Being dangerously thin is back in. Is the body-positivity era officially over?
Why Read This
What Makes This Article Worth Your Time
Summary
What This Article Is About
Arwa Mahdawi examines a troubling cultural shift as the American Society of Plastic Surgeons declares we’re entering the “ballet body” era, signaling a return to dangerous thinness ideals. The organization’s 2023 annual report shows increased demand for liposuction and procedures that create slimmer silhouettes, reversing a decade of body-positive progress that celebrated curves and diverse body types.
This shift coincides with the Ozempic boom, as celebrities openly embrace weight-loss medications and the fashion industry returns to extremely thin runway models. Mahdawi argues that combining cultural obsession with extreme thinness and easy access to prescription weight-loss drugs creates a dangerous environment, particularly as doctors report inappropriate use of these medications by people who don’t medically need them.
Key Points
Main Takeaways
The “Ballet Body” Trend
Plastic surgeons declare a cultural shift toward extreme thinness, reversing a decade of body-positive progress that celebrated diverse body types.
Kardashian Influence on Beauty Standards
Kim Kardashian’s extreme dieting for the Met Gala helped shift cultural discourse away from curves back toward glorifying thinness.
Fashion Industry’s Size Regression
Vogue Business reports a plateau in size inclusivity efforts, with runway shows increasingly featuring extremely thin models across major fashion capitals.
The Ozempic Phenomenon
Celebrity endorsements of semaglutide medications for weight loss have normalized pharmaceutical approaches to achieving extreme thinness among people who don’t medically need them.
Political Weaponization of Weight Loss
Rio de Janeiro’s mayor promised to make generic Ozempic widely available, declaring the city would have “no more fat people” if re-elected.
Dangerous Combination of Trends
The convergence of thinness idealization and easy access to weight-loss medications creates serious health risks, especially for those inappropriately using prescription drugs.
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Article Analysis
Breaking Down the Elements
Main Idea
The Dangerous Return to Extreme Thinness
The body-positivity era is ending as cultural forces—medical institutions, celebrities, the fashion industry, and pharmaceutical trends—converge to re-establish dangerous thinness as the beauty ideal. This regression threatens public health by normalizing extreme weight loss among people who don’t medically need it.
Purpose
Critique Cultural Regression
Mahdawi aims to expose and critique the dangerous reversal of body-positive progress, warning readers about the convergence of medical, celebrity, and pharmaceutical forces that are re-normalizing extreme thinness. She advocates for awareness of these harmful cultural shifts before they become fully entrenched.
Structure
Satirical Introduction → Evidence-Based Analysis → Warning
The article opens with satirical questions about body trends before presenting evidence from plastic surgery data, fashion industry reports, and celebrity culture. It concludes with warnings about the dangerous convergence of thinness idealization and pharmaceutical access, supported by examples from doctors and international politics.
Tone
Satirical, Critical & Urgent
Mahdawi employs biting satire in her opening to highlight the absurdity of body-trend declarations while maintaining a critically analytical approach throughout. Her tone grows increasingly urgent as she documents the convergence of dangerous cultural forces, warning readers about serious health implications.
Key Terms
Vocabulary from the Article
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Tough Words
Challenging Vocabulary
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Having received injections of botulinum toxin to reduce wrinkles; used here satirically to suggest artificiality or superficiality.
“The American Society of Plastic Surgeons have put their beautiful Botoxed heads together…”
Famous or well-known, typically for some bad quality, deed, or unfavorable characteristic; having a widely known negative reputation.
“Since ballet is notorious for eating disorders, one imagines it might also drive an increase in women starving themselves.”
Excessively large or disproportionately influential; bigger than necessary or appropriate; used here ironically regarding the Kardashians’ cultural influence.
“The Kardashians, it will not surprise you to hear, seem to have played an oversized role in shifting body-related discourse.”
Making something seem attractive, exciting, or desirable, often by emphasizing appealing aspects while ignoring negative consequences or realities.
“The fashion industry as a whole has started glamorizing thinness.”
Involving or causing sudden great damage, suffering, or destruction; extremely unfortunate or unsuccessful; disastrous on a massive scale.
“The situation for pregnant women in Gaza is catastrophic.”
Difficult or impossible to conceive of or comprehend; beyond what the mind can envision or understand, often due to extreme severity.
“The suffering is unimaginable and there is no end in sight.”
Reading Comprehension
Test Your Understanding
5 questions covering different RC question types
1According to the article, Kim Kardashian has publicly confirmed that she received a Brazilian butt lift procedure.
2According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons president Steven Williams, what characterized the previous decade before the current shift toward thinness?
3Which sentence best expresses Mahdawi’s main concern about the convergence of cultural trends around thinness and weight-loss medications?
4Evaluate whether each statement about the fashion industry’s size trends is true or false based on the article.
Vogue Business reported a worrying return to using extremely thin models on runways.
Models who were previously considered mid-size are now being classified as plus-size.
There has been a plateau in size inclusivity efforts across major fashion capitals.
Select True or False for all three statements, then click “Check Answers”
5What can be inferred about Mahdawi’s view of Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes’s promise to make Ozempic widely available through public health clinics?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
The “ballet body” refers to an extremely thin, lean physique that the American Society of Plastic Surgeons identified as the emerging beauty ideal driving demand for liposuction and slimming procedures. The term evokes ballet dancers, who are historically associated with eating disorders and extreme thinness. This represents a dangerous shift away from the previous decade’s celebration of curves toward glorifying dangerously low body weight.
Celebrities have played a dual role in this shift. First, Kim Kardashian’s 2022 extreme diet to fit into Marilyn Monroe’s Met Gala dress helped encourage a new cultural obsession with thinness. Second, numerous celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Elon Musk have openly discussed using semaglutide medications like Ozempic for weight loss, normalizing pharmaceutical approaches to extreme weight reduction and making these medications aspirational rather than purely medical.
Vogue Business released a size-inclusivity report documenting a worrying return to extremely thin runway models and a plateau in inclusivity efforts across New York, London, Milan, and Paris. Additionally, a fashion insider reported that sizes have decreased across the board, with many models who were previously classified as plus-size now being considered mid-size, and straight-size models also getting thinner. This represents a systemic reversal of body-positive progress in the industry.
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This article is classified as Intermediate level. It requires understanding of contemporary cultural issues, ability to detect satirical tone, and comprehension of how the author builds arguments through multiple evidence sources. The vocabulary includes some specialized terms (semaglutide, liposuction, posterior) but remains accessible to readers with solid general knowledge. The article’s structure—moving from satirical opening to evidence-based critique—demands active engagement with shifting tones and layered argumentation.
Mahdawi identifies the danger in the convergence of multiple trends: cultural idealization of extreme thinness, pharmaceutical normalization of weight-loss medications, and the fashion industry’s retreat from size diversity. She notes that doctors are already seeing patients inappropriately using these medications after obtaining them through online pharmacies, presenting with serious symptoms. The combination creates an environment where people who don’t medically need weight loss may pursue dangerous methods to achieve culturally promoted extreme thinness, effectively ending the body-positivity era’s progress.
The Ultimate Reading Course covers 9 RC question types: Multiple Choice, True/False, Multi-Statement T/F, Text Highlight, Fill in the Blanks, Matching, Sequencing, Error Spotting, and Short Answer. This comprehensive coverage prepares you for any reading comprehension format you might encounter.
