Is it an outfit, or is she just skinny? These toxic trends floating around the internet are explained and analysed by Fashion Editor Polly Rogers.
The 2000s, an era of unhealthily thin bodies being popularised and pushed by the media, shame on normal healthy figures and nutritious balanced diets was rampant throughout society. Magazines and adverts projected constant critique on perfect and petite bodies of celebrities, gaslighting a generation into believing anything more than skeletal was obese.
Paparazzi stalked teenagers and young women, and tabloids pushed stories, often about minors. Highlighting these so-called “Imperfections” were arrows and circles that surrounded “cellulite” and “flab” that were non-existent. Celebrities were pinned against each other, the Olsen twins being compared as to which was thinnest, and asked to declare their sizes on a television interview with Oprah at only age 17. Weight was a number attached to every other photo throughout a magazine, unattainable for the majority of adult women, 100lbs to 115lbs was what was deemed acceptable for a female to weigh, this being similar to the average weight of a prepubescent tween girl.
Lowrise clothing led to constant self ridicule by teenage girls and women, and this left a generational impact on little girls seeing and hearing these things said. Younger sisters and daughters, who idolise a mature figure, would see self hatred of a body the otherwise though ideological and duplicate it toward their own, identifying their shared flaws over their beauty. Eating disorders and dysmorphia ballooned from this, and the young women of today are trying to reclaim and love themselves and their bodies, by wearing the clothes they were told they shouldn't, after experiencing little to no representation of what “healthy” and “normal” can be, many have taken it upon themselves to be the diversity and representation they wish they had.
With modern social media being a platform for all, Tiktok and Instagram have an inclusive and diverse selection of content creators, Social media allows influencers of all shapes and sizes to project their content on and toward youths, who can identify with a non photoshopped version of normal, be that thin, tall, short, or curvy!
While we have made strides away from the 2000s toxicity, it's not completely gone, a trend has emerged more recently online, entitling videos, “is it an outfit or is she just skinny”, while an attempt to spread inclusivity, this comes off rather harsh, as if slating fashionable choices thin people make, and denouncing the appeal of their outfits simply down to their idealistic, ‘Perfect’ body type.
Several thinner influencers are also trying to reclaim ground by clapping back, captioning videos with, “being skinny is the outfit”, but even this is met with hate - their figure is still not meeting desired expectations. Thin is celebrated until you're critiqued as being too flat, but possess a chest… and a stomach and you're overweight? This lose-lose situation forces us to ponder if perhaps ordinary people aren't the cause of this, but rather the photoshopped and rhinoplastied models who dominate media, and the trends that yoyo from Kardashian curvy, to unhealthily thin, are on loop depending on which cut of jeans is trending this season.
While influencers such as Spencer Barbosa, Michaila Cothran and Benthany Cook are doing groundwork to project self-love and wear stunning outfits in healthy midsize bodies, far more toxic sides of the internet seep through. Trends promoting starvation and restrictive eating are in constant rotation throughout these apps. Videos titled WIEIAD (what I eat in a day) consisting of gum, diet drinks and black coffee instills shame and doubt in those eating full meals. Teenage girls feel as though they should be conscious of their weight, to the point it affects and dominates their every thought.
Olivia Rodrigo and Charli XCX songs are snippeted out of context, and being used as audios of videos where people stopped eating in order to lose weight. Kate Moss and other super models are also celebrated, trending (infamous) sounds include “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. Eating disorders are a perilous and infectious disease that spreads through toxic society, these deadly disorders are life altering, causing illness, infertility, and if untreated sometimes fatality.
While brushed over and often deemed unserious, "It's all in your head” leads me to ponder why wouldn't it be in our heads? Considering the media projected on girls since before we could walk, self critique is inevitable, and dangerous. Be the representation you want to see, post that fit check, wear that outfit, and don't doubt for a second how beautiful you are.