By Maddie Schmidt
Over the last couple weeks, pictures from the Oscars red carpet have been flooding my social media. As I see photo after photo of celebrities walking the carpet, I can’t help but notice a concerning pattern of dramatically thinner bodies being presented as the new ideal.
This got me thinking about the body positivity movement, which began as a push against the use of unrealistic beauty standards that caused shame and discrimination against people who didn’t fit those standards.
Somewhere along the way, however, that message shifted into something else entirely.
Of course, no one should be shamed or dehumanized because of their body. But there is a difference between treating people with respect and dignity and promoting the idea that all body sizes result in positive health outcomes.
Some aspects of the modern body positivity movement blur the lines between reducing shame and simply downplaying legitimate health concerns that result from being either over or underweight.
Once the cultural message becomes “you’re perfect as you are, no matter what,” it leaves little room for important cultural conversations about health, including change, prevention or long-term goals and well-being.
Cutting out shame is both valuable and necessary. But if that is where the movement stops, we risk replacing one extreme with another, turning from harsh judgment to complete silence about health.
Body positivity is an increasingly confusing matter when we take celebrity examples into account. We often see the opposite end of the spectrum at events such as the Oscars, which often still doesn’t showcase “fit” or “healthy” role models. Instead, we are bombarded with big names showing up increasingly thinner to each event.
We should celebrate people achieving health goals and making lifestyle improvements. But recently, many celebrities whose weight and health have been under scrutiny already appeared to be at a healthy weight. I see constant chatter online about whether or not these celebrities are overdoing it, as well as endless discussion about the escalating trend of extreme thinness.
There’s a point where the goal of weight loss stops being about health and starts being about chasing an ever-changing aesthetic ideal. Celebrities might operate under extreme scrutiny, but the patterns we see as a society still shape cultural expectations.
For a time, there seemed to be a brief reprieve from the ultra-thin body expectations, particularly from 2012 to 2019.
However, since 2020, reemerging examples of extreme thinness and rapid weight-loss culture are being pushed by socialites at the top.
And on a broader scale, we are flooded with messaging that discourages acknowledging health risks. So where does that leave us?
The result is a culture that pushes two conflicting signals at once. On one hand, we are experiencing an elite push toward ever-thinner bodies, and, on the other hand, we are hounded by a public message that discourages honest conversations about health.
The middle ground is what we are missing as a society. We should not remain complacent about health or refuse to acknowledge when it is at risk.
Our goal should be to conduct a healthy lifestyle, not to fit the aesthetic that we think is the trendiest. If we are sacrificing our well-being for the sake of our image, then we are doing it wrong.
A healthier cultural message would contend with two ideas at once: People deserve respect and dignity at any size, yet health is still worth pursuing, even when that conversation is uncomfortable.
