A viral Instagram post by Jameela Jamil slammed the New York Post for stating that ‘heroin chic’ bodies were back and curvy bodies are out, but women are speaking up by declaring that women’s body types are not fashion trends.
On Wednesday, the official Twitter account for the New York Post tweeted: “Bye bye booty: Heroin chic is back.” Attached to the tweet was a link to a recent article, which explained how the “thin, heroin-chic body” of the 1990s and early 2000’s is “making a comeback.”
The article claimed that there’s been a shift in the entertainment and fashion industry and that the “slim thick” celebrity figures such as Lizzo and Megan Thee Stallion have been replaced by the “long legged and slim” models such as Bella Hadid and Lila Moss who in the last year have not only dominated the runway but the popular app TikTok.
The latest “My name is Bella Hadid” trend on TikTok came under fire for fuelling dangerous “body checking” habits in young girls in a way that is frighteningly reminiscent of Tumblr in the early 2000’s.
The videos include a range of content; for example, some compare the body they have now to when they were younger. But mainly, it surrounds the idea of eating; this can be from wiping excess oil off a pizza slice, binge-eating or only eating the bare minimum. In the era of ‘body positivity’ it was expected to find comments under these videos condemning the trend, stating things like “please don’t do this to yourself” and “don’t say things like this :)” however there were also comments encouraging this behaviour and congratulating these young girls for being thin and asking for tips.
Ella Chadwick on Hunger TV stated “These behaviours fall under the term body checking, which in its practice encompasses a range of unhealthy behaviours. It can be from comparing how clothes fit, your weight or how you look from different angles. Offline this can look like frequent mirror checking and weighing yourself on scales. With many of us already hyper-aware of our bodies due to certain standards that have been built in the online world, it is important to know where the line between noticing your body and falling into dangerous behaviours is, and if that has been crossed.”