Jun 11, 2026 · 23 min · 10 segments
Have you scrolled through red carpet photos recently and felt a strange wave of déjà vu? From Hollywood to local communities, we are witnessing a rapid, hyperfixation on extreme thinness and sharp…
For centuries, public power and the outer world has belonged to the masculine.
And while family care has immense value, women's freedom and worth were locked into this narrow scope.
Alongside domestic life, a woman's primary societal expectation was to look good.
boys are praised for what they can do and girls are praised for how they look.
We see this ingrained everywhere in the media, amongst our friends, conversations that our mothers and aunts are having.
And because women historically have lacked systemic or legal power, looking good became a survival mechanism and a form of social leverage.
In our culture, all a woman has to do is look good, and she's awarded a basic respect.
For a man, looking good is seen more like a nice add-on, but his worth and value comes more in what he does.
And it forces women into this toxic cycle of judging each other and living in comparison, either being more prettier or less prettier than somebody else.
But we're putting our sense of power and stake into something that is always changing, our body.
It's why there's billion-dollar industries in cosmetic surgery to try to hold onto and manage and shape this appearance that has value because we believe that's where our worth lies.
If we look at the red carpets today, all we need to do is see that thinness is back.
But I see this as a backlash to the rise in the body positive movement of women.
All we need to do is look historically to see the correlation of when the thin ideal was prominent came right after there was a rise of women gaining public power.
For centuries, public power and the outer world has belonged to the masculine.
And while family care has immense value, women's freedom and worth were locked into this narrow scope.
Alongside domestic life, a woman's primary societal expectation was to look good.
boys are praised for what they can do and girls are praised for how they look.
We see this ingrained everywhere in the media, amongst our friends, conversations that our mothers and aunts are having.
And because women historically have lacked systemic or legal power, looking good became a survival mechanism and a form of social leverage.
In our culture, all a woman has to do is look good, and she's awarded a basic respect.
For a man, looking good is seen more like a nice add-on, but his worth and value comes more in what he does.
And it forces women into this toxic cycle of judging each other and living in comparison, either being more prettier or less prettier than somebody else.
But we're putting our sense of power and stake into something that is always changing, our body.
It's why there's billion-dollar industries in cosmetic surgery to try to hold onto and manage and shape this appearance that has value because we believe that's where our worth lies.
If we look at the red carpets today, all we need to do is see that thinness is back.
But I see this as a backlash to the rise in the body positive movement of women.
All we need to do is look historically to see the correlation of when the thin ideal was prominent came right after there was a rise of women gaining public power.
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