‘Is It an Outfit Or Is She Just Skinny?’ The Rise of Thinness Culture

As conservatism is on the rise again and our society has descended, a cultural shift back to

the impossibly and frankly harmful standard of ultra-thinness has resurfaced.

Though thinness has always been encouraged, particularly in fashion spaces even with

fluctuating trends, in recent years it has reached a startling level equivalent to that of the 90s

and the early 2000s.

Thinness is not only desired and praised, but worshiped. According to brands, high-fashion

spaces, and the opinions of individuals on social media, skinniness is chic, smaller, ‘fashion

boobs’ are in, and body-checking is somehow the norm.

In our culture, thinness is no longer a body-type, but an accessory or a fashion statement.

Outfits are not only judged by their content but also the body adorning the clothes. Many

plus-size and mid-size fashion creators have critiqued this by creating a trend where they re-

create outfits to investigate whether an outfit is truly a good outfit, or if it is being presented

as such simply because the individual has a smaller body-type.

This directly correlates with fashion trends and the clothing that is readily available. This

goes for both the clean girl aesthetic, as well as the trend of everything being micro and mini.

Despite being on completely different ends of the spectrum, they both rely on thinness. The

clean girl aesthetic does because of its prioritisation of wellness, which is directly associated

with weight loss and going to the gym. The trend of mini skirts, crop tops, and wearing as little clothing as possible is because of the concept of indecency. The curves associated with larger body-types are often sexualised, so when the lack of fabric puts these curves on

display, the outfit is sexualised with it.

Weight-loss is so ingrained into our culture that it has even infiltrated our language. For the

last few years the term ‘big-back’ has been adopted, meaning someone who eats copious

amounts of food. However, despite being presented as a harmless insult, the constant usage

of the term, especially in situations where a person is doing something as simple as having a

sweet treat, has aided in the normalisation of demonising eating what you want and what you enjoy it.

Terms like this cause us to subconsciously police our behaviour. Especially when people use the term to describe themselves, something I am guilty of.

In every context, thinness is the standard.

The shift has not come out of nowhere however, it is rather a gradual consequence of our

plummet into fascism and reinforcement of patriarchal ideals. It is why being skinny is a

standard largely imposed upon women.

When you are obsessed with hating and critiquing your body, your attention is consumed by

it, and your focus is no longer occupied by what is happening around you. You ignore anything that does not revolve around achieving the goals that have been set for your body, which results in apathy to the issues happening across the world, because being interested in politics will not make you skinny.

It is a form of propaganda in a sense. To keep us hungry is to keep us distracted.

Furthermore, hunger allows not just for mental weakness, but physical weakness too, as the

smaller you are, the harder it becomes to fight back and defend yourself, especially against

a man who may be twice or even triple your size. In this sense, its supposed ‘supremacy’ is disturbing.

Of course thinness in itself is not inherently bad, no body type is, because they are just that, a body type, but the way it is being forced upon all of us is.

Though it is easier said than done to simply reject the ideal because it has unfortunately

become a part of every facet of our existence, I urge that we begin to dismantle our beliefs

that thinness should be held on a pedestal.

Resistance and neutrality is our only weapon against the epidemic of the hypervigilance

surrounding and policing of our bodies.

Written by, La’Keesha Stewart