When will bodies stop trending?

I told myself I wasn't going to write about the Met gala, but alas, I couldn’t help it. This is not a teardown on specific celebrities but more of a teardown of diet culture and disordered eating.

Disclaimer - there is going to be a discussion of disordered eating patterns and habits mentioned below. Also the below is an opinion piece that I thought of writing at 10 PM because I think the topic is important. Please excuse any typos or accidents, and if you see any it means that it was indeed written by me and not AI. Ha!

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We do not have to talk about the Kardashians. We really don’t. However, we need to discuss how disordered habits are inherently normalized in society. As trivial as the Kardashian family seems, they (along with many other celebrities) have a large influence among susceptible people. They are one of those families that always seem to cause a stir some way somehow, and on Monday, May 6, 2024, the stir that was caused was no surprise. Kim Kardashian graced the red green carpet in a silver John Galliano corset-style dress that was so tight it looked as though she was struggling to breathe. I watched a video of her myself, walking down the carpet, stopping for pics while she was seemingly struggling to breathe and looked incredibly uncomfortable.

Here’s the thing: this isn’t a new phenomenon with Kim. Back in 2022, she reportedly wore a dress once donned by Marilyn Monroe. Bringing the historical relic back to the public eye seems harmless enough, except for the fact that the dress was apparently too small for the reality TV star and entrepreneur when she first tried it on. Kardashian admitted she had to lose a considerable amount of weight in a short period of time in order to fit into the dress that could not be altered. In other words, she contorted her body in order to fit into pieces of fabric. In order to fit into the dress, Kardashian said she wore a sauna suit twice a day, ran on the treadmill, and "completely cut out all sugar and all carbs," Vogue reported. "I didn't starve myself, but I was so strict," she said in the interview.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a one-off situation with celebrities. We could also discuss actress Jessica Biel at the Met Gala this year. Biel soaked in 20 pounds of Epsom salts in order to shed water weight to fit into her dress on Monday. No, that’s not a typo. You read that correctly, 20 pounds. “Twenty pounds of Epsom salt in a bath with water as hot as you can take it,” she tells her followers in the video after counting each one and dumping the contents into the freshly drawn water. She added, "Thirty-minute soak [the] night before, drink tons of water, then and off to bed early." I’m familiar with Epsom salts because of their use to relax and soothe muscles. The normal recommended amount is about 2 cups in your bath water for the desired effect, so 20 pounds understandably seems a bit, ummm excessive. Excessive and downright dangerous. Negative side effects could include dehydration and a mineral imbalance, which could impact various organ systems. But as long as you are photogenic in a dress for an event, who cares about a few health concerns? I mean, what’s beauty without pain? Sarcasm, obviously.

In my humble opinion, clothes are meant to fit people, not the other way around. Kardashian admitting to giving herself three weeks to lose 16 pounds in order to fit into the Marilyn dress is simply dangerous, as is the nonchalant reporting of the topic by various publications, I might add. Biel soaking in 20 pounds of Epsom salts just to drop some water weight is also dangerous. As a dietitian working in the health field, someone presenting with rapid weight loss is a concerning symptom that can indicate an underlying condition, such as hyperthyroidism, diabetes, depression, and cancer. But our society often congratulates people for losing weight rapidly without question, no matter how disordered and unhealthy the tactics are. We are a society that uplifts thinness and praises the efforts in order to get thin, no matter how dangerous or deadly.

The disordered tactics I speak of can include but are not limited to intense workouts, eliminating carbs, sugar, or some other food category, skipping meals, purging, pill or steroid use, and yes, soaking in 20 pounds of Epsom salts. First of all, let’s please stop the carb hate. Sugar is a type of carb, but the food group as a whole shouldn't be demonized because carbs are necessary for the body. Carbs can boost your mood by promoting the production of serotonin, a mood-stabilizing hormone. There are also carbs that provide heart-healthy soluble fiber, which can help with the feeling of fullness and reduce constipation. Some can help lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels, too. Without carbs, the body doesn't have access to fiber, which can lead to high cholesterol levels, especially if the protein choices include higher levels of saturated fat.

As I mentioned earlier, unfortunately, disordered eating has become so normalized that we might not even recognize it as such. This is why you may not have questioned when a celebrity casually discusses cutting out entire food groups to fit into a piece of clothing or exercising multiple times a day. What we also need to realize is that none of these tactics are sustainable. In fact, they often lead to weight cycling (constant losing and gaining of weight), which experts now know can have adverse health effects on the body. We could look at a billionaire such as Oprah Winfrey and see how true this is. When many of us think of the media mogul, we think of the many diets she has partaken in over the years and how they never lasted. Winfrey has recently revealed that she does use a weight loss medication now. I wrote about her already (you can read it here), so I won’t go off on a tangent. However, I want to make it clear that I, in a way, do sympathize with many high-profile individuals. Even the Kardashians.

Diet culture is hard to let go of because we are a society constantly engrossed in it. There is an enormous amount of pressure that society puts on people, especially celebrities, to look a certain way. The fad diets, juice cleanses, and pills that make up a $72 billion weight loss industry often tell people that if they just hold themselves accountable and try hard, they can achieve the "ideal" body, but that's not realistic, whether you're famous or not. If we, “normal folks,” can be affected by the thin ideal, I can only imagine what it’s like to be in the public eye. I am not excusing the promotion of dangerous habits, but at the same time, I am torn because it honestly must suck to have every inch of you analyzed by the public.

As someone who used to work in fashion, I actually do look forward to seeing red carpet arrivals and what people are wearing. To me, fashion is a type of creative art that’s wearable. I know that we are living in some troubling times with current events, so laughing and rolling our eyes at the uber-wealthy seems more palatable. Especially at an event such as the Met Gala, where the tickets cost $75,000 to attend. Celebrities showing up in dresses, suits, gowns, and tuxes that would cost the average person an entire year’s salary seems nonsensical. Trust me, I get it. In a “perfect world,” I want more celebrities to be more honest and forthcoming about their tactics. An actual perfect world would be a celebration of body diversity and the end of diet culture, but I digress.

Actor Rob McElhenney shared a sarcastic look into what it took for him to get his Hollywood physique. “Look, it’s not that hard. All you need to do is lift weights six days a week, stop drinking alcohol, don’t eat anything after 7pm, don’t eat any carbs or sugar at all, in fact just don’t eat anything you like, get the personal trainer from Magic Mike, sleep nine hours a night, run three miles a day, and have a studio pay for the whole thing over a six to seven month span. I don’t know why everyone’s not doing this. It’s a super realistic lifestyle and an appropriate body image to compare oneself to.” Again, he was being sarcastic, emphasizing that this is, in fact, not normal by any means. However, I think of many people who will still read that and spend hours upon hours at the gym and skipping meals to mimic his routine.

I’m going to end on this note: I believe in placing blame on what is truly driving diet culture, which is anti-fatness and weight stigma and bias. I don’t believe in placing the onus on any one individual, even if they’re a celebrity or billionaire. It’s sad when the desire to be thin is worth the sacrifice of health. Our bodies are our forever homes but that doesn’t mean they are a constant home improvement project complete with demolition. Celebrities on the red carpet are one thing, but the talk of getting the body “summer ready” by friends and family is another. Talk of contortion in order to fit into clothes is running rampant. So I will say this: fashion is art, and our bodies can be the “canvas.” However, the end result should not be to shrink the canvas. Clothes are meant to fit our bodies, not our bodies contorted to fit clothes.