The THINSPO Era is Amongst Us
The THINSPO Era is Amongst Us
At the SAG awards this year, Selena Gomez appeared slimmer than she’d been in years, looking radiant, styled to perfection… and yet, something about it felt familiar in a way that made my stomach sink. BIG TIME.
And it was this EXACT photo which sparked the idea of writing an article on the “thinspo era” that has emerged in Hollywood and Fashion.
Since then additional images started flooding my feed (thanks no thanks algorithm) showing side-by-side comparisons, comments dissecting her body, and speculation about how she "snapped back."
It took me a minute to realize what I was actually looking at: the quiet return of the thinspo era.
The era I thought we´d buried.
Despite all the noise about inclusivity, the fashion and entertainment industries still revolve around a narrow idea of what’s considered desirable. Sure, our standards have evolved, but they’re never truly dismantled. I clearly remember a few years ago during New York Fashion Week I witnessed first-hand fashion brands scrambling to feature more diverse bodies on runways, framing it as a radical shift. But even that came with conditions. The bodies that were celebrated as “plus-size” were often still hourglass-shaped, well-styled, and conventionally attractive.
Here is exactlyyyyyyyy where I get a bit uncomfortable with the binary conversation around body image. I don’t think glorifying extreme thinness is healthy. I never have. I also don’t think the pendulum swinging toward glamorizing obesity is the solution either. Both extremes can be problematic when they’re framed as ideals rather than lived realities.
Health is complicated, personal, and looks different on everyone.
Yet in pop culture, we’re constantly pushed to pick a side: either cheer for weight loss (overheard in LA: “OMG did you see her? Thank God she got on Ozempic!”) or celebrate any body that pushes back against thin norms, even if that comes at the cost of real, honest conversations about well-being (overheard in LA: “You’ll be cancelled if you talk about how being extremely overweight isn’t healthy”).
Let’s pack up the shame and shift the lens to honesty.
Working inside the industry I can tell you straight up that the industry doesn’t actually care about your health.
It cares about aesthetic trends.
It repackages body types as statements. And in the process, it turns real people (like Selena Gomez) into symbols, flattening their complexity into one-dimensional narratives that serve whatever ideal is currently selling.
And let me be super clear : this isn’t fairness. It’s outright commodification.
And the saddest part? This constant shifting of standards keeps us women chasing something that isn’t even real… not health… not self-love.
Just the illusion of being “on trend.”
So I want to ask you, how does this make you feel? Have you noticed the ways your body has been judged, celebrated, or dismissed depending on the cultural moment?
Let’s talk about it. Drop a comment or reply. I’m listening.
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XX Idalia