With summer coming up, we are all preparing our best summer outfits and swimwear, but getting ‘beach ready’ can mean different things to different people.
Of a small pool of Lincoln students that I surveyed, almost ninety percent of them reported feeling pressure to slim down their bodies for the summer. The actions these anonymous students said they took to change their bodies included working out more, eating ‘healthier’, and overall, just eating less. It’s clear that there’s a pattern here, but where does this dangerous pressure to lose weight come from?
Many students listed pressure coming from within their community. For example, parents and peers using what one student calls “pro-diet language.” Even more students listed different forms of media like movies or Instagram as a source of pressure to change their bodies. Among a plethora of problematic messages, societal patterns, and expectations behind the problem, one very important factor to note is who swimwear is designed and marketed for.
Fashion and swimwear trends have changed to become more revealing, representing a more liberated society, and everyone is within their own rights to wear what they wish. However, these changes have also led to more and more scrutiny and comparison of women’s bodies. Through social media, even girls as young as ten years old feel pressure to look a very specific way while wearing their swimwear. It is no longer the girl that wears the swimsuit, it is the swimsuit that wears the girl.
This idea of changing yourself for swimwear is further pushed by companies like Victoria’s Secret that have campaigns with messages like ‘The Perfect Body’, and a nationwide rise in the usage of fat loss drugs, through Trump’s MAHA movement. Considering these changes in our society, Americans seem to be pushing a very specific ‘ideal’ body.
Besides, the increased usage of drugs like Ozempic has not only led to toxic behaviors surrounding weight, but also an increase in consumerism. In line with what Forbes calls “the shrinking of the American consumer,” wardrobe restocks are necessary and common.
But this issue surpasses the needed wardrobe re-stock. According to Morgan Stanley Research, 21 percent of Ozempic users purchased more casual attire than they did before starting the drug. Furthermore, the Bank of America has estimated that the apparel industry has gained over $50 billion over the last three years. The underlying issue here is that demand for plus-sized retailers is drastically decreasing.
Eighty percent of the students I surveyed reported buying swimwear from larger retailers like Target or Amazon. These retailers supply from fast fashion companies that mostly manufacture in China and don’t design suits with a focus on quality or fit for all bodies;  and when the desire for larger summer clothing decreases, those retailers tend to lower their production of the few inclusive sizes they do supply.
However, when swimwear is available for plus sized bodies it tends to have a poor design. “Everything is either very skimpy or very matronly. There aren’t many brands providing stylish swimwear that still offers support for curvy body types,” noted plus sized model Taylor Long in an interview with Forbes Magazine. Therefore, most people are taking measures to try and make their bodies fit into swimwear that wasn’t designed for them.
It is clear that the ‘Ozempic craze’ has led to a decreased interest in body positivity movements. The hashtag #Ozempic is gaining millions of views and is beginning to dominate social media feeds, and many body positivity advocates like Oprah Winfrey have started using the drug. As an added layer, retired pro-tennis player Serena Williams recently participated in a Superbowl ad for weight loss drug Ro.
Weight loss has become a standard for beauty. This expectation is furthered by the places we are shopping from, our social media feeds, and even celebrities we admire. The influence these things have on us is forcing us to develop the belief that smaller bodies equate to more beautiful bodies. This is extremely harmful to the mental and physical health of people attempting to fit into the beauty standard
By letting ourselves develop this belief, we are not only putting this pressure on ourselves but also letting it influence how we perceive others. Language like the phrase ‘summer body’ are everyday indicators of a slim-focused society. We are further harming those around us and ourselves by building a negative connotation with weight.
This summer, our focus should change. Beauty standards obscure the subjectiveness of beauty and make us forget that anyone can be pretty. It’s vital that we work to be ourselves in spite of the standards and expectations that society imposes upon us.