Ozempic, Mounjaro, and pilates – how has 2025 brought back the unhealthy body image standards of the 90s/2000s
The stick-thin standards of the 1990s and 2000s had seemingly disappeared for a time, and mindsets of body positivity or neutrality took over. However, some seemingly ‘quick fixes’ for weight loss have set us back again. Ozempic and Mounjaro, medications initially intended for treating Type 2 Diabetes, have become popular for non-medical usage amongst celebrities. Many female celebrities who didn’t seem to need this change at all have been accused of taking this route, as they show off their slimmer frames on red carpets. On top of pushing celebrities into plastic surgery, this is another extreme altogether.
No doubt, as there has been a decline in the age of the population on social media, there is an increasing number of impressionable young people, particularly girls and young women, who are witnessing a rise in the promotion of an unhealthy body image. Is this really what we ought to be watching and encouraging? Unfortunately, it is many of the celebrities idolised by this particular population who fall victim to this narrative of the weight-loss drug. It’s also commonly the first explanation the public jumps to, having witnessed dramatic changes in a celebrity’s appearance within a short space of time. It is mainly female celebrities who appear to have fallen victim to these drugs, and many of whom have been criticised either way; unflattering paparazzi photos appear online, and people judge from them, saying that these celebrities need to change, and when that change happens, the celebrities are still criticised, as they are now too thin.
In most cases, these transformations seem unnecessary, as the celebrities who undergo them are nowhere near overweight. However, Hollywood preaches to them, and therefore to us, otherwise. And what we, on the other side of our screens, don’t see are the drastic, unpleasant side effects that accompany these drugs. Even years before these drugs were ever heard of, other unhealthy so-called ‘quick-fixes’ were promoted, such as various supplements, detox teas, and eliminating entire food groups from the diet. However, many of those who promoted these ideologies have since abandoned them, acknowledging that they were extremely unhealthy and recognising the effects they had on the fans who interacted with their content.
Outside of the world of weight-loss drugs, social media algorithms have replaced the 2000s ideology of crash diets and detoxes, instead promoting current trendy Pilates workouts, ‘Hot Girl Walks’, and aesthetically pleasing acai or yogurt bowls. How many of these workout vlogs or ‘What I Eat in a Day’ videos are fully truthful? Can we really trust these influencers or vloggers to show us their realistic daily routines? How much of this food is actually eaten, and how much goes to waste? Another issue that arises in this context is food sustainability. The current generation seems to be environmentally conscious, yet do the influencers whose content they engage with genuinely adhere to these principles?
Statistically speaking, in Ireland, as of 2023/24, 90% of eating disorders were encountered by female patients; over half of patients were under the age of 18, and there had been a 51% increase in adults seeking treatment. Anorexia is the most reported eating disorder in the country, according to the HSE National Clinical Programme for Eating Disorders. If what we are seeing on our screens doesn’t promote a healthy, sustainable body image, these numbers could increase, especially in our country, and therefore the world’s population of impressionable young people. This is where a real danger lies. If this generation grows up to raise another to believe in this sort of mindset, then this cycle will continue.
So, could 2025 really be considered ‘The Year of Skinny’, or is this narrative that ‘bigger is not always better’ still lurking underneath movements of body positivity and neutrality more consistently than we realise?