"Heroin Chic": How Racism Created the Thin Ideal

WNYC ^ | 12/5/22 | WNYC

[DallasBiff]

A recent headline declared "bye bye booty, heroin chic is back," referring to a fashion look in the 1990s and 2000s that glorified women with ultra-thin figures. But the backlash to the headlines from people recalling how this trend harmed their relationships with food and their bodies, shows that plenty of people are not interested in going back. So what really makes a "trend" go in and out of fashion?

Professor Sabrina Strings says that while we may have had a few years in which having curves was considered fashionable, the thin ideal has never truly gone "out" of style. It's older than America itself — but just like America, it’s rooted in racist hierarchies.

[Red Badger]

It started with Twiggy in the sixties.....................

[Red Badger]

Aren’t they in financial straits?.............

[Chode]

[Eagles6]

No, she wasn't.

Talented girl.

Shame what happened, to her.

[redangus]

The hairless 12-year-old boy.

[jmcenanly]

Now the positions have been reversed. It is the rich who are thin and the poor who are often obese