In recent years, there has been a significant rise in the romanticization of ultra-skinniness and a push for highly unrealistic beauty standards surrounding thinness. This rise in skinny culture is not random. It is directly related to the politics of our country right now, and it can be seen in the rise in conservatism that is sweeping through the United States currently.
Eating disorder rates have been skyrocketing amongst young women with up to 18% of women under the age of 25 reporting disordered eating. This statistic includes all forms of disordered eating and eating disorders including, but not limited to: anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge-eating disorder. It cannot be estimated what percentage of this includes unhealthy restrictive behaviors because EDs are complex, frequently changing mental health disorders.
The far right is currently pushing — and has always pushed — thinness as the ideal body standard, making women, especially college-aged individuals, feel like they are not valued unless they’re a double zero.
It may seem like a stretch to tie politics to body ideals, but this can be traced back for hundreds of years, beginning with US colonization. Colonizers pushed the idea that women of African descent were naturally inclined to have larger bodies, which was a representation of their inferiority as a race. This “skinniness ideal” is ultimately rooted in racism, and it’s a belief that is inseparable from conservatism.
But even with all of this evidence, all that can be argued is that conservatism ideology is linked to a rise in thinness. What we need to do is break down the why. Why does the far right push weight loss? Why does conservative culture have such a strong link to unhealthy and unrealistic beauty standards and, most importantly, how can it be stopped?
For starters, while some people may argue that the rise in skinness is actually a good thing, it cannot and should never be considered positive. Every single body is different. Every single person carries weight differently, and each person can be healthy with a different number showing up on the scale. The kind of thinness being pushed in the media currently is not just unhealthy: it is a promotion of disordered eating and it will have negative impacts.
Disordered eating causes heart complications, digestive tract issues, mental health struggles, hormonal complications, blood cell count irregularities, fatigue, weakness, dry skin and shortness of breath. In extreme cases, it can also cause kidney failure and death.
The far right pushes this for one simple reason: control. Control of women’s bodies has always been the goal of conservative culture, and when we’re physically weaker, we are easier to control. A weak, tired, fragile woman is dependent on the people around her. It not only breaks down a woman’s psyche and causes her to feel negative things about her own body, but it also pits women against each other.
This ultra-thinness movement destroys the work the body positivity movement has done in the last decades. It makes women compare themselves to each other and instills in them the belief that they will only receive validation if their pants are size four or below. These unrealistic standards are actively stripping women of power.
We must push back against this. Men must push back against these standards by speaking out against these unrealistic standards and making their peers feel the same shame for encouraging and validating unhealthy habits that can make some women feel horrible for having healthy, normal bodies.
As for women, the task is simple: be strong, be present, do not shy away from the spotlight and do not ever change or weaken your body for external validation.
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