How We Refused To Keep Shrinking During The 2010s

Something I’m asked a lot is whether I think things are getting better when it comes to our bodies – how we feel in them and how society treats them. I always answer in the same way: some things are better, some things are worse and nearly everything is different to how it was.

The last decade has given us more body positive triumphs than ever before, with diet culture seemingly always ready to come back swinging in each round. One year detox teas reign supreme, the next we receive Lizzo as our queen. Some days, it really does feel like we’re locked in the final superhero battle – body liberation on one side, body shame the other – and I’m not sure which way it’s going to go yet.

But I do know one thing for sure: the way we talk about bodies today could not have existed in 2010’s wildest dreams. Back then, we still had the distinctly cardboard taste of the Special K diet in our mouths, the Kardashians were only just becoming household names, and beyond a few Dove adverts the conversation around media representation was pretty quiet. Fast-forward a decade and even my 89-year-old nan almost understands what I talk about for a living.