive eating is increasingly normalized. Eating disorders have more than doubled globally since the year 2000. 28.8 million people will experience an eating disorder in the United States at some point in their lifetime.
Dawson Kelly is the head of Youth Advocacy for Project Reboot, an organization dedicated to helping students build intentional relationships with technology and address social issues related to its overuse.
“These [social media] apps create an environment and infrastructure that normalize unhealthy eating habits and promote glamorized versions of how you’re supposed to look,” Kelly said.
Algorithms incentivize extremes, Kelly explained. They elevate bodies and lifestyles that are outside what most people would encounter on the street. This can distort young people’s understanding of what is normal and desirable, especially when it comes to fitness, health and body image.
“These apps have done a terrible job at protecting young people, specifically young women,” Kelly said.
Yet, this isn’t to say that all people who use weight loss drugs or lose weight have an eating disorder. Obesity is a health issue prevalent in the United States. Some people need weight-loss medication to live a healthier life. However, we cannot ignore the social and political culture that has promoted dramatic weight loss and thinness.
The political roots of thinness
We are in a time where the far right has become increasingly mainstream. I am not saying all thin people are conservative, or that every conservative person promotes thinness. Rather, skinny culture fits into conservative gender norms treating bodies, especially women’s, as something to be controlled and disciplined. Deeper than that, skinny is a system, a market. Women idealize thinness, so they diet, then they try weight loss drugs, eventually they are thin and weak, exactly the ideal woman for conservative men.
Thinking back to the diet culture of the 2000s, celebrities in tabloids, diet culture and Victoria’s Secret models sold thinness as fashionable. The political climate at the time was heavily centered on nationalism after 9/11 with the Bush administration. Abortion, same-sex marriage and religion in public life were prominent social issues at the time. This relationship with skinny culture, with moral purpose, emerged with the Republican Party increasingly drawing support from white evangelical Christians. White evangelical Christians who brought ideals of discipline, purity, and traditional gender roles further into mainstream politics. In that context, thinness became more than a beauty standard – it was treated as proof of self control and moral virtue. Today, Christian diet culture is simply repackaged as health and wellness.
By contrast, throughout COVID-19, the right frequently dismissed the body-positivity movement as another example of the left becoming “woke.” Now the resurgence of heroin chic has arrived alongside the far right becoming mainstream.
American fatphobia has roots in racism and colonialism. European colonial-era writers described Africans and Indians as fat, even though they interacted with a select few. They believed that body weight was an indicator of laziness, lack of discipline and being uncivilized. This culture of fatphobia today reflects something very similar. Yet, the system ignores the lack of institutions like healthcare, socioeconomic inequality, food deserts and disability as reasons for people’s weight. American culture has substituted solving systemic problems with weight loss drugs.
Fat people face real consequences
The term “skinny” or “pretty privilege” is rooted in truth. A study at Cornell found that obese colleagues, even with higher education, earn significantly less than their thinner colleagues. This vilification of body types, rooted in colonial rhetoric towards Black women, has created a socioeconomic effect that millions of Americans experience.
Since President Trump took office, the cost of living has increased by $3,800 for American families. This increase includes the cost of food, rent, mortgage, healthcare and everyday essentials. People can’t afford food to eat, let alone healthy food, while politicians in office and influencers promote discipline and condemn overweight individuals.
Take up space
Christian influencers, like Alex Rose, have tied body weight to Christian ideologies, like gluttony as a sin. Skinny culture is part of a larger system that is promoting conformity to conservative religious values and ostracizing those who physically and socioeconomically don’t fit the norm. Skinny culture wants women to take up less space, literally.
Reject the culture, enjoy food. In a time when socialization is at an all-time low and people feel more isolated than ever, share a meal with your friends. Loving your body is not always easy, but you deserve to exist to your full extent, uninhibited by an impossible body standard.