As skinny/unhealthy diet culture comes back and "lookmaxxing" is trending, I remember a play about body-positivity for girls back in middle school
I don't remember the person who made the play or what it was called but back in middle school an actor came to our school doing a one-woman show on bodies and diet culture. She was reenacting in one section an actual conversation she overheard at a restaurant. Context: This was the late 1990s as "heroin-chic" was the norm. Extremely toxic dieting, pills, surgery, etc. was a thing. It was so bad I was put into weight watchers when I was 13 years old because I gained a few pounds. For some of you this seems crazy but yeah, this is how bad it got and I would argue now in 2026 it's even worse.
Here is what I remember from that section of the play (I'm sure parts of it are wrong but these are just my memories):
Two women sitting at a table who seemed to be lifelong friends. The actor is speaking from only one of them who she was able to overhear. Basically, we are her friend on the other side of the table as the audience, and she is speaking to us with pauses.
"So good to see you, you look wonderful."
"Oh yes my family is doing well. My son is at college, and my daughter is finishing high school soon."
"...Well she has been struggling with friends. She feels singled out."
"I mean...she is a little chunky so maybe if she cared about herself, she wouldn't be having problems."
"I know right that people don't seem to care anymore. A good impression starts with how you show yourself to the world."
"What about you, what have you been up too?"
"Oh how nice, when will the book be published?......How wonderful."
"Me? well my son is in a good college, so things are on the up and up."
"What have I been doing? Well, as you can see, I got thin!"
"Yes, I took some advice from my bookclub where you eat only when you are hungry and keep snacks out of the kitchen. I love those 200 calories shakes too. Just one keeps you full a day."
"Yes its slim fast."
for some of you younger ones reading, these shakes were super popular in the 1990s as a lose weight fast type of product. You basically drank them on the go as your meal and some people would literally only consume these shakes once or twice a day as their food.
"Have you seen name I don't remember, she looks MASSIVE. God I can't even imagine. Coming out in public."
I don't know why this nugget of memory came back.
I remember her in a school folding chair playing this character of a fidgety person who felt so familiar. I assume parts of it were embellished for sure but these words from this actor, I heard in the wild for YEARS.
Skinny meant healthy. Skinny meant beauty and you are part of society. Skinny meant you have doors opened to you. Not skinny, you better get skinny or else.
I saw that lookmaxxing guy undergo horrific surgery after surgery even ingesting substances and treatments on this manic drive for beauty and validation of others. On stream a few days ago, he was mocked and told he was ugly more or less. Don't get me wrong, he is not a kind man at all and very much took advantage of his notoriety to put down other people and mock others for their appearances as well. But I also saw that actor, struggling with the feeling of insignificance and needing to remind others that they are ugly BUT not her, it's heartbreaking how we just can't shake this off of us. 20 years later nothing has really changed.
Now people are using shots and medicine meant for people with Diabetes or other medical issues to become skinny in a way that it was not designed for. Who knows the long-term effects! My friend told me how he knew someone because the shots wear down your bone density so much, that their ribs snapped. That shouldn't be a thing! That should not be happening to people. I can always understand nutrition and keeping yourself healthy but friends of the internet, please don't be the 1990s. Do not make the same mistakes that we did.