Abby Crespin ’29 is a prospective history major and sociology minor, on a pre-law track (hopefully!), and a member of Delta Gamma sorority. Abby enjoys skiing, thrifting and unnecessarily overthinking.
The views expressed in the article are the author’s own.
Content warning: this article discusses body image and disordered eating.
As a teenage girl, I will be the first to admit that I care about how I look. A couple of weeks ago, my mirror shattered, and it was more of an inconvenience than I’d like to admit. And while I try to keep this obsession at a low, and, more importantly, healthy level, it seems like everyone and everything on the internet is dead set on encouraging otherwise.
A couple of years ago, “body positivity” was the primary focus of health discussions. The goal of the movement was to encourage equal treatment of all individuals, regardless of opinions, and to promote self-confidence. After radicalizing to an outright justification of unhealthy lifestyles in the name of positivity, I’ve noticed a stark shift in public conception of health. Society has reverted to 2000s standards, now with further reaching indoctrination.
A couple of weeks ago, Disney+ started airing Serena Williams’ ad campaign for Ro, a GLP-1 medication similar to Ozempic. In a 30-second video, Williams argues against the “cheat code” perspective on GLP-1 medication and boasts that the process helped her lose 31 lb. I know nothing about her personal weight loss journey or individual reasoning for using and promoting Ro, but I find it striking that one of the world’s greatest athletes — not to mention female athletes — is the face of weight loss medication. She may have genuine health concerns that justify the necessity of the medication, but no real explanation is featured within the advertisement beyond a mention of postpartum weight loss. As someone who couldn’t even conceptualize being as strong an athlete as she was, I have a lot of trouble not internalizing this message. The first thing that Google suggests upon searching her name is “Serena Williams … weight loss.” If Serena Williams, one of the greatest tennis players to date, with 23 Grand Slam singles titles, is reduced to solely an image of weight loss, how can I maintain a positive image of my own health?
It has reached a point where it’s truly inescapable. Every single time I open my phone, I am bombarded with skinny propaganda, whether it’s ab workouts with “guaranteed results in weeks” or the latest new diet, my algorithm is filled with people telling me that something about my body is wrong. Many creators, whether knowingly or not, advertise disordered eating or discuss food in ways that discourage finding balance. Even the TikTok shop advertisements are posted by clearly chosen body types, so even if I don’t engage with beauty-focused content, it’s still forced down my throat, reinforcing an unrealistic body standard. Further, the plastic surgery industry has grown both rapidly and covertly, leaving individuals unable to distinguish between a product of a really good ab routine or a liposuction.
So, despite my best efforts to prioritize real health, exercise and food for fuel, I find myself caught up in obsessive patterns viewing a thin body as the ultimate standard, regardless of what that means for actual health. Disordered habits, which I know are objectively unhealthy and for the most part ineffective, call out to me in my darkest spirals. Whether I try to avoid the content or not, it shows up as an inescapable message haunting everything I do, and I’m sure I can’t be the only one.
Despite the 180 flip on body positivity, it’s controversial to even say you want to be skinny, despite everyone advertising that you should be. Admitting that the constant media objective has had an impact on my impressionable mind is often received as a fatphobic comment, rather than a byproduct of the unavoidable messaging that lurks throughout my daily life. Discussion on this topic requires a careful balance of calling out the culture without admitting your place in it so as not to offend or trigger anyone. It has grown so taboo that we’ve normalized this new custom.
This sweepingly invasive content is pushed for a single reason: Everyone is trying to sell us something. Whether it’s a weight loss medication, meal and workout plan, or a set of beliefs that provide them with power, creators have an agenda that they intend to sell, fearmongering and degrading the viewer into buying into this set of values — values that keep corporations in power by constructing insecurities and selling the solutions.
