Yes, Barbie Ferreira looked different in 2014 – but why are we glorifying her thinner body?

There seems to be a whole side of TikTok dedicated to glorifying pictures of Euphoria star Barbie Ferreira from 2014 and 2016 when she was noticeably thinner – and it’s seriously problematic.

Some of the videos take a more subtle approach – ‘she is stunning whatever her size’ and ‘such a pretty face’ – while others overtly laud her smaller body: ‘she looked way better when she was skinny’, accompanied by a sad face emoji. Many of these videos have millions of views, and the comments section consists of a weird mix of patronising, backhanded and supportive.

The underlying message throughout is that ‘weight gain is bad’ and ‘thin is better’.

Which is not surprising – that message is merely a reflection of what we’ve learnt growing up in a society that idolises thinness and places it on a pedestal. Women, especially, are taught that the best thing we can be is attractive, and that thinness equals attractive. Subsequently, we live in a world that is so fearful of fat that a weight loss industry exists that is worth a staggering $254.9 billion, purely to keep people as far away from dreaded fatness as possible.

But while I understand how these videos have come to be, and why they are so popular – because of society’s focus on weight, we too have a focus on weight – they are incredibly damaging.

We need to stop the myth that thinner equals better in its tracks. We need to dismantle – no, smash – this unfair and limiting beauty standard that has metaphorically imprisoned women for so long. Because while it often has a debilitating effect on the individual – beauty standards can lead to a multitude of problems including disordered eating and eating disorders as well as severely impact self-esteem – it also has a collective influence: women are so tied up in their appearance, in shrinking themselves (which takes a substantial amount of time and energy) that we are quiet and obedient. We don’t have the capacity to be disruptive, change what needs changing and take what’s ours. The patriarchy thrives on beauty standards.

Videos like these only serve to sustain this myth and keep women locked in a perpetual quest to achieve thinness. They also sustain our collective fear of fatness: seeing a mass deification of a woman’s thin body in direct comparison to her fatter body further cements the belief that ‘we need to be thin’.

The truth, if we take away all of our conditioning, is that Barbie Ferreira looked great in 2014/2016 and she looks great now. She looks the same, just in a different-sized body.

But it shouldn’t even be about how she looks – and that’s something that need to underpin this entire discussion. While it’s important we break down the myths about thinness and fatness and the beauty standards first – because if we don’t talk about them and dismantle them, they won’t just… cease to exist, unfortunately – the goal is to not talk about appearance at all.

Because appearance shouldn’t be what defines us – and it doesn’t represent what truly matters in life. The body is merely an object that houses all of the good stuff – our character, our morals, our values, how we make people feel, our skills, our talents and our flaws, too: the things that make us multi-faceted and interesting and human beings. The size we wear in clothing and the number that pops up when we step on the scale isn’t important – it really isn’t, and we need to move to a place where that becomes true…

So that Barbie, who is a very talented actor, can simply do her job without millions of people taking to social media to discuss the differences in her body from EIGHT YEARS AGO… Even writing that, I’m struck by how ridiculous it is. And what a waste of precious time and energy it is! Don’t we have better things to contemplate? Yet that’s where we are, so we need to actively point out how ridiculous it is and continue to fight against the current beauty ideal to make sure we can move onto those better things and apply said precious time and energy to things that matter: things that are going to make a difference in our worlds.