Women’s bodies have always been on the chopping block. Our bodies have been used for pleasure, criticized and critiqued, objectified and put under a microscope. Companies have used this to their advantage, shifting their clothing to fit smaller, or drug companies marketing their type 2 diabetes drug as a weight loss drug — and now we are shocked when celebrities strut their skinniness on red carpets.
Being ‘healthy’ has become a marketable idea. It’s been categorized as a woman being slim, fit, small and skinny. This purposefully forces women into unrealistic and unattainable beauty standards to profit and control them through their insecurities, which those companies have created for that purpose.
I can’t blame these actresses and actors for falling victim to these changes. No, it’s not their fault that drug companies want to make more money, or that clothing brands profit from making their clothes smaller. I also cannot blame them for having negative relationships with their bodies or food, but I can blame them for letting it get as far as it has.
First-year psychology major Rowen Rosario delved into the negative side of celebrities normalizing thinness and implicitly creating a body standard.
“I don’t think there is [one] ideal body,” Rosario said. “Skinniness shouldn’t be normalized at all, because it definitely is for young people. It can be really damaging to fans and people who are still impressionable. It can alter their brain chemistry in a really negative way.”
These women have power in society, whether we like it or not. But the lack of transparency and the rising pressures from advertisements and companies are forcing an agenda down our throats; they have a responsibility to move us all forward, not push us back. Sometimes it feels like we are living in modern-day Hunger Games while these people purposely starve themselves for the aesthetic.
Ozempic and other GLP-1s were originally developed to treat adults with type 2 diabetes. Some celebrities like Meghan Trainor have spoken out about using it for that purpose, to help treat their symptoms and lose weight. But some have obviously been utilizing GLP-1s to lose these drastic amounts of weight, leaving them skin and bones.
First-year marketing major Stephanie Ramirez shared her opinion on the increase in GLP-1 advertisements and media coverage.
“I think it’s too much,” Ramirez said. “It’s being shoved down people’s throats. While it can be helpful for some people, others look at it as a quick way. They think it’s fast and easy, that they will take it and get skinny.”
There are two sides to the movement of weight loss, and they are very different and receive various kinds of criticism. Some people are unfairly angry at Adele or Selena Gomez for losing weight, receiving backlash for wanting to make themselves intentionally healthier in relation to weight. We are not their doctors and have no reason to be angry with them for doing what feels right as long as it’s in a healthy way — which it seems to be.
On the other hand, actresses like Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are creating a beauty standard that is the result of eating disorders or some form of extreme weight loss. Though when they comment on it, they will claim they’re healthy.
Avery Briggs, a first-year speech language and hearing sciences major, highlighted the changes in celebrities’ attitudes around body image.
“Setting any one person as a standard can be damaging,” Briggs said. “I think celebrities and the rise of social media are pushing [a standard] a lot harder and in a lot of different ways than they used to.”
Frankly, for a long time I didn’t find it right to comment on any celebrities’ bodies, because it’s not my business nor anyone else’s. They have doctors and friends to take care of them; it’s not anyone’s job, especially not strangers feeding into parasocial relationships.
At this point, with how many women in Hollywood have been following this pattern of starvation and being sickly, and seeing it affecting women and girls, I am certain there needs to be a change.
GLP-1s shouldn’t be every other ad, companies shouldn’t profit from forcing us into smaller sizes and celebrities shouldn’t be accessorizing with their protruding collar bone. But as a person with little power in the world, here’s what I can give you.
Take care of yourself, eat when you’re hungry and until you’re full, wear clothes that feel comfortable, not a number or size that seems “right,” check in on your friends and remember that you are enough. And you are beautiful the way you are, whatever that looks like.