Is the body positivity era over?

A "parade of skeletons" at recent showbiz awards ceremonies shows that the "body positivity" movement was "built on wishful thinking", said Paula Froelich for The Free Press.

The movement, which encourages the celebration and acceptance of all physiques and body types, no matter how big or small, first emerged during the 1960s and enjoyed a revival during the 2010s – but is its latest chapter now over?

Distant memory

The pictures from the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet "speak for themselves" and "make for uncomfortable viewing", wrote Lisa Armstrong, head of fashion, for The Telegraph. Body diversity is "rapidly becoming a distant memory", replaced by the "new-old ideal" of weight loss.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In "a sea" of ultra-skinny A-listers, Selena Gomez had previously "stood out as a figure who represented a more relatable body type", wrote Alex Light for Glamour. Some fans felt "betrayed" by her "thinner appearance" at the ceremony. But famous women face "intense scrutiny" and we never know the "full context". Given that Gomez has spoken of her struggle with an autoimmune condition that can affect weight, it's "crucial" not to overlook the impact health can have on physical appearance.

Last year, the editorial director of British Vogue told the BBC that the fashion industry "should be concerned" by the resurgence of underweight models, pinning some of the blame on the popularity of the weight-loss drug Ozempic.

The recent news that a Next advert has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority because the model's pose and the camera angle gave the impression she was "unhealthily thin" seems like "the kind of story that should be straight out of 2002", said Olivia Petter in The Independent. It goes to show that body positivity, "fun as it was for a while", was "only ever going to be transient" in the industry. We're "still a while away" from a time when "body inclusivity is something that brands embody because they believe in it" and "not just because they want to cash in on the latest trend".

Vague and platitudinal

The movement's "vague, platitudinal statements" were supposed to be "subversive rallying cries" and "signals of a shifting culture", wrote Sarah Manavis in The New Statesman, but that "blurry language" can be used to "promote the exact beauty standards it set out to disrupt".

Now, an "insidious, inescapable argument" sees many people "encouraging women to prioritise skinniness above all else" and "flipping body positivity language back on itself" by using its "self-care underpinnings" to "rebrand thinness as a health issue".

But we can't say body positivity is "over", psychology professor and body image specialist Dr Charlotte Markey told Page Six. At its core, it isn't about corporate platitudes or red-carpet looks, but the "psychological health" of the individual. "Most people want to feel positive in existing versions of themselves and body positivity was never about seeking perfection," she said. "It was always about psychological health."