Plea: Enough starvation! Stop the slimming craze in the fashion world

The numbers speak for themselves: At the fashion shows for fall winter 2026, almost 98 percent of the models wore US sizes 0 to 4, i.e. sizes 30 to 36. Less than one percent was categorized as plus size. What these statistics don’t show is the deeper meaning behind this development and how a growing number of women are defying this system. The renaissance of the extreme slimness ideal in the fashion world is more than just an aesthetic trend. It is a symptom of a society that is becoming increasingly conservative and fearful of the physical presence of women. But more and more women are recognizing the mechanisms behind it and refusing to play by these rules.

The Path to Knowledge: From Eating Disorders to Self-Acceptance

2006 was the year of the platinum blonde pixie cut and the super skinny models. The first season of Germany’s Next Top Model started and defined for an entire generation what a beautiful body should look like. Long narrow limbs, protruding collarbones and shoulder bones, thighs that don’t touch. For many young women, a battle against their own bodies began at that time, which would last for years. A banana and a granola bar a day. Then the vomiting. The refusal of any therapy. Being thin meant being chic. This simple equation led to complex eating disorders that often shaped an entire life. Two in-patient therapy stays later, a career in the fashion industry and still the disturbed relationship with my own body remained.

For many women, the actual healing process only begins in their mid-thirties. The realization that the body is a vehicle that carries you through life and through which pleasure, joy and pain can be experienced. A body that has grown a child, that endures chronic illness, that shows dents, wrinkles, and loose skin. Neither beautiful nor ugly, just real.

The fashion industry and its responsibility

The short phase of body diversity in fashion seems to be over again. Of the 7,817 looks shown in 182 shows, the smallest sizes dominate again. This development stands in stark contrast to real women’s body images and the progress that has been hard won in recent years. What is seen on the runways, red carpets and social media feeds shows women who have to function in a system that works against them. The renaissance of the slimming craze is not a random phenomenon, but a conscious step back to a time when women remained controllable through self-optimization.

The greatest luxury for women in our society is still simply taking up space. A woman who claims physical space is one who evades oppression. No more diet madness is therefore more than a personal concern, it is a political act.

The system behind body control

Anyone who devotes all their capacity to calorie counting and self-optimization no longer has time to fight for a symbolic place at the table, to organize themselves and to rebel. Starving women are controllable women. Without them the patriarchal system would not survive. This insight fundamentally changes the view of seemingly harmless beauty standards. A perverse irony is that criticism of anorexia also means a judgment of bodies that are read as female. This newest form of voyeurism is called “Concern Trolling”: it’s no longer just gawking, it’s worrying. Under the guise of health care, bodies continue to be measured, categorized and evaluated.

Dividing bodies into too fat and too thin is easier than admitting that we live in a world that hates women taking up space. This uncomfortable truth is obscured by seemingly well-meaning comments that nevertheless serve the well-known chauvinistic dynamic: the female body as a collective property that can be valued depending on the zeitgeist.

The radical alternative: self-determination instead of adaptation

After years of performative body diversity, the most radical fad would be a consistent disinterest in the weight of others and an unbridled desire for one’s own body. In a world that only tolerates women as little as possible, this is a conscious refusal. This refusal is evident in a growing movement of women who refuse to conform their bodies to expectations. When the gaze of others is no longer given power, women become uncontrollable. This uncontrollability is dangerous for a system that is based on the constant self-optimization and insecurity of women. The realization of being enough exactly as you are, not too little and above all not and never too much, is revolutionary. The anger and sadness about the return of the slimming craze is increasingly turning into active resistance. Women are beginning to understand that their worth is not tied to their body mass. You learn to redirect negative thoughts and give them less space.

The refusal to lose weight

The fashion industry may be back in favor of extreme thinness, but a growing number of women are no longer playing the game. The experiences with eating disorders, the arduous path to self-acceptance and the knowledge of the mechanisms of control have led to a new awareness. The fashion show numbers may be depressing, but they also show how urgent change is. At a time when society is becoming increasingly restrictive, refusing to downsize is an act of rebellion. Women who accept their bodies for what they are free themselves from control and create space for real change.