First, we had “heroin chic” where we had to starve ourselves like a model (“nothing tastes as good as feeling skinny”, they say, Kate Moss?)
Then enter the Kardashian years, where women everywhere breathed a sigh of relief when they were finally allowed to have hips and an hourglass figure — as long as your butt was big enough to park a bike on.
And just when I thought it was safe to eat a pack of Tim Tams without guilt (because they usually go straight to my hips anyway), along came the era of Ozempic.
The celebrity shrinkage was the first sign; then the rise of Ozempic’s face – sunken eyes and hollow cheeks – which almost confirms that someone is “on it”.
With cheekbones as sharp as Louboutins and collarbones you could hang your fur coat on, the characters of Ozempic (or Mounjaro or Saxenda – take your pick) were present. full exhibition this year Golden Globes.
Celebrities wobbled frailly across the red carpet, clutching the nearest elbows, looking so pencil-thin that a gust of wind could have knocked them over.
I could list all the big names in Hollywood who I assume are taking semaglutide, but we’d run out of space (and possibly get into legal trouble) and I have a lot to say.
Needless to say, the buzz wasn’t about who was best dressed; it was about how obvious the Ozempic look became. The red carpet illuminations we once admired have been replaced by a depressing game of “spot the jabbers”.
Mail+ columnist Amanda Goff recalls the era of heroin chic and how she was pushed aside by Kardashian bodies in the 2010s. Now she says we’re in the Ozempic era and that we should be worried.
Now, I’m not accusing any specific celebrity of being pincushions, but you can’t deny bony frames and jutting chins. And what was most concerning was that few of these stars had much (if any) weight to lose in the first place.
This has all gotten a little embarrassing, hasn’t it?
And that worries me. Not just about Hollywood, but about all of us.
We are in a time where wearing a size 8 is no longer enough. Thinness, once considered a badge of honor because of the hard work and dedication it involves, is no longer anything to write home about.
With Ozempic, everyone is slim. And you can complain all you want about it being a “lazy” method, but soon everyone will be on board.
So what’s going on? In a world where thinness was synonymous with piety, how can we redefine beauty? Frankly, I worry about the incredibly high beauty standards for the next generation of young women.
Because yes, Hollywood beauty trends inevitably trickle down to us, everyday people.
Drugs don’t just change the faces and bodies of celebrities, reality TV stars and influencers. Today, exhausted moms, brides-to-be, and even teenagers are Googling “how to get Ozempic” and discovering that it’s awfully easy..
Kate Moss in the ’90s was an icon of ‘heroin chic’ – but the skinny, gaunt look of models from that era didn’t last. (Kate is pictured on the Gucci catwalk in Milan on October 4, 1995)
A few of my girlfriends in their 40s are jabbers. A friend recently confided to me that her new lean figure was not, in fact, Pilates and kale smoothies, but daily injections of the hormone GPL-1 into her increasingly concave waistline.
I was shocked. She didn’t even have more than five kilos to lose, if that.
But even though the scrawny appearance we see on movie stars, models and posh school moms is bad enoughwhat’s coming is even worse. A Ridiculously Unrealistic Body Trend for all of us where being thin will no longer be enough, because everyone will be thin.
Women will soon be expected to be thin And curved, small but tonic. You will need a body that is not only emaciated from drugs, but also honed and enhanced by needles.knives and liposuction.
It was the French actress Catherine Deneuve who reportedly said: “From a certain age, you have to choose between your butt or your face”, which means either you work hard to keep your body in shape but We lose volume on our face, or vice versa.
Now we need to keep both perfect.
The message is clear: use Ozempic, of course. But make sure you don’t look like you are using Ozempic. So have a slim waist but keep a youthful face and maintain your curves. Of course, this is impossible to achieve without surgical and medical engineering.
And that makes me angry.
Kim Kardashian’s voluptuous curves became desirable in the 2010s. It was a better time for women. (Kim is pictured here in Los Angeles on December 19, 2014)
How far can this madness go? What kind of message are we sending to our young women, our daughters, our sisters, our friends?
A dangerous game in my opinion.
And it all comes down to the same thing: you are not good enough as you are. You’re not pretty enough or thin enough, and unless you have a small fortune to spend on reshaping and reshaping your body, you never will be.
Lottie Moss, Kate’s younger half-sister, revealed last year that she was hospitalized after overdosing on Ozempic. Her use of this weight loss drug, even though she was never overweight, speaks volumes about beauty standards in today’s society.
And it must stop.
I draw a very firm line in the sand before the next generation of women looks more like aliens than real aliens.
I was once one of those young girls who grew up in the supermodel era. I chewed laxatives and diuretics, and my diet consisted of dry Ryvita and tomatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I thought that if only I could look good in skinny jeans, my life would be as perfect as a model’s, that if I could buckle my belt up a notch, I would be desirable, sexy and attractive.
I just thought I was never skinny enough or good enough to be loved.
And let me warn the young women reading this: it got me nowhere. My desire to be skinny left me sick, alone, isolated and miserable. I got nothing out of it, other than anorexia and a self-loathing that was difficult to overcome without medication or therapy.
Moms, tell your daughters that it is possible to be happy with your body as it is. They come in all shapes and sizes, and always will. Strong – not skinny – is the new sexy.
The incessant search for this new, unattainable body shape is not only exhausting but extremely damaging. I’ll give the last word to my best friend, who says this: “I tell my daughter that if being skinny was the answer to a happy life, then all skinny people would be the happiest.” But that’s not the case.
So pass us another Tim Tam and let’s focus on the most important part of ourselves: our mental health.
