Sophie '25
Fitting into societal norms
Over the past century, the ebb and flow of what is considered the “ideal” body has changed. With the introduction of social media, there has been a heightened glorification of smaller bodies, a trend that is harmful for those who do not fit the specific, unrealistic body standards created by the media. Throughout history, the adjective form of the word “fat” has taken on multiple connotations, from being seen as a sign of wealth to a deviation from societal norms.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, being fat was considered beautiful, for a larger body signified that one could afford meals during times of famine and food scarcity. However, in the 21st century, the inverse holds to be true. Being skinny is now seen as a symbol of wealth, as skinny people are theoretically able to afford more expensive organic food options, attend workout classes and obtain weight loss drugs such as Ozempic. Therefore, “fatness” is now more closely aligned with those who cannot afford the highest quality food and must resort to less nutritious, cheaper alternatives like fast food.
Furthermore, social media has had a detrimental effect on the stigmatization of body types by praising the appearance of a select minority while everyone else is ostracized and deemed “unfit.” Over the past decade, social media has turned different body types into trends. In the early 2000s, slim body types were seen as the desired figure, while less than a decade later in the mid-2010s, social media and mass culture turned towards celebrating those with curvier frames.
Recently, trends on TikTok that perpetuate weight stigmatization include workout classes and buying expensive food produce from markets such as Erewhon, which encourage a very specific standard for what a “healthy” lifestyle looks like. Meanwhile, the vast majority of people who cannot meet these norms are “othered” and seen as unhealthy. Additionally, social media influencers are increasingly producing weight -insensitive content that further unrealistic body standards. Many use “clickbait” titles such as “how to get abs in one week” that falsely advertise what is achievable for a normal, healthy body to maximize views and profit.
The frequent changes in what it means to possess the ideal body figure have left millions of people, especially women, unsure about how to fit into the societal expectations.
Weight stigma bias in the media has also empirically been proven to increase the risk of psychiatric disorders and eating disorders. According to the Center for Discovery, over 50% of people who have experienced weight stigma were found to have at least one related psychiatric disorder.
Additionally, according to research from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on the effects of weight stigmatization on college students, cisgender males, heterosexual individuals and those from more affluent backgrounds typically did not experience the effects of weight discrimination as frequently as groups who were not listed. The increase of weight stigmatization in the media has subsequently given rise to the normalization of offensive comments directed towards bodies that don’t “fit” societal expectations.
Body talk in slang
Body image has played a role in society for centuries, but with the increase of social media and body-focused slang, young people, especially girls, are more affected by unrealistic societal standards than ever before.
Though this has manifested in a number of ways, a key indication of the ways in which harmful expectations are affecting students is in the language that students are using, particularly in their humor. Though many slang terms are trends themselves (i.e. “fly” or “wicked”), the recent cycle of slang being used by teenagers is distinctly related to specific body types.
In 2020, there was a popular online body image movement that prompted body positivity. Despite the size, shape or appearance of one’s body, the movement encouraged everyone to love their body as it is. However, in 2025, the rhetoric has shifted. Instead, slang terms that relate to food and bodies have become increasingly popular online, many of which have negative connotations. There are now 211,500 TikTok posts with #fatty, over 545,100 with #skinny and 445,800 with #bigback, a term that refers to the largeness of one’s body and is often used to call people overweight.
This slang has now pervaded the halls of Marlborough and words like “big,” “fatty” and “big back” can be heard in regular conversations among friends. For instance, students such as Georgia G. ’25 have heard the word “big” used by her classmates and friends to describe someone’s eating behavior.
“I’ll be sitting at lunch, and people will eat their food, but if they consider going back for seconds, they’ll say ‘Oh wait no, that’s big of me,’” Georgia G. said.
Another popular slang term with a similar meaning is “big back.” The frequent use of this term serves to equate certain eating habits with specific body types. For instance, Dolores ’25 has noticed the use of this term to describe specific foods.
“When my friends get cake from the Senior table, they’ll call themselves ‘big back’ as a joke,” Dolores said.
Though this term is not as popular as “big” or “big back,” Lilly ’25 has also heard conversations in which the term “fatty” has been used to describe similar actions, further exacerbating the connection between body types with specific eating habits.
“If one of my friends gets seconds, someone will say jokingly ‘Ok, fatty’,” Lilly said.
Accompanying these types of jokes acquainting nicknames with others’ eating behaviors are comments praising others for being “skinny.” Students such as Clara ’26 have noticed this increase in daily encounters as well.
“Sometimes when I’m in the parking lot, and people have to squeeze between cars, I hear people say ‘OK, skinny,’” Clara said.
These terms are often said in a joking manner and rarely with the intent to cause harm. Students use these terms to reference themselves or their friends. However, the language of these jokes exacerbate the expectation that a certain type of body is good while another is bad. For instance, calling something “big” means that one should feel guilty engaging in that activity, while calling something “skinny” means praising the action.
Yet, sometimes, the use of these slang terms can be a coping mechanism. Using terms like “big” can allow someone who feels like they don’t meet societal standards to poke fun at themselves rather than feeling bad about that reality.
“Sometimes it is easier to make fun of your body than to accept that you’re not meeting these societal standards,” Lilly said. “It’s our way of coping with the difficulty of not fitting into that stereotypical perfect body.”
However, though some students use these terms as a way to almost make fun of society’s heightened attention towards body types, there are still substantial effects. First, when students hear people around them making these jokes, it normalizes the jokes and the societal beauty standards they represent. When someone hears something being called “huge” over and over again, repeating the joke becomes socially acceptable and even expected.
Secondly, though these jokes are often directed at oneself, hearing a friend label certain foods or behaviors a specific way can affect the way someone perceives that specific food or behavior and affect their future actions. Georgia M. ’25 said she has noticed this phenomenon.
“If I’m having a meal with someone and they say, ‘Oh my god, this is so much food, I’m literally huge,’ it definitely makes me think a lot more about what I’m eating,” Georgia M. said.
Furthermore, because these words perpetuate a toxic culture in which certain body types are praised more than others, these jokes have led to the depletion of self-confidence in many students.
“The more people make these jokes the more negative self-talk comes easier to me,” Georgia M. said.
This phenomenon of other people’s jokes contributing to a depletion of one’s self-confidence has a cyclical effect. When students start to experience negative self-worth because of the unattainable expectations that this language is creating, these jokes can become a coping mechanism to deal with that new negative self-image while also serving as a way to comment on the toxic culture many students are subject to.
As the depletion of confidence has become more widespread, some students have been able to find support from each other. For instance, some friends have been able to engage in more open and honest discussions about their relationship with food. The comfort and support found amidst each other can be empowering and has provided solace.
“My friends and I have actually had real conversations about this stuff and the culture that has started to emerge within our community,” Georgia M. said. “Talking about this without negativity or without humor disguising this insecurity has been so helpful for me.”
However, these discussions can be a double-edged sword for some students. When someone hears other people talk about how often they think about what they eat or how their body looks, a seed can be planted in their head. They start to wonder if they should also be thinking about their appearance more frequently.
“When I hear other people talk about how concerned they are with their body, it makes me think that I need to be that concerned about my body and that it’s important that I try to look a certain way,” Georgia G. said.
How to combat fatphobia
To remedy the effects that these jokes can have, it is important to understand and recognize their extended implications.
“When you hear it in the context of your friends, it’s never malicious, but there needs to be more of an understanding that your comments actually do have meaning even if they’re meant to be a joke” Kaila ’25 said.
Director of Education and Counseling Services Morgan Duggan said she believes it is important to have relationships with people in which the person hearing these jokes, rather than the one making them, feels comfortable naming or calling out behavior that perpetuates negative relationships to food.
“It’s important to have relationships where you can be like, ‘Oh, that joke didn’t really land’ or ‘that felt like that stung a little bit,’” Duggan said.
If someone is in a situation where they don’t feel comfortable actually calling the behavior out, there are other ways to discourage the behavior in a less overt manner.
“You can just kind of let the joke fall flat,” Duggan said. “That’s awkward and uncomfortable for people, and so that just kind of makes it less likely to happen again.”
Finally, as these jokes can often be a result of someone’s own discomfort with the food that they consume, Duggan encourages students to learn how to be more comfortable with that feeling.
“Sometimes, the purpose that humor serves is trying to dispel any discomfort or minimize any discomfort that students may be having,” Duggan said.
Instead of using humor to cope with that discomfort, Duggan encourages students to listen to their bodies.
“What we want to be able to do is to just be more in tune [with] what our body’s cues are,” Duggan said. “It’s less about avoiding certain foods or certain amounts of foods, but really listening to your body.”