Learning to Love My 'Before' Body in an 'After' Body World
Following a brief period of body positivity, we have a new trend: claiming moral superiority for 'doing the work' to create a radically transformed body through whatever means necessary
If you spend any time on social media you have probably been fed a picture or ten of a person who is posing in a bikini or workout clothes.
They look great.
Then you realize that this is a “before” picture.
The implication is that this perfectly fine-looking body needs an upgrade.
Suddenly, an “after” picture flashes on the screen, and about a third of this person’s body has disappeared. People get praise for this, for looking like they are starving themselves and/or enduring punishing workouts in pursuit of a vastly slimmed-down version of themselves, sometimes with ripped abs and other times looking frail.
After a brief period of “body positivity,” it seems that looking underweight is back in style.
Think Kate Moss in the early 1990s when the revoltingly named “heroin chic” reigned supreme.
From the Guardian, late last year:
In a recently published annual report that analyzed procedures done in 2023, the world’s largest plastic surgery organization noted that demand for an ideal “ballet body” is driving interest in liposuction and breast enhancement. Since ballet is notorious for eating disorders, one imagines it might also drive an increase in women starving themselves.
Looking emaciated became so trendy that it had a hashtag on TikTok called #SkinnyTok. It has now been banned thanks to European Union regulators, who were concerned about the extreme dieting that was being promoted to teens.
Still, the Instagram account “@very.skinny” has more than 200,000 followers for posting this kind of content, which is still available all over the platform.
I’ve written before about my struggle with body image, which led to disordered eating for much of my life. I can’t imagine how much worse it would have been had I been exposed to the kind of content around body and dieting that younger people are exposed to today.