<\/p>\n
It\u2019s strict over at Cannes! The film festival is known for its famous dress code: black-tie only for red-carpet gala screenings, meaning evening gowns for women and tuxedos for men. Last year, the conversation was all about how Cannes introduced bans on both \u201cnaked dresses,\u201d which we can probably thank Bella Hadid for after she wore a suggestion of a sheath by Saint Laurent on the red carpet back in 2024, and overly voluminous gowns for simple logistics: There are a lot of steps! This year, the ban on naked dresses and too-big frocks remains, and attendees are now asked to wear \u201celegant shoes\u201d rather than heels.<\/p>\n
Yet dress codes are not the topic du jour. The talk surrounding red carpets this year is a far thornier one: the state of celebrity bodies. Namely, everyone\u2019s too thin. This isn\u2019t news\u2014the big, ongoing GLP-1 wave hit Hollywood early\u2014but, if at first the chatter was about who was taking \u201cthe stab\u201d and who wasn\u2019t, nowadays it\u2019s about the size of everyone\u2019s waist and how visible their sternums are, Ozempic or not.<\/p>\n
Plainly, this new standard look makes us uncomfortable, and I would dare say that it\u2019s a big reason why many people on the internet seem to be rebelling against celebrity culture. Take some of the backlash around this year\u2019s Met Gala as an example\u2014sure, part of it was Jeff Bezos\u2019s involvement and sponsorship, but a lot of it comes from our collective anxiety around the state of the world and the way in which some pockets of culture seem eager to look the other way. And yet the benefit raised $42 million, the most ever. It was also the most watched, per Vogue, with 1.7 billion global video views across all markets and platforms, a 57% year-on-year increase.<\/p>\n
Visit the comment section under the image of a svelte celeb, and you\u2019ll find a variety of denouncements, often a version of: \u201cWhy are you promoting this [unhealthy] look?\u201d<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago, I was on the phone with a family member who wanted to talk about some Oscar looks. When she got to two movie stars of her generation who seemed to have lost a significant amount of weight, she stopped herself. She said she knew that we don\u2019t talk about people\u2019s bodies anymore, but that it did concern her to see thinness back en vogue, and in a new way. Our conversation then quickly shifted to a pricklier topic altogether: Where do we draw the line on body positivity?<\/p>\n
Yes, everyone\u2019s bodies are their own bodies, and therefore none of our business. And yet when it comes to the cult of celebrity, the remit of this conversation inevitably expands to power, influence, and aspiration. Their bodies are not just their bodies; they are, theoretically, the embodiments of what we should want to be.<\/p>\n