If you haven’t been living under a rock, you will know that big bums and little waists have been in for the last decade. Thanks to the likes of the Kardashians, curvaceous bodies bounced back in fashion, marking the rise of the BBL era. However, anybody old enough will remember Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie being the ‘it’ girls in the early 00s by peddling the idea that being super skinny was in. And now the latest social media headlines suggest that we are witnessing the end of the BBL era. But where does this leave us as a society?
Some will celebrate that this era of unattainable curves is coming to an end. For others, it will cause anxiety that the heroin chic look of the late 90s and 00s will return. But ultimately, where it leaves us is in a society that still markets women’s bodies as a trend.
While we can point to figureheads such as the Kardashians for championing the BBL movement, figureheads cannot be held accountable for society’s idolisation of their bodies. Rather, it is society’s way of marketing and obsessing over women’s bodies that is the issue.
Curvy bodies were celebrated at first
To many, the rise of curves was celebrated as the era of unattainably skinny was over and the idea of being thicker was in. However, just like other trends, this era soon became unattainable to even naturally curvaceous girls. The original slim thick body type is one that is in proportion, with thick thighs and a healthy amount of fat around the stomach. However, the transformation of Kim Kardashian from clearly just a naturally curvy woman to a modified unnaturally proportioned one was fast. As soon as her body type became the ‘trend’, she upped everyone through plastic surgery and the rest of her family followed suit. As did influencers, as the media hailed the ‘BBL look’.
According to a report by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, “requests for Brazilian butt lifts have increased by 77.6% since 2015.’[1] This is a crazy statistic considering “the risk of death for BBL surgery is at least 10 times higher than many other cosmetic procedures, and it has the highest death rate of all cosmetic procedures.”[2] So, just like when we saw deaths from eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, increase due to the pressures of the late 90s and early 00s, women are once again dying in order to gain the unattainable image of the last decade.
But BBLs are seemingly making their way out. We now see headlines that the era is coming to an end and see the Kardashians flaunting their new, notably smaller bodies. A new skinny body type is in but we’re not exactly sure what this will look like yet. Will heroin chic be back? Will it be sporty-toned skinny? Who knows?
To me this is scary. The fact that a new trend is in, a new unattainable trend that today’s youth will die trying to copy. A new trend that women are told their bodies should look like. Influencers will rid their BBLs and follow this look, and it will be shoved in our faces by society.
Is the hard body trend on the rise?
A body type that many have discussed coming back is the ‘hard body’ trend of the 80s. Although it is more natural-looking than that of BBLs, it is still an extremely toned body type that takes a great amount of commitment to the gym and dieting.
Teyana Taylor’s appearance in Kayne West’s music video, ‘Faded’, gained lots of praise[3], with VIBE.com stating “Teyana Taylor’s body is the reason for all new gym memberships”[4]. As VIBE.com makes clear, Teyana Taylor’s body and the ‘hard body’ look is centred around fitness and going to the gym, something that many would praise as a healthy lifestyle. However, when body image is put at the forefront of why women are going to the gym, it can and does lead to compulsive exercise, appearance anxiety and low self-esteem.
A recent study on people who go to the gym found that 38.5% were at risk of body dysmorphic disorder, most of which were women, and 39.8% used fitness-enhancing supplements without medical consultation.[5] It is clear that whatever trend we see for women’s bodies is one of extremes – people losing their period due to extensive exercise, people suffering from anorexia to be skinny, people getting botched BBLs to have a big bum.
The artificial woman
The combination of social media and easy access to body enhancements is only making these extremes worse. As a society, we have always gone to extremes to fit the beauty ideal of the day but now with things like injectables being more attainable than ever, we have reached a new level.
The artificial woman has already become the beauty standard, we accept photoshop as reality and influencers who say they have had no work done as speaking the truth. And this creates a blurred line between what is fake and what is reality. This blurred line creates a distorted view of what our bodies should look like, especially for younger women.
Many will take what they see on social media; edited, photoshopped and cosmetically enhanced bodies as real and try to recreate it. And because these bodies are not real or attainable, they turn to injectables and plastic surgery. For the first time ever, we are seeing the average age of women undergoing cosmetic surgery drop below 40 and it is predicted that the injectables market could grow between 12 and 14% a year from now[6]. These are scary statistics.
Defining ourselves outside of body trends
So where does this leave us? To make a real change we have to practice what we preach. We can’t just go around saying that turning women’s bodies into trends is wrong all whilst trying to fit into this trend (100% guilty of this). We need to actively free ourselves from the shackles that society holds over our bodies. But how? By embracing the bodies we have.
By seeing our bodies as something that helps us get from A to B, that helps us do fun things like dance and workout and eat good food, not as something that we present to the world to be admired or judged. We need to become self-defining – define our own beauty ideals, give up on the beauty standards of society that are unattainable and choose our own style.
This is harder than it seems, I know that. But we are already starting to see some change in society with movements like the ‘any body is a beach body’. We need to reinforce these ideas within ourselves. Don’t let society tell you your body isn’t the right fit; your body is perfect in any shape or form and we should be thankful for them every single day for carrying us through the highs and lows of life. Your body is always there, so the least you can be is kind to it.
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Written by Harriet Conway
Illustrated by Francesca Mariama
REFERENCES
[1] Yahoo! News. ‘The BBL Era IS Ending: Here’s Why Women Are Over The Trend’ https://news.yahoo.com/bbl-era-ending-heres-why [15/07/22]
[2]NHS. ‘Surgical fat transfer’ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cosmetic-procedures/surgical-fat-transfer/ [11/05/20]
[3]Vogue. ‘Teyana Taylor’s Surreal Body in Kanye West’s “Fade” Video Just Broke the Internet’ https://www.vogue.com/article/vmas-2016-teyana-taylor-kanye-west-fade-video-body [28/08/26]
[4]Vibe.com. ‘Teyana Taylor’s Body Is The Reason For All New Gym Memberships’ https://www.vibe.com/music/music-news/kanye-west-teyana-taylor-fade-video-448533/ [29/08/16]
[5] Corazza O, Simonato P, Demetrovics Z, Mooney R, van de Ven K, Roman-Urrestarazu A, Rácmolnár L, De Luca I, Cinosi E, Santacroce R, Marini M, Wellsted D, Sullivan K, Bersani G, Martinotti G. ‘The emergence of Exercise Addiction, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, and other image-related psychopathological correlates in fitness settings: A cross sectional study’. PLoS One. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ [03/04/19]
[6]Cosmetic Surgery Solicitors by Tjl Solicitors. ‘WHEN DID COSMETIC SURGERY BECOME COMMON PRACTICE?’https://www.cosmeticsurgerysolicitors.co.uk/news/when-did-cosmetic-surgery-become-common-practice [13/08/2020]
A really useful link if anybody wants to explore this topic more: RUKIAT, ‘The BBL era is NOT over, let me explain why. Beauty standards predictions’ [03/03/22]
