The Return of "Skinny Culture" (And Why it Matters)

You may have noticed it creeping back in.

The headlines. The red-carpet commentary. The sudden celebration of “heroin chic” bodies that look suspiciously like the ones we were told to starve ourselves into back in the 1990s.

Skinny culture is making a comeback.

For women our age, this isn’t exactly new territory. Many of us grew up in a time when the message was clear: smaller was better, hunger was discipline, and strength was…unfeminine. A lot of women paid a high price for those messages.

And now a whole new generation of young women is being fed the same nonsense.

The difference today is that the messaging is even more powerful. Social media algorithms amplify it, celebrity culture glamourizes it, and the corporations behind it profit enormously from women feeling like they are never quite thin enough.

It’s worth asking who benefits from this.

Because the people shaping these beauty standards are not women trying to build healthy lives. They are billionaire owners of media and fashion companies who profit from insecurity, endless consumption, and keeping women focused on shrinking themselves instead of strengthening themselves.

Weak women are easier to sell to. Easier to control. Easier to keep quiet.

There’s another uncomfortable truth underneath many of these beauty standards as well: the idealized “perfect” female body often resembles a pre-pubescent one — extremely thin, narrow hips, minimal muscle, and very little body fat. In other words, the closer women look to girls, the more they are celebrated in many corners of media and fashion.

That’s not an accident. It reflects a long history of male-dominated industries defining female beauty in ways that centre youth, vulnerability, and a lack of physical power.

Ugh.

And the consequences go far beyond appearance.

When young women restrict food and avoid building muscle, they aren’t just chasing a look — they are compromising their future health. Peak bone mass is built in early adulthood. If nutrition and resistance training are neglected during those years, the risk of osteoporosis later in life rises dramatically.

Frailty in older age doesn’t happen overnight. It’s built slowly over decades of under-fueling and under-training.

The good news is that women our age are in a powerful position to challenge this narrative.

We can model something different.

We can show younger women that strength, capability, and resilience matter far more than fitting into a smaller pair of jeans. We can talk openly about the damage those old beauty standards caused us. And we can encourage them to fuel their bodies, lift heavy things, and build the kind of muscle that will support them for the rest of their lives.

In other words, we can refuse to participate in the lie.

Bodies are not meant to disappear. They are meant to carry us through long, full, capable lives.

And that’s a far more powerful message than skinny ever was.

Remember, progress not perfection!

Shelley Turk