Extreme thinness, often nicknamed “heroine chic,” has crept its way back into pop culture. The release of “Wicked: For Good” mirrors this trend, with its press tour, storyline, and every single leading actor reflecting the rising glorification of this unhealthy body type. The movie being directly targeted towards young girls, while simultaneously promoting unhealthy body standards, is deplorable.
The entire cast has noticeably lost weight since the movie was first announced, which may seem to only affect the actors in the movie, but Hollywood actors set the standard for the rest of society. However, this isn’t a new issue. Historically, industry standards in Hollywood have promoted skinny body types as the best way to be healthy and beautiful. Through pushing these unrealistic body standards and ideals onto actors, all the people watching these movies internalize those same standards. While recent body positivity movements have worked to combat these standards, the truth is, years of hard work can be lost in months. With introduced Ozempic usage, extreme thinness became the “trending” body type again. People who had spent their entire careers promoting body positivity started drastically losing weight, it seemed like the entire movement was for nothing.
When multiple Wicked cast members lose a significant amount of weight, and are then praised and celebrated for their beauty, it subconsciously sets the standard for young women that the only way for them to be beautiful is by being extremely thin. The same standards that these actresses are held to, ripple out into the rest of society and pop culture. When movies are specifically targeted towards young women and have positive female role models, the kids watching will look up to and see these actresses as “good” and “beautiful.” When these actresses are so astonishingly skinny, it can hurt children by setting an unhealthy standard. The women in Hollywood are seen as the pinnacle of American beauty; that the only way to appear “beautiful” is to mirror those standards. This belief is well ingrained into society, so much so, that it’s difficult to even recognize.
The actresses in both Wicked and in the movie industry in general are not to blame for these unfortunate standards, they’re simply the ones facing them before everyone else. Rather, the industry standards are incredibly unhealthy, leading to an unhealthy level of weight loss. Instead of criticizing the actresses, the blame lies on the influential people within the movie industry who are pushing the use of Ozempic and extreme dieting, creating unhealthy expectations and standards for women worldwide.
