THIS MONTH, host Rebel Wilson opened the BAFTAs by acknowledging her recent weight loss. ‘I might look a bit different from the last time you guys saw me here,’ she said, as a picture of her from 2020 flashed up on screens. The ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots were met with claps and cheers from the audience.
I imagine Rebel had her own reasons for addressing her weight loss – taking back control of the narrative after the extensive commentary around it, perhaps – but the moment felt... uncomfortable. It felt like an explicit show of praise for a smaller body, which is something I hoped we were moving away from. We are, after all, in a time where we are interrogating diet culture and collectively realising that thinness isn’t the best thing a human (and particularly a woman) can achieve.
But, unfortunately, the idealisation of thinness seems to be re-emerging. It was rumoured recently that Kim and Khloé Kardashian have dissolved their infamous bum fillers after they showed off more svelte physiques, which many are taking to herald the end of the ‘slim thick’ body trend that has dominated beauty standards for the past decade.
There also appears to be a renewed obsession with celebrity diets. David Beckham recorded an episode with the River Cafe Table 4 podcast where he revealed that wife Victoria eats ‘only grilled fish, steamed vegetables. She’ll rarely deviate.’ This swept the world and a daytime TV show even had a ‘how to’ segment featuring a chef making the meal.
Meanwhile, Courteney Cox revealed to the Los Angeles Times that during the course of shooting hit sitcom Friends, she and Jennifer Aniston ‘ate the same salad every day for 10 years’. This also made global headlines and went viral on TikTok, with hundreds of accounts detailing their own recipes for the ‘Jennifer Aniston salad’.
This might seem innocuous – they’re just sharing a salad recipe, right? And I’m making no assumptions about how any stars eat. But we are missing big red flags if we don’t acknowledge the dynamic and values at play in sharing and promoting this ‘news’ (Friends ended 18 years ago).
All of this is compounded by the current social media trend for ‘what I eat in a day’ videos, which see creators (who nearly always have their thin bodies on display) document every morsel that they consume, with calorie counts laid over the top, ostensibly to provide ‘inspiration’.
We are missing big red flags if we don’t acknowledge the dynamic and values at play
Often, the total calorie count falls as low as 1,200 – the recommended amount for a small toddler. But even when it’s higher, it’s still unhelpful at best and damaging at worst; there is a vast array of variables that make up our unique nutritional needs. Sticking to a certain calorie limit just because someone on social media does can lead to serious problems with food.
All signs point to ‘thin is back in’, which is scary – especially because we are now aware of the detrimental effects that ideal can have on our physical and mental wellbeing. Let’s remember that not only are body ‘trends’ nonsensical in themselves, but trying to achieve them is a danger to health, and takes us away from true meaning, purpose and happiness – none of which lies in the shape of our bodies.
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