Backstreets Back..

…If you couldn’t stop yourself from singing “Alright!” in your head, then welcome, get your required ibuprofen at the table on the right. 

Yes, the 90’s are back, and while  my Delia’s loving heart is thrilled and ready to don some flared jeans and butterfly clips, there are definitely some major drawbacks to this decade coming back into fashion. 

Namely, Diet Culture and Fatphobia. 

Yes, the trend du’jour is bringing back all of those insults and “thinspo” phrases that I had hoped we left back in a time of dial up internet. Sadly, like old school boy bands, it is back and bigger than ever. 

Phrases like “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” or “a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips” are making their way back on to the radar. Fitness influencers and people claiming to be nutritionists are telling people to get off their ass and move. “It’s calories in, calories out, it’s so easy!” They  say, the “duh” implied in their tone. “Just take the stairs more and put that candy bar down!” a vlogger will yell, paying no mind to the fact they have never been over a size 2 in their life. Soon the ancient calls of “fat free” products will start making the rounds again, cycling Keto out of the top spot, in a never ending cycle of moving the goal posts in the name of health…while never actually taking into the nuances that health actually requires. 

We have learned a lot about bodies and health in the last few decades. Mostly we have learned how much we DON’T know about health. Many of the things we took for granted as common truths have proven to be much more complicated, or completely false. 

From finally realizing that the BMI is a terrible way to measure people (mostly because it was created to measure groups, and neither women nor people of color were included); To recognizing that incredibly fast weight loss, especially using “weight loss aids” like Phen Phen and Efedra are extremely dangerous and can cause health issues far longer than any temporary weight loss they might provide. 

We’ve also finally started to become much more aware of the social and emotional complexities around bodies and health. Things like fat people being treated more poorly by medical staff and thus not getting the care they need. People in larger bodies not getting their eating disorders taken seriously and even being praised for losing weight. More and more studies come out every year that show that family, genetics, trauma, and access to resources all play a HUGE role in how our bodies (and our thoughts about our bodies) are shaped.