Bite Back with Abbey Sharp - Celebrities are SHRINKING Rapidly & Dramatically. The Dire Consequences of the Panzempic for Humanity

Starting point is 00:00:00 We're teaching people, especially young people, that the most quote unquote successful bodies are the ones that receive the absolute fewest messages about what they need. Welcome to another episode of Bite Back with Abby Sharp, where I dismantle Diet Culture Rules, call out the charlatans spinning the pseudoscience, and help you achieve food freedom for good. Today I want to chat about something that gives me great discomfort having to address, because I'm, I generally have a policy not to talk about women's body. I will call out problematic eating behaviors and misleading content all day, but weighing out the risks and benefits of body commentary requires a lot more thoughtfulness and tact. So generally, I do try to avoid it.

Starting point is 00:00:55 But as we find ourselves at the deadly peak of what many have coined the panzempic, it's becoming depressingly clear to me that the benefits to public health of speaking up far outshadow any potential risks of harm to a few. Because we've all noticed it, haven't we? This year's New Year's resolution cycle has felt different than it has in years prior. Celebrities showing up on red carpets, press tours, and social media looking dramatically and sometimes shockingly so much smaller. And I'm not just talking about one or two people.

Starting point is 00:01:36 I'm talking entire castes, entire industries, entire archetypes of women who up until very recently were celebrated for taking up space. And while the internet has been busy speculating about how this is happening, I think the more important question is, what does this moment mean? for women, for young people, and for how we experience life itself. Because the truth is, celebrity's bodies aren't just bodies. They're symbols. They're templates.

Starting point is 00:02:09 And right now, the template is rapidly shrinking. And we really need to unpack it before it is too late. Now, a quick note before I get into the meat of this episode that this conversation may be uncomfortable for some of my listeners who are sensitive to body talk and weight loss discussion. So please feel free to skip this one if it's not supportive to you. Also, if you're feeling a lot of the feels I'm going to be touching on and are looking for a gentler, more supportive approach,

Starting point is 00:02:42 my brand new book, The Hunger Crushing Combo Method, is now finally on sale and is a true departure from what we are seeing in the media right now. So I would really, really love if you would check out the links in the description for where you can order online. All right, friends, let's get into it by talking about what is largely kicked off this cultural contraction, and that is at least partially the widespread use of GLP1 medications like OZemPEC and Weigovie. My long-term followers and sub-eas know that I have always said I believe in body autonomy,

Starting point is 00:03:25 and I also don't believe in censoring science. And based on the data we have so far, I am confident that these drugs are truly life-saving for many, many folks. So I want to hold space for that. And I also want to make it clear that this conversation is not about shaming anyone who makes the choice to use a JLP1 on their health journey. But culturally, the use of these medications didn't reach PanZempic level mainstream as neutral medical tools. They entered as a beauty intervention, as a socially and culturally expected way for already small people to become even smaller with less friction and greater velocity. And that is where the conversation we're having needs to shift. When a medical treatment becomes a mass aesthetic solution, it is no longer just about health.

Starting point is 00:04:23 It's about conformity. It's about belonging. It's about staying visible in a culture that rewards thinness with opportunity, praise, and protection. I mean, diet culture has been celebrating thin bodies since the 1800s. I mean, fat stigma has been alive and well our entire lives. In fact, I came of age and survived adolescence during the toxic 2000s where this same emaciated aesthetic was in style. But what we are seeing now is more than just a celebrity fashion trend. Between the fact that social media has narrowed the divide between celebrities and everyday folks, and that OZempic has made thinness basically transactional and readily accessible, body diversity is essentially getting snuffed out.

Starting point is 00:05:14 It is no longer a trend to be thin. It is an expectation to be thin. So let's talk through some of the implications of this that I see. The one that feels the most bleak is how it affects. our relationships with hunger and human appetite. Since the dawn of time, hunger has been one of, if not the most important, primal biological signals that we receive. If our cavemen ancestors never felt hunger, they would have just hung out in their cave until something that did feel hunger came to eat them. We would have never, ever evolved as a species. But when we normalize

Starting point is 00:05:55 pharmacologically suppressing hunger as the new standard, we start treating hunger like it's something to be medicated away. We're teaching people, especially young people, that the most quote unquote successful bodies are the ones that receive the absolute fewest messages about what they need. That any internal sense of appetite or hunger is a character flaw and a moral failing. And that's not just a physical shift, It's a cultural one that literally feels unhuman to me. And that's really fucking dystopian to think about. Another damning implication I see here is related to a rapidly moving goalpost for body acceptance. Because when celebrities' bodies change, our idea of what a normal body looks like shifts to.

Starting point is 00:06:49 Suddenly, a healthy average body looks, quote, quote, fat, normal weight fluctuation, are grounds for complete panic. Puberty is something we need to fight. Pregnancy weight gain feels unacceptable and aging feels scarier than ever before. This doesn't just impact people at risk of an eating disorder. Loads of high-quality research suggests that body social comparison significantly increases body dissatisfaction, which is then linked to depression, anxiety, disordered eating, compulsive exercise, and chronic shame. And a lot of us millennials went through something like this when we came of age in the toxic 2000s. The difference, though, between then and now, is threefold. One, thanks to social media, the line between quote quote celebrities and regular old

Starting point is 00:07:56 Joe's is razor thin. So the pressure to emulate the aspirational bodies that we see in the media feels even more daunting. Number two, young people are already primed with widespread photo editing, filters, what I in a daze, and now AI that has made real human, female bodies virtually invisible. And three, the velocity of these transformations is unmatched. Naturally, young people are left wondering, if my favorite influencer who has unlimited money and resources still isn't thin enough to be accepted without taking pharmaceutical drugs, what chance could I possibly ever have at body

Starting point is 00:08:44 acceptance? And that is exactly how many eating disorders are seated. Because the psychological core of disordered eating often isn't vanity. It's anxiety. It's fear. It's a desire for certainty. a desire for control, a desire to be safe in your body amidst the expectations of the world around us. So when the culture is shouting that safety is found in shrinking, young people listen and follow suit, and often to great long-term harm. And of course, it is easy to clap back and say, well, you know, if a young girl goes on a diet and wants to lose weight, or a 20-something decides to order compounded semi-glutide on one of those sketchy online farm, Well, that's their choice. Like, no celebrity is out there twisting their arm or even explicitly telling kids that they should all be rail thin. But if we're talking about choice, we have to talk

Starting point is 00:09:44 about the conditions under which people are choosing. Because choice in a vacuum isn't freedom. Choice under relentless social pressure is something else entirely. Now, medically speaking, there are real risks that I honestly feel are being swept under the rug with these medications. So side effects range from common GI symptoms to more serious complications like gallbladder disease and pancreatitis. And not to mention the risk of muscle loss, nutritional deficiencies, electrolyte imbalances, hormonal disruptions, and the potential for psychological, quote, flattening for other joys in life. But culturally, those risks and losses are minimized, because the reward, thinness, is treated as worth almost any cost.

Starting point is 00:10:33 It's just necessary collateral for the cause. Now, I want to zoom out and get a little more philosophical here because this feels way bigger to me than celebrity gossip at this point. You know, we are in a moment where aesthetics are becoming medicalized, meaning we are using prescription medications designed and tested to support metabolic health conditions to meet a culturally constructed beauty ideal. And that should make us pause. Because when thinness becomes medically attainable, it also becomes morally expected. And the line between health and appearance becomes even harder to actually see. It changes how we treat people

Starting point is 00:11:18 in larger bodies. It changes how health care providers interact with patients. It changes insurance coverage debates. It changes who is seen as, quote, quote, trying hard enough. And it risks creating a two-tiered body culture, the pharmaceutically thin and everyone else. So the stigma is already so obviously there, but it just gets even more entrenched. Because now, instead of, hey, you should try this diet that I heard of, the message becomes, why aren't you on the medication? And that's now more than a beauty standard. It's more like a cultural mandate. So where do we all go from here? Well, first of all, the answer is certainly not shaming people who take these medications. There are so many people for whom these medications are indicated and can be absolutely life-changing. It means actively rebelling against the lie that

Starting point is 00:12:16 thinness equals worth by unapologetically taking up more space physically, emotionally, and creatively. It means acknowledging and fighting to maintain what makes us human, our joy, our connections, our relationship with our bodies. And it means reminding ourselves and others that health is not a trend. So instead of building self-worth around a trend that very easily may change in five years time, we should be working towards building self-worth to survive and thrive despite the trends. So that is what I'm going to leave with you today. Fighting die culture has always felt like a bit of a David and Goliath situation. And honestly, these Ozempic era times make our role feel particularly dire. But we don't have to be passive participants in a trend that doesn't

Starting point is 00:13:10 serve us. We still do have some autonomy, even if it feels thwarted by the momentum of these trends. So I invite you to do a bit of a deep dive and consider what in your life matters most to you. And if you need help meeting your wellness goals without it consuming your life, I would love if you would please check out my new book, The Hunger Cushing Combo Method, which is now finally on sale wherever you can get your books and online. Your support means so much to me, and I really know that you are going to get so much out of this book. But signing off with Science and Sass.

Starting point is 00:13:47 I'm Mabby Sharp. Thanks for listening.

Bite Back with Abbey Sharp - Celebrities are SHRINKING Rapidly & Dramatically. The Dire Consequences of the Panzempic for Humanity

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