"The trend for severe skinniness is now ubiquitous enough among celebrities and influencers for The Cut to dub this 'The Era of Emaciation.' Mothers described worrying about taking their daughters to the cinema or letting them use TikTok."
"By August, the price of flour was reported to have risen by a factor of 30. Cases of severe malnutrition ensued. One baby, Siwar Ashour, was so underfed at five months old that she 'struggled to cry.'"
"Over and over again, I would be served these posts within seconds of each other: hungry kids followed by skeletal models. The developments they represented were and remain incomparable in terms of urgency and violence."
"Eliminationist impulses have nothing to do with fashion or health, despite their advocates' claims. But they came to seem related, to me, by dint of their proximity."
The Instagram feed reflected a stark contrast between fashion and beauty ads promoting extreme thinness and the severe famine in Gaza. The trend of emaciation among influencers has raised concerns among parents about body image. Concurrently, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, marked by skyrocketing food prices and malnutrition, has been highlighted through distressing images of starving children. This juxtaposition creates a troubling connection between aesthetic starvation and real hunger, emphasizing the dissonance in societal values regarding body image and human suffering.
Read at The Nation
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