From empowerment to a erasure; can you feel the quiet decline of body positivity?

As skinny reclaims the spotlight, where does that leave the rest of us?

Photo by Fuu J on Unsplash

Remember when the body positivity movement felt like a cultural turning point? When brands were scrambling to diversify their campaigns, stretch marks and cellulite were no longer being airbrushed out of existence, and softness - real, beautiful softness - was starting to be seen as worthy of the spotlight alongside the taut and lean? That wasn’t so long ago. But now, it feels like something’s shifted, and for those who benefited from body positivity - and I count myself in that category - this shift back towards conservative, traditional beauty, Eurocentric beauty standards can feel destabilising. Just when you thought it was finally ok to be you, the goalposts change -again.

It’s undeniable that the dominant aesthetic has become sleeker, more sculpted. “Wellness” has quietly replaced “acceptance.” Thinness is trending again firstly under the guise of discipline, clean eating, and minimalism and now in a more brash, Y2K-thinspiration way disguised as ‘skinnytok.’ Is it any coincidence we’ve heard nothing about ultra thin it girl Alexa Chung for years, and suddenly she’s all over social media again; it’s her era once more. This isn’t a dig at her in any way, she’s great and very funny (I’ve interviewed her a few times.) It’s more about what she represents - and the timing.

Even in supposedly progressive beauty and wellness spaces, the bodies we’re now being shown are often taut, glowy and impossibly smooth. And when we do see bigger bodies, they’re more often the exception than the norm.

This isn’t just a feeling - there’s data behind it. Research by the Centre for Appearance Research found that while body positivity once enjoyed a sharp rise in online visibility, it began to decline in use across major social media platforms after 2021. In its place? Hashtags like the more vague rhetoric of #bodyconfidence that often still upholds a narrow beauty standard.

Read: Is minimalist beauty a trend or a warning?

At the same time, weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro have entered the mainstream - and with them, a shift in body expectations, particularly in celebrity and influencer circles. These changes don’t happen in a vacuum. They’re cultural signals that trickle down, whether consciously or not. The result? Many people I speak to - friends, readers, even industry insiders - are quietly feeling the pressure all over again. The celebratory, inclusive space we were beginning to carve out feels like it’s closing in. It feels like the body revolution never even happened.

This isn't to say that body positivity was ever perfect. The movement has long been criticised for being co-opted by brands, overly focused on appearance, was ableist and often centred white, smaller-fat bodies. But even with its flaws, it provided something radical: visibility. For a while, it opened up welcome space for people to exist as they are - without apology or as a ‘before’ shot for some kind of diet gimmick.

So where did body positivity go? Was it a fleeting trend? Was it quietly absorbed into marketing departments and diluted in the process? Is it the rise of conservative beauty ideals? Or are we just in a cultural lull, waiting for the next iteration of resistance to rise?

I don’t have all the answers - but I know I’m not the only one feeling this shift. So I’d love to hear from you. Are you seeing the same changes? Is your relationship with your body being affected by this cultural tide? Do you miss the body positivity era — or do you think we need something entirely new?….