In June of this year, TikTok banned the hashtag #SkinnyTok—an effort to limit the prevalence of harmful weight-loss content that had gradually carved out its own subculture on the app. But since then, users who once populated the #SkinnyTok search results have only gotten more creative with how they circumvent the app’s restrictions. Posts that glamorize anorexia and unhealthy body goals now disguise themselves as “what I eat in a day” videos or OOTD galleries, which is how damaging, ED-fueling content has been able to sustain itself on the platform, regardless of any updated guidelines. So right now, it’s where you’ll find people going viral (and even earning praise) for hopping on camera to prove that their waists are small enough for a pair of sunglasses to fit around them.
This “challenge,” which has been recognized by popular reality TV stars and influencers alike, has facilitated an outbreak of extreme digital body checking, disguised as a fun, harmless social media trend. Body checking, if you’re unfamiliar, is the compulsive examination and measurement of one’s body parts (a common symptom of extreme eating disorders). But when it’s performed online, it goes from a personal affliction to a public-facing one that could trigger any given user who comes across the content. It could be an outfit picture where someone’s casually holding their shirt up to expose their torso size, or a video where the person’s angling their body to draw extra attention to their thigh gap. What makes body checking hard to identify (and, for most social media platforms, difficult to manage and censor) is how indistinguishable it usually is from all the other envy-inducing lifestyle posts we come across on our feeds. Its negative influence is passive and normalized.
But in the wake of all these sunglass measurement videos, it’s clear that undeniable instances of body-checking can be normalized, too. And popular comments under the videos like “only eating water today” or “Just got up and went to Pilates” validate experts’ concerns that the trend is promoting the exact sort of content the #SkinnyTok ban set out to control.
The sunglasses trend might seem cute on its surface, but Dr. Lauren Hartman, a double board-certified specialist in Adolescent Medicine, warns that it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. “Diet culture is remarkably persistent and adaptive,” she says. “When one form gets called out or falls out of favor, it simply repackages itself into something new. These trends deliver a harmful message that a smaller body is the ideal and something to pursue, and the regularity of them reflects how deeply embedded diet culture is in our social media ecosystem.”
Social media users eager to defend the sunglasses trend against its many critics have opted to reframe it as “body positivity.” In comment section debates about the matter, you'll find claims that there’s a double standard at play for slim women who are confident in their body type and want to show it off, and that, should plus-sized people drum up a similarly body-focused trend, it wouldn’t face the same amount of backlash. But as Dr. Hartman notes, this defense misinterprets body positivity entirely.
“True body positivity is inclusive of all bodies and doesn’t center thinness as the ideal,” she explains. “When body-checking content focuses exclusively on smaller bodies while using body-positive language, it co-opts the term while reinforcing the beauty standards body positivity was meant to dismantle.”
If you’re easily triggered by this content, once you recognize it for what it is, protect yourself from seeing more. “Once you identify it as diet culture masquerading as something benign, it becomes easier to make an active choice,” Dr. Hartman says. “Scroll past, use the ‘not interested’ feature, or take a break from that platform entirely.”
The fact of the matter is, after the sunglasses trend inevitably dies, something of a similar flavor will take its place. Don’t allow the widespread normalization of this content to invalidate any of the distress it might elicit. If you’ve found yourself feeling overwhelmed by the increase in sunglasses videos (or any other body-checking material gaining traction right now), trust that your reaction is valid. “These videos are diet culture in disguise, and they’re designed in ways that can trigger negative feelings, comparison, and discomfort. The most powerful thing you can do is recognize it and name it for what it is, rather than minimizing your response or trying to push through the discomfort.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, visit nationaleatingdisorders.org for resources and support.
