On the Dramatic Shrinking of Celebrity Bodies.

#TransparentTuesdays

Hi friend,

Today I want to talk about the dramatic shrinking of celebrity women’s bodies. 

A few things have happened in the public eye recently that highlight an alarming pattern, and while I don’t condone commenting on people’s bodies in general, I do think it’s important that we name and process patterns when we see them. 

Please understand that while I will be citing specific examples of hyper-thin celebrity bodies, I am not judging these women, and I do not want this conversation to become about what they’re doing (or what they “should” be doing) as individuals when it comes to their own bodies. 

Instead, I want us to stay focused on the pattern we’re seeing in mainstream culture right now, in order to help contextualize and frame our understanding about what we’re observing. 

So, let’s take a peek at some of the things you might have seen, if you pay attention to various corners of pop culture:

• The Oscars happened, and many people noticed that a large chunk of celebrity women—women who have always been notoriously thin—were even thinner than usual. The overall aesthetic of this event was one of visible bones, sunken flesh, and impossibly sharp corners and angles, all giving the impression that this highly visible population of women were shifting from “incredibly thin” to "skeletal."

• Several celebrities who were once known for having fuller figures (like Kelly Osborn, Mindy Kaling, and Adele), and who were at first celebrated for what people considered a “healthy” amount of weight loss, have recently and publicly crossed over into the “concerningly thin” category.

• Other celebrities have gotten a huge amount of backlash for their increasingly shrinking bodies, like Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo during the press tour for Wicked 2. 

• In the recent season of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives—a massively popular reality show about mommy influencers from Salt Lake City Utah, where the beauty standard is already very extreme—one of the women talked about being addicted to GLP1s (the weight loss medications like Ozympic and Wegovy) as a part of her eating disorder. 

I’m not going to speculate on why or how any particular individual has gotten so thin, since we know weight loss can be the result of health problems, mental/emotional stress, trauma, eating disorders, or the side effects of various medications, among other reasons. 

But I will observe that we are now in a new era of the GLP1 craze in which they are now being used to some degree by many, if not most, highly visible and wealthy women. 

Where once these medications had to be prescribed by a doctor who believed you were at an “unhealthy weight,” they are now easily available online without a prescription (assuming you’re willing to take the risk on the “gray market” of getting something other than the pure real thing), or via telehealth, where it’s extremely easy to lie about your weight and other health issues in order to get them even when you don’t qualify for them. 

On top of that, many doctors in areas where there is a market for this kind of thing (like Hollywood) are now prescribing a sort of “microdosing” protocol to women who are already thin, but want to get just a little bit thinner. 

In other words, we are now seeing the widespread abuse of GLP-1s.

I say “abuse” because that’s what it’s called when someone intentionally and inappropriately uses a medication for reasons other than how it was meant to be used. (We call it “abusing adderall" or “abusing pain meds,” for example, when a person uses an inappropriate medication/dosage to get high.)

People are now using GLP1s inappropriately, and at dosages that are inappropriate, in order to become dangerously thin. 

When used this way, we can think of GLP1 abuse as a way for people to be more “successful” in their eating disorders. 

In that way, it’s no different from other iterations of eating disorder “helpers,” like the amphetamine-based weight-loss drugs that were popular in the 80s, or the use of laxatives. People with eating disorders are highly motivated to use all of the tools and resources available to accomplish the goal of losing weight. 

But with the increasingly easy access to GLP1s, we are now seeing a lot of people who might have previously wanted to be dangerously thin—but were unable to get there, due to the limitations of a human brain and body that was invested in their survival—suddenly finding a way to get there. 

In other words, the “survival” part of people’s brains and bodies are being medically turned off by GLP-1s, so that they can now successfully make themselves as sick as their eating disorder voice tells them to be…. and make no mistake about it, some of these people will die as a result of it. 

This is alarming enough for the people who are abusing these medications and at risk for health problems and death. 

But it’s also alarming for the people who are watching this happen, for two reasons:

1. Many eating disorders are inherently competitive. Seeing other people shrinking is very likely to set off the dangerously competitive aspect of eating disorders for many people who feel a need not just to be thin, but to be thinner than everyone else. When thinness is associated with superiority (as is the case for so many people with EDs) you must always be chasing an even more extreme version of it. So if your peer group all loses weight, your eating disorder voice will tell you that you must lose even more in order to stay "competitive,” and maintain your status as the “most extreme.” 

2. Eating disorders tend to be “contagious.”We are all constantly being impacted and influenced by the images we see and the messages we receive about what is worthy and good. So even for people who do not currently have eating disorders, watching these highly visible and celebrated women get smaller and smaller is likely to create new body image issues and lead to disordered eating and eating disorders which wouldn’t have developed otherwise. 

Obviously it’s nothing new for women in the public eye to be very thin and struggle with eating disorders, and we know that a lot of people whose bodies we celebrate as “perfect” are secretly struggling with stress, trauma, health issues, and mental health issues behind the scenes.

But it being hidden is the whole point.  All that toxic and negative stuff is invisible from the outside, which allows the illusion of it being healthy and positive to be maintained, and that’s what people want. 

In a society built around thin supremacy, we are not ready to face the hidden toxicity that so often lurks behind the curtain.

What’s different about what we’re seeing lately, I think, is that a lot more women are crossing the threshold from what the public perceives as a level of thinness that is considered healthy and worthy of celebration, into a level that is perceived as unhealthy, scary, dangerous, or concerning. 

It’s the illusion of thinness being a healthy and positive thing that is being called into question now as these women look increasingly skeletal, and when I see people express outrage about these women being “irresponsible” or whatever, I tend to think it’s the loss of this cherished and comfortable fantasy about thinness that they’re actually upset about. 

It’s almost like:

“How dare you take this thing I love, and associate with beauty and hope (thinness)... and make it ugly and scary??”

How dare you poke holes in my most cherished fantasy— that if I lose weight I’ll be healthy, happy, and confident? How dare you take all the respect and admiration we’ve given you for being healthy, and use it to get sick? How dare you make us question the validity of the thin ideal, when we’ve always looked to you to uphold it?

The public backlash that celebrities get for being “too thin” tells us that the crime these women have committed isn’t actually about “being a bad role model” at all, but rather about them pulling back the curtain on the Big Lie that diet culture has sold us, about thinness being automatically and inherently healthy, positive, and beautiful.

Despite the fact that there is a very slim margin between “good thin” and “bad thin,” people act like weight loss is healthy and admirable right up until the point where a person is at risk of hospitalization. 

People don’t want to have to think about the fact that a lot of what’s considered “healthy weight loss” and “perfect bodies” are actually rooted in unhealthy habits, a lack of mental/emotional wellness, and a lack of confidence and happiness. 

So instead, they do impressive mental gymnastics to pretend that thinness is always a good thing right up until the moment that it could kill you—or rather, right up to the moment that other people have to think about it killing you.

There was a scene in this season of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, where a woman named Layla is admitting to her friends that she’s been struggling with an eating disorder and addiction to GLPs, and her friend Jessi asks her how much she weighs. 

Layla, who is 5’10, says that the last time she checked she was 99lbs, and despite the fact that they have just been discussing the pain and fatigue Layla is experiencing from being malnourished, the look on Jessi’s face is, in that first unfiltered moment, one of being impressed and jealous. 

She quickly shifts back to the task at hand, and says something like “you know that’s not super healthy, right?” But that first kneejerk reaction was very telling.

Plus, notice she couldn’t even bring herself to say “that is very unhealthy”? 

She framed it like Layla just needed to gain a pound or two to go from “scary” to “perfect.” And given the beauty-obsessed culture she’s steeped in in SLC, I’m sure that’s exactly how she feels. 

All of this is to say that for a long time, the “ideal weight” for women has been “as skinny as possible without dying.” (Or more accurately: “as skinny as possible without making other people uncomfortable.”)

But until recently, the limitations of the human brain and body’s survival instincts kept a lot of women from being able to “succeed” at hurting and killing themselves through thinness.

And now, in the era of GLP1s abuse that I feel confident saying we have entered, that is no longer the case. 

And it’s ok for us to talk about that, because the damage done from this will be widespread and tragic. Some people will die, and many, many more will pay heavily with the loss of their physical and mental health, fertility, self-esteem, vitality, and actual presence in the world. 

Big hug,

Jessi

PS. If you need help improving your relationship to food, exercise, or body image, I can help you— just hit reply to this email, or apply for coaching with me here!