For the past year since its release, “Wicked” has brought everything pink, green and magical to both the big screen and small. Cynthria Erivo and Ariana Grande starring as our newest pairing of Elphaba and Glinda have generated countless new fans of the musical, and have brought together their fanbases to create something much bigger than just a movie. Both “Wicked” and “Wicked: For Good” are a celebration of friendship and girlhood for all ages, something much needed in a society determined to pit women against each other.
Even though Wicked is a fictional franchise set in a fairytale setting, it was uncomfortable to see the chokehold ultra-thinness has even on witches in Oz. Seeing Glinda’s bedazzled collarbones is a reminder of how dystopian the world we live in is, where extreme thinness is not seen as a danger, instead it is worthy of jewels and praise.
In “yes, and?,” a hit song off her 2024 album “Eternal Sunshine,” Grande sings, “Don’t comment on my body, do not reply.” However, this raises the question, what is the difference between a genuine comment of concern about a celebrity’s wellbeing compared to discourse picking apart the female body? Since we do not know the stars of “Wicked” personally, and most likely, we will never be in the same vicinity as them, we cannot accurately comment on what they are going through, because what the media depicts to us may or may not be true. However, this does not alleviate the worries so many of us are feeling for the cast.
The most highly-praised female body type has shifted from year to year, but in the end, the Eurocentric beauty standards the U.S. admires will have the media falling back on thinness for the baseline of attractiveness. The heroin-chic aesthetic of the nineties, featuring Kate Moss as the poster child, was all about emaciated, grungy models walking the runway. Then in the 2010s, it was Tumblr that had young girls searching for “thinspo” in order to achieve their ideal weights. Here we are in 2025, where Ozempic is all the rage and celebs are removing implants to achieve a more “natural” look, all in pursuit of being a “clean girl.”
The rise of conservatism has led to the diminishing of body diversity in fashion, film and the media. In The New York Times article “Why Ultrathin Is In,” author Vanessa Friedman writes, “Peer pressure to diversify the runway in the wake of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements led to a noticeable shift in conceptions of beauty,” Mr. Bonnouvrier said. “But with D.E.I. now under scrutiny as part of the Trump administration’s war on wokeness, its fashion expression, including diversity of size, is under pressure. A retreat to the most conservative and traditional approach for showcasing clothes means a retreat to old-fashioned stereotypes of beauty.”
Thinness, while natural for many bodies, does not equate health for all people. This leads to the discussion of eating disorders, which according to The Emily Program, every 52 minutes someone in the U.S. dies from the results of, a scary statistic that raises concern for due reason. However, the insistence of the “Wicked” cast all having eating disorders may do more harm than good.
Well-intentioned fans who only want the best for their favorite singers and actors are not deliberately trying to spread untrue gossip, yet this brings to light the difficult position celebrities have of constantly being in the public eye, subject to anything and everything.
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Hi! I’m Hannah Planey, A Magazine’s editor-in-chief. My staff and I are committed to bringing you the most important and entertaining news from the realms of fashion, beauty and culture. We are full-time students and hard-working journalists. While we get support from the student media fee and earned revenue such as advertising, both of those continue to decline. Your generous gift of any amount will help enhance our student experience as we grow into working professionals. Please go here to donate to A Magazine.
