By Bethan Jones
That’s right, ‘heroin chic’ is back. Models and celebs have swapped out the curves for hollowed cheekbones and dark under eyes, reminiscent of the 90s. But this time, the look isn’t echoing the gaunt appearance linked to heroin use, but instead a new pharmaceutical on the scene, and it’s one you can buy from basically any online pharmacy – Ozempic (or Mounjaro)
Founded in 2017, Ozempic was originally used to treat type 2 diabetes, but with the discovery of a major side effect – weight loss – it was quickly nabbed by pharmaceutical companies, selling to healthcare providers and anyone with a spare buck (or £150 a month, to be precise). With a bit of cash, and if you’re not squeamish of jabbing yourself with a needle every week, thinness can now be bought. The short-lived body positivity trend that we saw skyrocket only a few years ago has quickly died down, met with plus size models struggling for work and celebrities shrinking in size. The likes of James Corden and Rebel Wilson, who were once known for their size, are now the ones using and advocating for this drug. Of course, I’m not condemning them for losing weight, but it is no coincidence that the sudden surge in slimmed-down celebrities is happening just as Ozempic is sparking in use.
Thinness has been commodified, repackaged and sold back to us as ‘diet culture’, ‘clean eating’ and now weight loss drugs – but was it ever really gone? Whilst we preached inclusivity, the fatphobia that seeped deep into our culture never fully went away. Yes, it may have been more acceptable to be on the bigger side, but that was never perceived as the end goal – skinny always came out on top. The expectations we put on larger people were still tied to a thinness-first mentality we never truly let go of.
We are now seeing people like Lola Young, who exploded onto the music scene last year, being met with huge backlash. And it’s not her music people are criticising her for, but instead aiming their comments at her body and unconventional look.
Realistically, if she’d gotten popular six or seven years ago, we wouldn’t hear half as much about her looks as we do now, representing the shifting of our beauty standards once again.
Due to their current craze, 2024 saw global shortages of Ozempic and other GLP-1s. Diabetics, who desperately needed them, couldn’t get a hold of a drug essential to their health, which reduces the risk of heart attack and strokes. The shortages also meant that some diabetics were forced into buying it privately.
Ozempic is just another plaster over the sore wound of our society. Our obsession with appearance distracts us from the real drivers of rising obesity rates. Cheap, ultra-processed foods fill supermarkets, and poor work-life balance leaves many people with little time or energy to prepare healthier meals.
This quick fix is just another way to put the blame on the individual for what clearly must be tackled as a systemic issue. And all too often, the results don’t last – stop the injections and the weight returns, proving once again that there are no shortcuts through a problem baked into our society.
And so, the pendulum has swung back, making you wonder: was body positivity ever truly about change, or was it just a brief trend before society returned to its old habits?
Weight loss drugs, like Ozempic, have put the problem behind a paywall, pressuring individuals to internalize yet another insecurity and reminding us that fleeting trends only commercialize on the distraction of our bodies.