The default assumption tends to be that it is politically important to designate everyone as beautiful, that it is a meaningful project to make sure that everyone can become, and feel, increasingly beautiful. We have hardly tried to imagine what it might look like if our culture could do the opposite—de-escalate the situation, make beauty matter... See more

Whereas the millennial women of Instagram — the millennial women associated with the “that-girl” trope — would strike the perfect pose and use filters to enhance their natural beauty, Gen-Zs use their phone cameras to distort the natural ideal of the human face, obscuring their features with emojis, cartoon glitter, surreal lighting and other... See more

Social media platforms – particularly TikTok – are reflecting and accelerating this shift. The hashtag #SkinnyTok has surpassed 2.4 billion views, driving a toxic wave of algorithmic thinspiration reminiscent of Tumblr’s early-00s ‘pro-ana’ communities. Young women are reporting that their feeds are suddenly full of these videos, despite not... See more