The Toxic Legacy of Body Positivity: Thinness Is Back, But No One Is Talking About It

A decade after the body positivity movement claimed no body type is superior, the fashion industry and wider culture are once again in the grip of extreme thinness—now amplified by the rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. At Vogue World Milano, held in Italy’s oldest shopping arcade, 97.5% of models were a size four or under, while sponsor Eli Lilly, the trillion-dollar pharmaceutical company behind Zepbound and Mounjaro, drew sharp criticism from eating disorder advocates. The event, featuring Gigi Hadid in archival Valentino and robots on the catwalk, underscored how the pursuit of thinness has quietly returned, even as public discourse avoids naming it. The backlash highlights a growing tension: as weight-loss medications become mainstream, the line between health treatment and aesthetic ideal blurs. With fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan, and Paris showcasing increasingly narrow body standards, the unspoken message is clear—thin is in, and the pressure is mounting.