If you’ve spent any time on the internet recently, it’s likely you’ve stumbled across some form of content related to 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. From Hollywood red carpets filled with extremely thin celebrities to influencers posting restrictive “what I eat in a day” videos to the direct promotion of weight-loss drugs, there’s no shortage of problematic body standard discourse on the internet.
While the discussion of body size has been present in online spaces for a while, I’ve noticed as it increasingly permeates into everyday interactions and conversations. I’ve talked to friends who want to buy peptides so they can lose weight. I’ve overheard self-deprecating comments about body appearance and food intake. And, gradually, I’ve witnessed skinny culture distort young women’s perceptions of health.
This damaging rhetoric has already begun to harm the wellbeing of young women — those most susceptible to disordered eating habits like anorexia and bulimia. In recent years, eating disorder rates among young women have risen, with about 12% of adolescent girls experiencing any eating disorder and between 19% and 30% of college-aged women experiencing anorexia or bulimia.
In order to combat the mental toll skinny culture is taking on young women, it’s necessary to confront the problematic roots it stems from and the ways in which it persists in modern political and social landscapes. This rise in skinny culture, while influenced by a wide variety of cultural factors, has concerning ties to the rise in far-right extremist ideology, particularly white supremacy and misogyny.
First, it’s important to understand that this is not an isolated event. Thinness has nearly always been an aspect of American beauty standards. That said, there have been periods of time when thinness was not idolized or pursued to the same extent.
Consider the body positivity movement, for example. This movement — defined by the rejection of diet culture and pursuit of self-acceptance — can be traced back to the 1960s, with the key phrase “body positive” later becoming a buzzphrase on the internet in the 2010s. In 2020, the body positivity movement gained widespread popularity, particularly online. During the pandemic, many social media influencers began creating videos that encouraged women to love themselves, and many of them achieved virality. Research suggests that exposure to such content was associated with higher levels of positive body image among young women. While the movement received valid criticisms, it seemed to temporarily improve young women’s sense of confidence and relationship with their bodies.
In contrast to the promotion of body inclusivity, now there is an exaggerated emphasis on thinness as the beauty ideal. This shift was by no means immediate. In recent years, there has been a gradual return to thinness as the prominent beauty standard, seemingly coinciding with the rise of far-right conservative ideology and political prominence. While it may seem like a stretch to imply body-related beauty standards are connected to the political zeitgeist, it’s not an unfounded connection.
The idea of thin-supremacy has long been tied to ideas of white superiority, and modern prejudices regarding weight are closely linked to the notions of racial hierarchy. Historical analysis demonstrates that European colonialism is directly responsible for shaping fatphobia. This stems from the Enlightenment period. As interracial procreation rose in the colonies, using skin tones for racial distinction became more ambiguous. As an alternative to skin color, body sizes and shapes were increasingly used as an indicator of race. Colonizers suggested that Black women were naturally voracious and therefore naturally had fuller body types. This racist discourse treated larger body size as an indicator of poor discipline, gluttony and lack of civilization, thus shifting Eurocentric beauty standards toward thinness.
Ultimately, fatphobia and modern preferences for thinness emerged from vilification of Black women and their body types.
While fatphobia doesn’t necessarily function in this same way anymore, the fundamental, bigoted ideas of white superiority persist. In fact, they are quite prominent. President Donald Trump frequently propagates racist, sexist and xenophobic rhetoric. And during the 2016 election, these beliefs drove his success. Not only has he continuously spewed hate speech from a position of political power, his behavior has reshaped American prejudices.
Today, amid Trump’s second presidential term, we have witnessed a sharp increase in institutional hostility toward civil rights, accompanied by the amplified visibility and political potency of racist ideologies.
The hateful and racist nature of Trump’s rhetoric, while deeply problematic at face value, has further, potentially unnoticeable consequences. Political administrations that escalate and normalize racism do not exist in a vacuum; they heavily impact social and cultural phenomena, such as promoting Eurocentric body standards that ultimately damage the wellbeing of young women.
The president — a central figure and leader within the global far-right movement — has made countless public remarks in which he negatively comments on women’s bodies. From explicitly calling women fat to shaming their eating habits, he seems to see no issue with body shaming.
Weight-stigmatizing attitudes are also more likely to be held by those who hold right-wing values. More specifically, these stigmas have roots in fundamental political values, such as the perceived moral importance of work or effort — which is strongly associated with political conservatism. There is a common misconception, or stereotype, that a person’s body size is inherently indicative of their willpower or laziness. Thus, it follows that far-right individuals are more likely to maintain fatphobic biases or prejudices.
In a broader sense, the larger conservative movement also plays a role in skinny culture. The tradwife subculture, for example, not only raises concerns about impact on female autonomy and independence, but also typically platforms thin, white women and promotes a very narrow definition of beauty. In this sense, conservatism and restrictive gender roles are tied to this cultural movement toward thin beauty standards.
In Naomi Wolf’s “The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women,” she explores the cultural fixation on thinness, asserting that it is caused by an obsession with female obedience.
“Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one,” she wrote.
As far-right ideologies become more mainstream, a culture emerges where women’s rights are being targeted, and female submission is encouraged. Amid this political and cultural shift, it’s concerning that women are pressured to shrink themselves and effectively take up as little space as possible — both literally and figuratively.
It’s important to note that the correlation between far-right ideology and skinny culture is not necessarily a direct relationship. There have been politically progressive eras with beauty standards still characterized by extreme thinness. Take the “heroin-chic” era for example: The 1990s fashion aesthetic praised emaciated figures defined by sick or exhausted appearances. It peaked in popularity during former Democratic President Bill Clinton’s time in office.
There are a wide variety of factors besides politics responsible for the glorification of skinniness. Online platforms, celebrity influence and social validation are some of the many cultural influences that explain the ever-changing nature of beauty standards. That said, the presence of other factors does not negate politics’ impact. Shifts toward far-right political ideologies can infiltrate everyday cultural elements, manifesting as trends — like skinny culture — that are unrelated to politics at first glance.
Skinny culture has serious and potentially fatal consequences for those who fall into its destructive rhetoric. Eating disorders are extremely dangerous, and anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric or mental health illness. This is not an abstract beauty standard, but a cultural phenomenon that has the power to devastate the confidence and health of millions of individuals.
It’s nearly impossible to avoid the online content and daily interactions that idealize thinness. But at the very least, we must remain educated and understand the ideologies and cultural factors contributing to its resurgence, all while showing young women that the idealization of thinness is not something to be accepted and perpetuated, but recognized and condemned.
Avery Allen is a Senior Editor who writes about American politics and culture. She can be reached at averyea@umich.edu
