With the New Year welcomed in, now is the time most aim to embrace their ‘New Year, New Me’ mindset, with 59% of people aiming to lose weight and eat healthier. But with the never-ending cycle of social media trends, the pressure of a ‘New Me’ grows darker for women every year.
In 2023, it was recorded 77.5% of teenage girls aged 17-19 fell under the category of disordered eating, with previous statistics having almost doubled during the Covid-19 era. It can only be assumed this rise is an indirect result of the growing trends on social media surrounding body image and eating habits. ‘SkinnyTok’ is a specific community within TikTok, dedicated to the ideation of skinniness, reaching levels of extreme weight loss, and the potential glamourisation of disordered eating habits. Although TikTok is not the only platform known for these groups, with both Twitter (now X) and Tumblr having a similar community during the 2010s, TikTok arguably is much more impactful as a result of its mass number of users, of which over two billion are active monthly.
I spoke to University Student, Rose, on why she thinks these communities are gaining so much traction online, “When you see, you know, a setting for an anonymous group where everyone’s talking […] it is really a kind of twisted sense of community. And if you’re in that community like that, it becomes your normal. And that’s how I feel about SkinnyTok, that once you’re in it, you kind of don’t realise how bad it really is.”
When approaching topics like these, it has to be noted the overwhelming contrast in the approach to weight loss for women compared to men’s. It’s partly the reason why women only spaces, gyms in particular, are so popular; weight loss and gym culture for men is presented through the media as an inherently masculine and positive space for men only. In comparison, Rose says, for most women it is the opposite, “[It’s] always about getting slimmer. You rarely see anything about building or bulking [for women] and if it is bulking, its building lean muscle to look skinnier. It’s always about being smaller. For men, you’ll see things on weight loss from […] just being overweight and getting to a healthy weight, but it’s never anything that seems really, really harmful.”
Once again, these contrasts are strikingly clear within the way social media approaches these topics. Weight loss for women is often presented through trends such as ‘Pilates Princess’, a predominantly women oriented strength training workout, with an estimated 75-90% of participants being women. Pilates, although labelled as strength training, targets creating lean and toned muscles, yet again proving the pressure on women to remain as slim as possible, even while aiming to build muscle. Rose reflects that women’s weight loss, even within ‘strength building’ trends such as these, is ultimately the main aim upon women, “I think that women’s weight loss will primarily always be seen as a really good thing. Even if people don’t really know why someone’s lost weight.”
When asked about the recent backlash some celebrities have faced online for their extreme weight loss, Rose stated, “If you lose a bunch of weight, it’s perfectly okay until your body really starts reflecting your mindset. Which I think is awful because you can have an eating disorder at any weight, you know? […] I mean you do have a few people when you see comment sections of celebrity weight losses say, ‘oh but they look better before’ and stuff like that, but there’s always going to be a subconscious pressure for people in general, and in the spotlight, to lose weight because you see everyone getting praised [for weight loss].”
It can be agreed weight loss is a difficult task for most that should be handled with sensitivity online. Rose speaks on her experience with trying to avoid these discussions, “Even if you don’t engage, even if you press ‘not interested’ with certain communities, you’re always going to come across sugar-coated things like that. You’re always going to see a celebrity weight loss transformation. […] It’s always these acceptable versions that are really hard to just turn an eye to.” Therefore, when approaching research surrounding these topics, deleting or distancing from social media would likely be the best approach.