Every awards season brings glamour, celebration, and cultural conversation—but increasingly, it also brings something more troubling: a renewed fixation on extreme thinness. What some have started calling the “skinny Oscars” reflects a visible shift back toward narrow, restrictive beauty standards that many thought we were beginning to move beyond as a society.
And while this trend affects all women, it carries particular weight and significance for women athletes—whose bodies are built for performance, strength, and resilience, and do not benefit from an emphasis on shrinking.
The Return of a Harmful Ideal
When red carpet coverage focuses heavily on who looks the “smallest,” “leanest,” or “most transformed,” it sends a clear message: smaller is better. This messaging isn’t new—but its resurgence feels especially disappointing in a moment when conversations around inclusivity and body diversity have finally gained real traction.
The problem isn’t fashion. It’s not even the individuals on the carpet. It’s the system of attention and praise that elevates one specific body type above all others—and subtly (or not so subtly) frames it as the goal. Young girls are watching. This messaging may seem harmless, but girls at every age are impacted by these “implicit” messages thin = good. Because even healthy is then framed as bad.
The Body Positive Movement: A Necessary Counter
At its core, the body positive movement challenges the idea that bodies need to be controlled, minimized, reduced or otherwise altered to be considered “good.”
A body does not need to be managed to be worthy.
A body does not need to be smaller to be valuable.
And perhaps most importantly: a body is not a project.
This perspective is not just empowering—it’s liberating. It shifts the focus from appearance to experience, from control to capability, from judgment to appreciation. All things young athletes and young people need to see and hear.
Why the “Skinny Trend” Is Antifeminist
Let’s be clear: a cultural push toward thinness is not neutral. It has consequences.
When women are encouraged—explicitly or implicitly—to spend time, energy, and mental bandwidth managing their size and overall appearance, it diverts resources (energy, thought) away from other meaningful areas of life.
Time spent worrying about food, weight, or appearance is time not spent on:
- Learning and education
- Career growth and entrepreneurship
- Advocacy and civic engagement
- Creativity and personal passions
- Athletic development and performance
It’s not just about aesthetics—it’s about opportunity cost. And literal cost – dieting, beauty products, etc. cost women SO MUCH money to purchase and invest in… when we already make 81¢ to every $1 men make.
A culture that keeps women focused on shrinking themselves limits their ability to expand into everything else. When we are under-fueled, we have no energy to care about things that actually matter in our lives and the world.
The Athlete Perspective: Performance vs. Appearance
For women athletes, the tension is often even more pronounced. While we just fell in love with Ilona Maher, we’re being told we need to be as thin as Aria Grande. That juxtaposition is not insignificant.
At its core, the “skinny” ideal is fundamentally at odds with athletic success.
High performance requires:
- Strength
- Power
- Fuel
- Recovery
- Muscle mass
- Energy availability
In contrast, the pursuit of extreme thinness often leads to:
- Fatigue
- Weakness
- Increased injury rate and risk
- Hormonal disruptions
- Decreased performance
Put simply: you cannot be both under-fueled and at your athletic best. The issues that compound when we under-fuel – and the amount of time it takes to allow your body to recover remove you from the possibility of elite athletic performance.
The bodies that excel in sport are not always the bodies that fit narrow beauty standards—and that’s not a flaw. It’s evidence of what those bodies are capable of. And it’s wonderful. How boring would the world be if we all looked the same?
Strong and powerful will always outperform weak and depleted.
Not only that, but constantly worrying about your appearance in your athletic gear (feeling too big, feeling as though your clothes are too tight, etc.) lead to discomfort and lack of focus on performance.
After all, how can you be confident when you are not comfortable?
Redefining What We Value
What if we celebrated our bodies for what they can do, not solely for how they look?
What if strength, resilience, and capability were the standard?
What if we stopped asking women to take up less space—and instead encouraged them to take up more? To be more than an object to admire or critique.
Because the truth is, the most impactful women—in sport, in business, in leadership—are not the ones who make themselves smaller.
They are the ones who fully step into their strength and intelligence.
A Better Message to Live On
Your body is not a trend.
Your body is not a problem to solve.
Your body is not something that needs to be reduced in order to be respected.
Your body is already enough. YOU are enough.
If you are an athlete, your goal is not to be smaller—it is to be stronger, faster, more skilled, more powerful. To fuel yourself. To train with intention. To perform at your highest level possible.
And outside of sport?
You can be beautiful without being rail thin.
You can be powerful without apology.
You can exist—fully, confidently, unapologetically—exactly as you are.
Because the goal was never to be smaller.
The goal is to be more. Let go of distraction, and lean into intention.
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