ED Culture Online

By Abigail Byrne, Art by Clara Schreibman

TW: Eating disorders, Body Image, other triggering topics related to these ideas

The resurgence of 90s and early 2000s fashion, known as the Y2K style, is just the latest example of the often cyclical nature of trends in popular culture. However, low-rise jeans are not the only aspect of this period making a comeback — the rampant fatphobia, toxic diet culture, and excessive valorization of thinness that characterized those decades have also made their return. While these ideas have adopted new, more palatable facades, their pernicious effects and roots in patriarchal, oppressive systems have not changed. 

There’s been an ideal body-type for women throughout history. Since the 1920s and the lauding of the slender body of flappers, thinness has been widely glorified throughout Western mass media. Although there have been variations in which type of thin body was placed on a pedestal, thin has more or less remained popular for the past century. In response to this, eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia have become an increasingly pressing issue as people strive to achieve unrealistic, oftentimes unhealthy expectations of what society deems a beautiful body. The 90s and 2000s were notorious for this. Supermodels like Kate Moss glamorized the style “heroin-chic,” which was characterized by excessive thinness as a result of heroin and other substance abuse.(1) Tabloids viciously attacked female celebrities for their weight. Films and TV from the period constantly fostered fatphobia, fat-shaming women who did not strictly adhere to specific bodily ideals. (2)

However, in the 2010s, there seemed to be a sharp cultural shift towards greater acceptance, celebration, and depiction of diverse bodies in media. Body Positivity, a movement which encouraged people to love their bodies no matter what, took off and became increasingly mainstream. Chatrooms, hashtags, videos, and songs all promoted self-love. Celebrities spoke out. It appeared as though society took steps to deconstruct some of the fatphobia ingrained into societal norms. Large-scale corporations even created ad campaigns depicting different body-types, attempting to appeal to a popular, widespread movement. 

Despite this apparent “progress,” the past few years have been defined by a drastic increase in fatphobia, especially on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram. The social landscape in these online spaces increasingly mirrors the diet-obsessed, fat-shaming tabloids of the 90s and 2000s. Notably, people on TikTok refer to themselves or others who are eating a certain amount of typically unhealthy food as “big backs,” a clear manner of stigmatizing certain behavior by associating it with larger bodies. Comment sections are vicious; people whose bodies do not fit society’s increasingly small standard of thinness can find themselves mercilessly mocked and criticized by thousands or even millions of strangers if their video goes viral.(3) One can find TikToks with millions of likes showing off their fridges full of protein shakes, fresh fruit, and vegetables describing how they need to “lock-in” to achieve the body they want for summer. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to live a healthy, active lifestyle, there is an evident connection between the previously described normalization of fatphobia and a subsequent surge in videos that describe how much people want their so-called “perfect” summer body. Other videos encourage disordered eating so directly that their content would be triggering to describe, and similarly receive a significant amount of engagement and attention. Celebrities have become notably thinner via GLP-1 medications, originally intended for individuals with diabetes but utilized by many as a weight-loss drug. Alongside the removal of fillers and Brazilian Butt Lifts (BBLs), the cultural zeitgeist has increasingly begun to mirror that of decades prior. 

Why is this occurring right now? Did the body positivity movement of the past 10-15 years create any cultural impact, or was it all simply a progressive mask hiding a toxic, fundamentally unchanged system beneath? While there are no definitive answers to these questions, it seems to be an amalgamation of different factors that have coalesced into a kind of perfect storm.

The question of whether the period of mainstream body positivity truly created any lasting social impact is complicated. This movement coincided with the rise of FaceTune and increasingly unrealistic beauty expectations on social apps, as well as the glorification of eating disorders on Tumblr and the normalization of plastic surgeries (such as BBLs) to achieve an idealized “slim-thick” physique. Additionally, in a more general sense, the anonymity of the internet has emboldened critics online to make hateful comments, especially as it pertains to people’s appearance and bodies. There has never been a safer time for cruelty on the internet, whether it is hidden under the guise of something being a “joke” or simply said outright. Our culture, which remains hyper-focused on aesthetics and the curation of certain images/ideals online, provides the perfect ground for a resurgence of more socially-acceptable fatphobia and the excessive idolization of thin bodies. 

Are Ozempic and similar medications the culprits? These drugs have certainly prompted a noticeable amount of weight loss amongst Hollywood celebrities, and it would be foolish to undervalue their influence on people's self-perception and on what constitutes society’s ideal body. Additionally, social discourse surrounding Ozempic has further normalized discussions of people’s bodies online, particularly those of women. Anyone who loses weight is immediately met with accusations of taking Ozempic, reflecting a culture that is constantly surveilling and judging different bodies. (4)

It is also likely that economic instability and recession, coupled by a broader cultural shift towards conservative ideology, played a role in these shifts. A study conducted by the University of Nebraska, titled “Equality in Times of Uncertainty: Economic Downturn and Body Image Messaging Towards Women,” describes how economic uncertainty “facilitates a shift toward conservative notions of gender roles and an increase in conservative societal messaging,” which subsequently results in an increase in eating disorders amongst women who feel the need to better achieve society’s ideal thin body.(5) There was a “positive relationship” found between unemployment rates and the rate of searches for pro-eating disorder terms.(6)

The pernicious nature of increasing fatphobia and the normalization of disordered behavior can not be understated. Body dysmorphia and other related problems with body image can exacerbate mental health problems, and eating disorders are extremely dangerous for people’s mental and physical health. In particular, women are at a much higher risk for experiencing these consequences. 

As Luce Irigaray describes in her work, “This Sex Which is Not One,” women are “more or less obliging prop[s] for the enactment of man's fantasies” — women face constant objectification and commodification, and fatphobia serves as an effective social tool for the patriarchal regulation of women’s bodies.(7) Time spent worrying about how to constantly shrink yourself diverts effort from defying systems of oppression. Our new cultural landscape is concerning, to say the least. Rather than laying down the sword and accepting these circumstances, we can fight back by calling out online trends and continuing to push for diverse body representation. Although things can seem bleak, there is always hope.

[1] Heather Hayes, “The Dangerous Revival of ‘Heroin Chic,’” Heather Hayes & Associates, November 20, 2022, https://heatherhayes.com/the-dangerous-revival-of-heroin-chic/.​:contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

[2] Glamour, “If You Survived the Early 2000s Without Body Issues, Congratulations,” Glamour, September 29, 2022, https://www.glamour.com/story/if-you-survived-the-early-2000s-without-body-issues-congratulations.​:contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

[3] Fortune, “‘Big Back’ and Other Fatphobic Teen Slang Has Body Image Experts Worried,” Fortune, April 24, 2024, https://fortune.com/well/article/big-back-fatty-teen-fat-speak-problem-for-everybody/.

[4] Rachel Pick, “Ozempic Has Won, Body Positivity Has Lost. And I Want No Part of It,” The Guardian, June 8, 2023,https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jun/08/ozempic-weight-loss-body-positivity.​:contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

[5] Ritsa Giannakas, Equality in Times of Uncertainty: Economic Downturn and Body Image Messaging Toward Women (undergraduate honors thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2022), 7.

[6] Ritsa Giannakas, Equality in Times of Uncertainty: Economic Downturn and Body Image Messaging Toward Women (undergraduate honors thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2022), 3.

[7]  Luce Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One, trans. Catherine Porter and Carolyn Burke (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985), 12.