Content warning: this article discusses eating disorders and disordered behavior.
As a 19-year-old woman, a lot of what I see on the internet is designed to make me feel bad about myself. I started feeling it when I first accessed the internet before I had social media. I would watch YouTube or get ads on computer games that talked about new workout fads or “healthy diets,” something that should not have been introduced to me at such a young age.
One memory will always stick with me. I was in the grocery store checkout line at about 8 or 9, when I saw a magazine cover that read “How to Slim Thighs Fast.” I remember not realizing that thighs were a problem before then. I thought, “who would even care about that?” Looking back on that memory now, it’s sad to think about how I saw this at such a young age and how it stuck with me.
What used to be the cover of a magazine is now everywhere on the internet for girls younger than the age I was when I learned about reviled thighs. Now, diet culture surrounds us. It is inescapable, and it is suffocating. What used to be easier to ignore by not picking up the latest tabloid has become shoved in our faces through the media we consume daily.
Two weeks ago, I was scrolling through X (formerly Twitter) when I got a “thinspo” post on my feed. “Thinspo,” short for “Thin Inspiration,” is a grimy subculture of the internet that shows pictures of very skinny people (primarily young women and girls) for users to have pictures to “inspire” them. “Thinspo” rose to prominence on Tumblr and now houses its supporters on other social media sites, like X. The post was also completed with the hashtag #edtwt, translating to eating disorder Twitter. Using this hashtag, posts encourage eating disorders and include people with eating disorders talking about “hacks” on how to starve themselves more efficiently. These are not the only trends permeating social media to create horrific spaces for young, impressionable minds who are self-conscious about their bodies.
Another recent, noticeable trend on social media is influencers pushing their audience to buy certain products to lose weight or appearing in ads encouraging them to buy weight-loss products. This isn’t new — perfect-seeming celebrities have been centered in weight-loss ads since the beginning of time — but now, instead of young women in magazines or billboards, this content is branded as a “trend,” encouraging people of all ages (which, for apps like TikTok, could start at the youngest a child can consume content) to participate. One of these trends was the “cortisol face,” or a “chubbier” type of face that people seemed to believe was because of high cortisol levels. In reality, high cortisol levels can manifest in anyone, no matter what your size, as cortisol levels vary based on a given situation. However, cortisol was branded as evil, and products began promising to “lower your cortisol levels.”
There are many other things to cover in this diet-culture epidemic: it truly feels like the need to be skinny is overwhelming. After so much work and progress in body liberation and neutrality, are we reverting to older ways of thinking, possibly even worse?
Unfortunately, body sizes go in and out of style. The nineties’ “heroin chic” is back and in full force. And, with new accessibility to weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and an increasingly overwhelming social media feed that tells you to become as skinny as possible, the pressures are undeniable. In Karmalita Fox’s YouTube video, “Skinny is the New Birkin,” she explains how skinniness is seen as a form of currency and status. When you’re skinny, you have money, privilege and “everything figured out in your life.” Of course, women aren’t the sole target of this scary message. Unhealthy messages about men’s health have also circulated on social media, causing a significant rise in body dysmorphia among men.
Even if someone is not a social media user, this content is still shoved in their face online. Advertisements in any app can promote a new weight-loss supplement, a targeted fat-loss surgery or anything that tells the viewer they need to act to fix their bodies. Before, some of this propaganda’s consumption was avoidable; now, it is ingrained into our brains. These trends will have long-lasting damage, such as disordered eating and hormonal dysregulation.
I hope that future generations will collectively learn how to unlearn diet culture sentiments that are pushed in our faces and point out harmful content when we see it. It takes thinking critically about trends or “hacks” and understanding that your body should be treated with respect and love. You do not need to change anything about yourself to please the algorithm’s desires.
Contact Eliana Joftus at joftus@oxy.edu