HOLLYWOOD’S award season is in full swing – and it’s abundantly clear the super-skinny celebrity look is back with a vengeance.
The shrinking frames of top stars, including Demi Moore, Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande at the Screen Actors Guild Awards this week signal a return to an era where women’s bodies were endlessly scrutinised against an unrealistic ideal.
The pop star pictured in 2018[/caption]
Selena Gomez also showed off her trim frame this week on the red carpet[/caption]
Selena stunned in this white number last year[/caption]
The inevitable focus on these miniature women of Hollywood depressingly brings to mind a cruel Noughties catchphrase — the so-called “lollipop heads”.
The term refers to a woman’s frame being so small that her head looks precariously large, as if balanced on top of her body. In that era, emphasising thinness was everything.
Giant sunglasses and oversized handbags became hot accessories, because they contrasted with those tiny bodies, making them look even smaller.
Having worked in the fashion industry for two decades, watching the fluctuating attitudes towards women’s bodies, I’m concerned we have reverted to an unhealthy period that I’d hoped we had left behind for good.
I was in my twenties during the Noughties and to try to fit in with the fashion and attitudes of the era, I smoked and starved my way through that decade.
I might have shrunk to a size 12, but there was nothing healthy about it.
It’s one thing having ultra-skinny models walk the catwalk, but now A-list actors have bought into this new — or rather “old” — body ideal, I worry that it has been cemented into mainstream culture.
I fear it is transmitting the message to women and girls across the globe that it’s desirable.
At the Golden Globes last month, host Nikki Glaser quipped that it was “Ozempic’s biggest night”, while White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge joked that “you can eat whatever you want now”.
A friend who has attended the Baftas for years said that, at this year’s ceremony a fortnight ago, it was all too apparent how much smaller everyone was.
Both men and women were thinner — although we know it is women who bear the brunt of scrutiny and judgment over their bodies.
Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, Dreamgirls actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, and child model-turned-actress Brooke Shields, are among those who appear to have slimmed.
As much as we might like to think we’ve moved beyond the “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” mantra made famous by Kate Moss, and the era of Heat magazine’s ring of shame, drawn over pictures of celebrities deemed to be too thin or too fat, in truth, nothing much has shifted.
That fixation on being skinny is something I had hoped my seven-year-old daughter and her friends had escaped, thanks to changing attitudes. Now, I’m not so sure.
A couple of weeks ago, high-street chain Next had a picture of a young model banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for looking “unhealthily thin”.
The concern stems from the sad reality that many people with eating disorders seek out imagery of this kind for “thinspiration” — something dangerously rife within social media, with its endless “what I eat in a day” videos.
Women’s bodies are fair game
But it also underscores the pressure that women in the public eye are under, and brings me to question what lengths they are being asked to go to in order to retain their box-office value or leading-lady status.
A friend recently took her daughter to see the film Wicked and felt uncomfortable watching Ariana Grande’s frail frame in it.
While Ariana’s people are adamant that her shrinking figure is a result of her demanding schedule, others have questioned whether she is on weight loss injections.
Either way, it must make us wonder what the producers of that movie were asking of their stars.
I was taken aback by her co-star, Brit actress Cynthia Erivo, posing with two hands around her waist at the Baftas last week.
Her fingers met, showing just how miniscule she, too, has become.
The sad truth is that our endless pursuit of the ‘perfect’ body — no matter the cost — is blinding us to its very real dangers
It is all reminiscent of America Ferrera’s famed monologue from the 2023 Barbie film.
Her character Gloria laments that “You have to be thin, but not too thin.
“And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin.”
Sadly, the powerful words do not seem to have cut through because, if anything, society has become even more allured by thinness since then.
Child model-turned-actress Brooke Shields is among celebs who appear to have slimmed[/caption]
Brooke looked sensational in this yellow number in 2024[/caption]
Society’s biggest obsession
For a while, in the 2010s, the body positivity movement quashed the open scorn and debate surrounding women’s bodies.
We grew to understand that openly commenting on women’s figures is wrong and that people come in all shapes and sizes — and that beauty does, too.
On the catwalk, models Ashley Graham, Precious Lee and Paloma Elsesser were booked to show just how open the fashion industry was to this newfound enlightenment.
As a size 16 now, it resonated with me, too.
I could finally picture myself wearing the catwalk clothes I had written about for years.
But in the last few years, with the explosion in popularity of weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro — and the potential they offer to shed body weight — this progress has been swiftly eradicated.
Thinness is society’s biggest obsession and the hysteria and hyperbole surrounding these “miracle” drugs has reignited it, to the extent that, once again, women’s bodies are fair game to pick apart and our weight is under the microscope.
Runways are back to being populated by tiny size 4 models, the small gains and wins for a more inclusive era having fallen away.
The knock-on effect?
Women on the red carpet, eager to slip into the latest designer looks straight off the catwalk, know that they too need to shrink to fit into them.
In the fashion industry, use of these drugs is rife. The women who take them are already slim, but they are now under renewed pressure to fit into the teeny sample sizes.
Curvy models are simply not being booked any more.
The sad truth is that our endless pursuit of the “perfect” body — no matter the cost — is blinding us to its very real dangers.
Wicked star Cynthia Erivo was all smiles on the red carpet this month[/caption]
The actress appears to have slimmed down, above is Cynthia wearing a black dress in 2020[/caption]
Everything you need to know about fat jabs
Weight loss jabs are a hot media topic at the moment, with hundreds of success stories from people who shed the pounds.
In March 2023, the NHS announced it would make Wegovy, a drug made by Danish firm Novo Nordisk, available on prescription to thousands of obese Brits.
It contains the drug semaglutide, which is said to have helped reality star Kim Kardashian and X boss Elon Musk lose weight.
Wegovy, which helped a third of people reduce their weight by 20 per cent in trials, is now available from pharmacies like Boots.
How do they work?
The jabs work by suppressing your appetite, making you eat less and therefore lose weight.
To do this, semaglutide mimics the role of a natural hormone, called GLP-1.
GLP-1 is part of the signalling pathway that tells your body you have eaten, and prepares it to use the energy that comes from your food.
London GP and founder of wellgoodwellbeing.com, Dr Zoe Watson, said: “Your body naturally produces an appetite regulating hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1.
“These jabs work by regulating your appetite, which can lead to eating fewer calories and losing weight.”
Aren’t they diabetes drugs?
Semaglutide, the active drug in Wegovy, was originally sold under the name Ozempic specifically for diabetes patients.
But people started noticing it helped suppress their appetites, stopping them eating as much and helping them shed the pounds.
Novo Nordisk then developed Wegovy, which contains the same chemical but at higher doses specifically to aid weight loss.
Wegovy is not prescribed for diabetes patients.
Can I get them?
Wegovy is offered on prescription to obese adults given specialist weight loss treatment.
The NHS currently also offers a similar drug called Saxenda, or liraglutide.
Both are only available throught specialist weight management services, which means you have to be referred to clinics led by experts.
GPs can’t prescribe them on their own, Dr Watson said.
The jabs have to be taken as part of an overall programme to help with lifestyle changes and psychological support to get the best effect from the medication prescribed.
Are there any risks?
Like all medicines, the jabs do not come without side effects.
Around half of people taking the drug experience gut issues, including sickness, bloating, acid reflux, constipation and diarrhoea.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical consultant at patient.info, said: “One of the more uncommon side effects is severe acute pancreatitis, which is extremely painful and happens to one in 500 people.”
Other uncommon side effects include altered taste, kidney problems, allergic reactions, gallbladder problems and hypoglycemia.
What other options are there?
Mounjaro (brand name for tirzepatide) also came onto the market in early 2024.
Like Wegovy, tirzepatide stems from a drug originally designed to treat diabetes.
The weekly injection helped overweight people drop more than two stone in 18 months.
It is available to order with a prescription online from pharmacies including Superdrug and LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor.
It works in a similar way to Wegovy and Saxenda, but is more effective.
Dr Mitra Dutt from LloydsPharmacy says: “Based on clinical trials, 96 per cent of people were able to lose more than five per cent of their body fat using Mounjaro. In similar trials, 84 per cent of people lost more than five per cent of their body weight on Wegovy, and 60 per cent on Saxenda.
“Mounjaro works by activating two hormonal receptors (GIP and GLP-1), which enhance insulin production, improve insulin sensitivity, and work to decrease food intake.”
