Luxe Lean and Social Media Trends: Feminist Perspectives

     As the well-anticipated Wicked Two’s film release drew near, the cast often promoted their movie through visibility in public; however, rather than creating hype around the movie, it instead left audiences perplexed, as the age-old question reared its head, “is she too thin?” The past ten years have been a time of body positivity with curvier models hitting runways and women supporting a variety of body shapes. Yet just this last year brought dramatic shifts in expectations of women’s bodies by returning to the 90's extremely thin body ideal.  

              While much of this shift can be traced back to a variety of media sources within our culture, a large portion of the recent shift began as an aesthetic TikTok trend wrapped in wellness jargon. As the trend developed, influencers became mere objects reinforcing hegemony, and with the shift in ideals, came the natural change in followers' views, likes and adds. Influencers quickly learned that body objectification would grow their audience, increase their visibility, and gain additional likes, which not only reinforced the objectification of women, but further allowed women to also view one another as objects. As this body image has slowly become the norm, women not only began to follow the trends, but further objectified their own bodies. It is as French philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir, states, “a woman is not born a woman, but becomes one” (Beauvoir 2020). Overtime, this trend has taken over social media platforms and has become widely accepted, as women around the world attempt to rebrand themselves as “that girl.” Women were not born this way, and yet this desirable trend falls into the phenomenon of male gaze, as women are increasingly objectified on social media platforms.     

           Equally interesting is how this trend has developed overtime. Just recently, the term luxe lean was coined, with the idea that thin, in shape bodies signified wealth due to privileges needed to sustain them: gym memberships, healthy foods, supplements, GLP-1 time, and so forth. All of which goes beyond radical feminist perspectives, but further touches on Marxist perspectives as it has moved from equal access to privileged. While this may not be due to inequality in women’s pay, it does favor privilege while pushing hegemonic assumptions benefitting the wealthy.  

Regardless of its theory, women’s bodies continue to be blatantly objectified within media, perpetuating social norms. While this messaging had previously created ads, sold movies, and made magazines, it is now so prevalent within our daily lives, that young girls are regularly scrolling through reels observing the thin bodies while absorbing the occluded messages of many of their favorite influencers. As this messaging continues to attract followers and women are increasingly objectified, how does our society counter a trend heavy media maintaining hegemonic ideology that creates a sense of powerlessness in women and men alike?