The Body-Positivity Movement Is Over

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Article The Body-Positivity Movement Is Over

Article The Body-Positivity Movement Is Over

Elsacat

382

Jun 25 2025, 8:26 AM

#1

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/skinnytok-women-weight-tiktok-liv-schmidt/683200/

https://archive.ph/AEPGj

Quote:A few days after my Instagram feed surrendered to the SkinnyTok takeover, the tradwife content began to sneak in. Beautiful women baking bread in linen dresses spoke to me about embracing my divine femininity. I should consider “softer living” and “embracing my natural role.” All of a sudden, I wondered whether I, a single woman in her late 20s living in Manhattan, should trade it all in to become a mother of 10 on a farm in Montana.

Watch a few more of these videos, and soon you’ll be directed to the anti-vax moms, or the Turning Point USA sweetheart Alex Clark’s wellness podcast, Cultural Apothecary, or the full-on conspiratorial alt-right universe. This is just how the internet works. Eviane Leidig, the author of The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization, sees a connection between SkinnyTok and tradwives in their “very strong visual representation of femininity.”

Whether they mean to be or not, they have become part of the same pipeline. Algorithms grab your attention with lighter, relatable content while exposing you to more extremist viewpoints. The alt-right, she said, is great at making aspirational and seemingly apolitical content that viewers relate to. “This is a deliberate strategy that the conservative space has been employing over the last several years to capitalize on cultural issues as a gateway to radicalize audiences into more extreme viewpoints.”

It only starts with health and body size. Nothing wrong with wanting to be your best, healthiest self.

Then comes the ana, then comes the Stepford MAGA brainwashing.

TikTok is cancer.

Elsacat

Jun 25 2025, 8:26 AM #1

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/skinnytok-women-weight-tiktok-liv-schmidt/683200/

https://archive.ph/AEPGj

Quote:A few days after my Instagram feed surrendered to the SkinnyTok takeover, the tradwife content began to sneak in. Beautiful women baking bread in linen dresses spoke to me about embracing my divine femininity. I should consider “softer living” and “embracing my natural role.” All of a sudden, I wondered whether I, a single woman in her late 20s living in Manhattan, should trade it all in to become a mother of 10 on a farm in Montana.

Watch a few more of these videos, and soon you’ll be directed to the anti-vax moms, or the Turning Point USA sweetheart Alex Clark’s wellness podcast, Cultural Apothecary, or the full-on conspiratorial alt-right universe. This is just how the internet works. Eviane Leidig, the author of The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization, sees a connection between SkinnyTok and tradwives in their “very strong visual representation of femininity.”

Whether they mean to be or not, they have become part of the same pipeline. Algorithms grab your attention with lighter, relatable content while exposing you to more extremist viewpoints. The alt-right, she said, is great at making aspirational and seemingly apolitical content that viewers relate to. “This is a deliberate strategy that the conservative space has been employing over the last several years to capitalize on cultural issues as a gateway to radicalize audiences into more extreme viewpoints.”

It only starts with health and body size. Nothing wrong with wanting to be your best, healthiest self.

Then comes the ana, then comes the Stepford MAGA brainwashing.

TikTok is cancer.

Clover
Kozlik's regular account 🍀🐐

949

Jun 25 2025, 10:03 AM

#2

Well here I was hoping that the headline was going to leeway into "and the body neutrality movement is in!" but instead it's just depressing misogynistic shit. 😭

Clover

Kozlik's regular account 🍀🐐

Jun 25 2025, 10:03 AM #2

Well here I was hoping that the headline was going to leeway into "and the body neutrality movement is in!" but instead it's just depressing misogynistic shit. 😭

YesYourNigel

221

Jun 26 2025, 7:30 PM

#3

Quote:Well here I was hoping that the headline was going to leeway into "and the body neutrality movement is in!" but instead it's just depressing misogynistic shit. 😭

Same lol. I thought "You mean the age of insisting any woman can be beautiful if only she crams enough makeup on her face is over? Good riddance!". Instead I learned about SkinnyTok 🙃

YesYourNigel

Jun 26 2025, 7:30 PM #3

Quote:Well here I was hoping that the headline was going to leeway into "and the body neutrality movement is in!" but instead it's just depressing misogynistic shit. 😭

Same lol. I thought "You mean the age of insisting any woman can be beautiful if only she crams enough makeup on her face is over? Good riddance!". Instead I learned about SkinnyTok 🙃

YesYourNigel

221

Jun 28 2025, 12:21 PM

#4

Quote:It only starts with health and body size. Nothing wrong with wanting to be your best, healthiest self.

Sadly, "health" for women is tied with decidedly unhealthy beauty standards. Most women want to work out (i.e. do endless cardio instead of far more useful strength training) in order to get skinnier. Most women don't want to be fat because fat is ugly. Even the overly skinny ones that want to gain weight are encouraged in it toget a bigger ass and whatnot. All these vultures are successful because they exploit the actual patriarchal motivations underneath seemingly sensible, beneficial ones, like health.

Also I was surprised to see how many tradwives push protein, like, why the fuck do you need it? Aren't you a fragile little twiggy flower terrified of turning into the Hulk? But apparently people nowadays think protein powders are some magical health substance instead of a supplement that the vast majority of light-to-moderately active people do not need. Unless you're really pushing your muscles, you can get plenty of protein even on a vegan but especially vegetarian diet just from eating normally. It's such an example of women kind of trying to follow mainstream (aka male) fitness trends but modified into unhealthy or useless beauty products.

Edited Jun 28 2025, 12:25 PM by YesYourNigel.

YesYourNigel

Jun 28 2025, 12:21 PM #4

Quote:It only starts with health and body size. Nothing wrong with wanting to be your best, healthiest self.

Sadly, "health" for women is tied with decidedly unhealthy beauty standards. Most women want to work out (i.e. do endless cardio instead of far more useful strength training) in order to get skinnier. Most women don't want to be fat because fat is ugly. Even the overly skinny ones that want to gain weight are encouraged in it toget a bigger ass and whatnot. All these vultures are successful because they exploit the actual patriarchal motivations underneath seemingly sensible, beneficial ones, like health.

Also I was surprised to see how many tradwives push protein, like, why the fuck do you need it? Aren't you a fragile little twiggy flower terrified of turning into the Hulk? But apparently people nowadays think protein powders are some magical health substance instead of a supplement that the vast majority of light-to-moderately active people do not need. Unless you're really pushing your muscles, you can get plenty of protein even on a vegan but especially vegetarian diet just from eating normally. It's such an example of women kind of trying to follow mainstream (aka male) fitness trends but modified into unhealthy or useless beauty products.

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