By now, August, you've probably noticed something...

Diet Culture seems to be absolutely everywhere.

It tells us what to eat in January.

What to wear in April.

How to look in May.

How to behave in July.

Honestly, it is starting to feel less like a culture and more like that one guest who has massively overstayed their welcome.

But here's the thing...

Diet Culture didn't appear overnight because someone wanted to sell us protein powder. Its roots go much deeper than that...

Many of the beauty ideals we accept today are deeply intertwined with colonialism, racism, sexism and classism.

Historians and scholars, including Dr. Sabrina Strings in Fearing the Black Body, argue that during European colonialism, larger bodies, particularly Black bodies, became associated with being "uncivilised," lacking self-control and moral inferiority, while thinness increasingly became linked with whiteness, discipline, virtue and social status. Those ideas did not disappear. They simply evolved into modern beauty standards.

Which explains something I've always found fascinating.

People often say, "Beauty standards have changed throughout history."

And yes... they have.

But the power structures behind them haven't changed nearly as much as we'd like to think.

Today we call it "wellness."

Thirty years ago it was "heroin chic."

Before that it was calorie-counting, SlimFast and cabbage soup.

The packaging changes.

The message doesn't.

Be smaller.Take up less space.

You'll be happier when you get there.

The irony is that despite Body Positivity movements and more diverse advertising, the fashion industry still overwhelmingly centres thin bodies. A recent analysis of almost 800,000 magazine covers, runway shows and advertisements found that while diversity has improved, the typical model body has barely changed. Thinness is still the industry's default setting.

Which is why this isn't about willpower.

It isn't about motivation.

And it certainly isn't about whether you skipped dessert.

It's about recognising that the standards we've inherited were never designed to include everybody.

And once you realise that, something shifts.

You stop asking, "What's wrong with my body?"

And you start asking a much better question...

"Who benefits from me thinking that my body is wrong?"

More often than not, if you follow the money, you'll find the answer.

It usually leads back to the people and industries profiting off of your insecurities and those who were trying to convince you that you were never quite enough to begin with.

Stay vigilant,

L x

P.S. A quick but important caveat: I benefit from thin privilege. This perspective comes from learning and unlearning, not lived experience, and I never want to speak over those who have experienced weight stigma firsthand.