Skip to main content

Can we stop making our bodies follow trends?

by Neave Natalya


Goodbye BBL’s, welcome back heroin chic. The pale, slender silhouettes that dominated the 1990s fashion scene are in Vogue once again. 

Popularised in the early 1990s, the heroin chic trend was a result of the de-stigmatisation and glamourisation of drug use after the 1980s health epidemic. Kate Moss was the poster girl for the heroin chic trend, featuring in campaigns for designers such as Calvin Klein. 


As with all trends, heroin chic became the body type to aspire to, and it is pretty self-explanatory as to why it was so inherently damaging and how we still reap the consequences to this day. The skeletal, unhealthy frames glamourised drug use and eating disorders, with some women going to extremely unhealthy means to achieve the look of their idols. The harmful unrealistic beauty standards quickly followed into the 00s, which is widely known for being one of the most fatphobic eras yet, matched with an equally toxic diet culture which people are still recovering from today. 


So, is heroin chic coming back? The short and not-so-sweet answer is, yes. 


The Kardashian’s have already had their famous BBLs removed and have been seen sporting slimmer frames. It’s truly saddening to see that after the last decade of newfound body positivity and acceptance, women's bodies are still being treated as and seen as trends that come around in cycles.


Heroin chic making a return is problematic for many reasons. It promotes drug use, undereating and smoking and an overall unhealthy lifestyle just to achieve the thin ideal. Millennials who experienced the toxicity in the 90s and 00s are not happy at all, with one Twitter user quoting; ‘Did not realise how much it affected me and my body image until it came back so hard the past few months.’


A recent resurgence for the heroin chic ‘trend’  is thanks to Gwenyth Paltrow and her ‘bone broth’ which has been circling social media. Paltrow has been criticised and accused of ‘glamourising starving herself’ and borderline promoting eating disorders to impressionable younger people. The problem doesn’t lie within the bone broth itself or Gwenyth, it’s the idea that women constantly have to harm themselves even through their eating habits in the name of wellness when in reality it's just disordered eating. It seems that the progressive decade we were having with body neutrality and body positivity is on the decline once more. 


Our bodies aren’t built to be forced to change. They reflect our journeys and shouldn’t have to adhere to trends.  


Edited by Emily Duff

Most Popular

‘Make Tattooing Safe Again’: Sheffield Based Tattoo Artist Exposed for Indecent Behaviour

 by Emily Fletcher TW: SA, Animal Abuse, Transphobia Photo Credit: @ meiko_akiz uki Recently, an  Instagram account  has been created to provide a  ‘space to safely give a voice to those who want to speak out about the behaviour of one, Sheffield based tattoo artist’. A  total of 40+ posts have been made by the above social media account regarding  one of Sheffield's most popular tattoo artists .  Thankfully, all posts are prefaced with a Content Warning prior to sharing screenshots of the messages that have been sent anonymously to the page. The majority of Content Warnings refer to sexual behaviour, abuse, and sexual assault. It is clear that there is a reoccurring theme within each submission, as many clients appear to have had the same experiences with the tattoo artist. Women, mostly, are being made to feel uncomfortable while being tattooed. One of the most vulnerable positions anyone can be in, tattoo artists should make their clients feel comfortable and safe during the pro
Read more

Now What? The Aftermath of the 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl'

by Susan Moore Here is a bit about me: I am an open, excitable, creative AFAB who is also moderately attractive. I have a unique sense of personal style and a personality that on the surface can only be described as “bubbly” and “quirky”. For this reason, dating is a nightmare. To be sure, I do not have a hard time finding dates or potential suitors. The problems arise when said dates spend some time with me and decide that I am a rare specimen, and the connection they feel with me is “unlike anything they have felt before”. Then, things go one of two ways.  Either a) they decide I am too high maintenance and no longer palatable, or  b) they choose to never look further than the surface and are content to date the idea of me rather than the real me. There is something rather interesting, perhaps funny, about my situation. It is in no way unique. I have met so many people who constantly dealt with the same problem. Even funnier still, is the fact that there is a trope that simultaneousl
Read more

Eurydice’s Last Words

by Kate Bradley I do not want to return To sit in the stalls, Of an empty black box Strewn with petals Leave the ghost light on, Let it shine like a call home, But I will not come back To turn it off alone. I learn this as we walk Our ever so solemn path Our thudding funeral march, You think we’re going back. As I trace my old steps, I fear of the day When the symphony swells, And I land my gaze On you, yet you will be Enraptured by the sound, If you did twist To turn around, You would not see me. So I am not sorry, I speak out into the empty air And I am not sorry. “Turn Around.” You do, you look You think  I fall But I run on, Arms wide open To fall in love With it all “Perhaps she was the one who said, ‘Turn around.” On the X45 bus, back from the Tyneside Cinema, I wrote a poem entitled “Eurydice’s Final Words”, after having seen “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”.  That poem was terrible, so I wrote a new one, as my response to the beautifully poignant film.  In one scene, Héloïse, an 18
Read more