Everyone is getting thin now

Foucault, weightloss culture and how fashion creates docility

Photo by Jade Stephens on Unsplash

In The Fashion System (1967), Roland Barthes illustrates how contemporary ideas of fashion form a coherent production of meaning, one that can be defined by a ‘sequence of constraints, and not that of freedoms’ (p.161). Barthes’ definition can be difficult to understand, as his work focused on the semiotics of the fashion system. However, the idea of constraint producing fashion remains true when applied to the practical and physical aspects of the fashion industry.

As Barthes points out, constraints, limitations, and the lack of personal freedom have always existed in and are a vital building block of the ever changing production of what is ‘fashion’. In this context, ‘fashion’ refers to the cyclical consumption and production of objects, ideas and dreams of dress. Over the last few decades since the publication of The Fashion System (1967), corporations, mass public media and consumer culture have gained expansive control over what is fashionable, what is marketable, what is worth spending time and money on. Individuals living within capitalistic realities are slowly losing their freedom and agency of choice and participation through the forced conformity of contemporary consumption. Within the ‘fashion’ system, the idea of docility has become one of the most desirable qualities, within both the individual and the collective consumer base existign in a postmodern capitalist society.

Merriam-Webster dictionary (2025) defines docility as being ‘easily led or managed’. Docility could also be defined as the willingness of an individual to conform to the force of a higher power’s often selfish or exploitative desires. The idea of docile bodies, a theory introduced by Michel Foucault in his book Discipline and Punish (1975), provides a solid theoretical foundation for understanding how consumers become susceptible to capitalism’s whims. Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was a French scholar, who is well known for his ideas of panopticism, power, discourse, discipline and punishment. While he did not directly apply his idea of docile bodies to the field of fashion studies, the theory is useful in explaining how and why consumers are susceptible to conformity and adherence within the ‘fashion’ sphere.

Foucault explains his idea of a docile body as ‘a body is docile that may be subjected, used, transformed and improved’ (Foucault,1975 p.170). This is the idea that after having conditions of control, discipline, and surveillance exerted upon them by forces of a higher power, individuals will behave in the manner that is desired by that controlling power. By conforming to these conditions, the individual is normalizing the behavior for themselves, and in turn this normalizes the behavior for others. Foucault explains that docile bodies are created and sustained through hierarchical observation, examination and normalization.

Hierarchical structures, such as class systems, allow for the organisation of individuals into definitive groups with varying levels of power, which can be visualised by all individuals on all levels of the hierarchical system. This social architecture generates a framework that allows for individuals to become aware of the privileges of themselves as well as others, and also allows them to view the conduct required to achieve and sustain such privileges. By being able to observe the hierarchical structure, individuals can examine and evaluate how others behave within their own stratum and in different strata.Through these assessments of behavior, beliefs of the popular majorities create ideas of what is socially acceptable within those social systems.

This process of judgement of others’ behaviors is then reflected onto the individual, which results in self examination within the individual, a process that prompts them to inspect their own behaviors. This is also known as a normalising or disciplinary gaze (Foucault, 1975, p.184) which is an unseen force that leads people to adjust their behavior to a certain standard in the fear that examination and punishment will occur within themselves and within the social system. This elicits a sense of being surveilled and turns the hierarchical structure of a system and its easy visibility into an ‘exercise of power’ (Foucault, 1975, p187). This creates a sense of constant assessment and paranoia within individuals and the social system as a whole.

Foucault’s original conceptualization of docile bodies was in a very literal sense of the human body. He explained his idea through examples of student’s conduct in schools and soldiers executing physical drills (Foucault, 1975 p.135). However, the idea of docile bodies can be applied to any other areas of study concerning the body, including fashion studies. Soldiers and students are expected to perform in a certain manner to fit in or avoid punishment from the higher forces they are under, such as a drill sergeant or a teacher. Within the ‘fashion’ system, individuals are taught or conditioned to behave in the way that the higher forces want them to behave.

As Joanne Entwistle (2000, p.329) explains, Foacualt’s concept of docile bodies can be used to provide an understanding of ‘fashion as a discursive domain that sets significant parameters around the body and its presentation’. Entwistle describes how the dominant force controlling dress, at least in Western countries, is the constantly changing force of fashion and the discourses surrounding it (Entwistle, 2000, p.329). Drawing upon the ideas of the body and discourse that Foucault sets up in his book Discipline and Punish (1975), Entwistle establishes the institutional relationships between visual language, clothing and consumption for individuals living within the Western fashion system.

In the global fashion system, a hierarchical system of power is set up, with designers, celebrities, brands and models at the top of the organisational system. Nowadays, individuals outside that hierarchy have access to more knowledge of the types of conduct and rewards that these higher forces have, thanks to modern media allowing for the constant and intimate visibility of these entities at the top of the hierarchical fashion system.

Brands and celebrities are being constantly watched; examined for how well they adhere to the higher forces of the fashion system, and the benefits and consequences that follow their behavior. Social media is propelling the constant examination and comparison of individuals to these higher forces within the fashion system. Photographs and videos of brands, celebrities and models being posted and published on social media helps to promote the examination of all areas of the hierarchical fashion system, as visual imagery of all levels of the organizational structure can be viewed simultaneously, prompting individuals to contrast their behavior against others.

This constant behavior of judgement becomes even more normalised, and creates a contrast between those adhering to the ideas of the higher fashion forces and those who are not adhering. Those individuals who are found to be ‘unfashionable’ or that do not appear presentable, might often be judged for being ‘left behind’ the trends, which imply that by not self-disciplining oneself to fit within the fashion system that there will be negative social consequences.

This idea that a body can be forced to comply with the forces of a higher power is exemplified in various ways within the fashion industry. Women’s bodies are often susceptible to the gaze of the companies pushing a ‘thin agenda’, forcing women to conform their bodies to fit not only within physically limiting clothing but within what is deemed as acceptible bodily standards by society (Bordo, 1993; Barnard, 2020). Bodies of all shapes and genders are expected to conform to a standard set of sizes, set in place by higher capitalist forces (corporations) that can create great profit through the ease of production of a standard sizing system.

In a more general sense, all bodies are expected to be clothed, in a certain manner depending on their age, occupation or location. All bodies are forced to conform to the idea that a ‘correct body’ is a clothed body (Entwistle, 2020) and clothing corporations capitalize on this societal fact by creating ‘fashion’; ever changing standards of dress that many are expected to follow and adopt, in order to conform. This cycle of constant new fashion items being produced and consumed has never been more visible than it has been due to the increased use of social media for fashion discourse and consumption.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there has been a collective shift in consumer culture away from the body positivity movement of the late 2010s. This dangerous new trend, extremely prevalent on the social media platform TikTok, promotes diet and workout culture to young women, wrapped in aesthetic visuals and with both self-hatred and self-affirming language. On TikTok the hashtag #SkinnyTok had over 68,000 posts, a majority of which were accompanied by other similar hashtags such as #weightloss, #healthylifestyle and #bodyimage. The hashtag has recently been removed from the TikTok platform and when searched, replaced with resources for mental and physcical health support.

The main content of these #Skinny posts are about how women can become skinnier, leaner and happier by simply changing their lifestyle and consumption habits. The content promotes increasing the number of hours an individual should go to the gym, workouts for drastic weight loss, dieting advice for cutting calories and more recently, the promotion of wieght loss enhancers like GLP-1s. Most of the posts with the #Skinny include pictures or videos of an individual showing the audience before and after content of their own weight loss. These individuals usually show this weight change through the use of clothing, wearing the same pieces of clothing in the before and after content to show the changes in how the clothes look on their bodies before and after the weight change. These pieces of clothing are usually athletic gym wear, or similar ‘working out’ clothes.

Some of these #Skinny influencers, often have videos reviewing, wearing or in partnership with different athletic clothing brands. These types of posts create a relationship between self-disciplining weight loss behaviors of the trend and real clothing that can be purchased by any individual. An individual might buy the athletic clothing as a way of buying into or trying to conform to the trend, giving these brands and pieces of clothing an aspirational appeal.

This might create the idea that if an individual owns this clothing, they might be able to gain the same rewards and social power as the individuals who have large social media followings and brand partnerships. The #Skinny trend is circulating the idea that by creating extreme self-discipline in oneself, through the act of working out, losing weight or buying the right athletic clothing, that an individual can achieve aesthetic dreams of social power.

Social media platforms, such as TikTok, illuminate a hierarchical organization between young women, as the organizational structure of the platform allows for a transparent view of individuals and their social power, through quantifiable data such as the number of followers or ‘likes’ an individual might have. The transparency of hierarchical organization and algorithmic strategies, based on individuals’ interaction with certain content on social media, gives individuals an abundance of different and similar behaviors to observe.

This leads to judgement, of oneself and of others, based on social performance, of how individuals who look and act a certain way are rewarded with higher followers and ‘like’ counts on the social media platform. In the instance of #SkinnyTok, individuals saw that TikTok users who were conforming to the rules of the trend (weight loss, athletic clothing consumption, self-discipline) were gaining more followers, more ‘likes’ and more social power. This in turn leads individuals to believe that if they too can conform themselves to the standards set by the trend they can reap the same rewards. This internalization of social behaviors is a key component in creating a susceptible and docile individual. The #Skinny trend on social media is a contemporary example of how Foucault’s idea of docile bodies can be applied to practices of fashioning the body, through discipline and consumption.

Foucault and Barthes both present theories that can be used to explain how fashion is inherently restrictive and forces conformity and docility upon everyone who participates in fashion under modern mainstream marketing and capitalist strategies. However, there are some groups of consumers that rebel against the inherent submission of established fashion norms. Subculture groups such as punk and goth are historically known for choosing to go against the fashions of the general population and create their own genres of style. Foucault and Barthes’ work offer us one explanation of consumption habits within the fashion system, but should not be held as the only concepts with which to understand contemporary fashion practices.

In an increasingly late-stage capitalistic reality, consumption is the one of the only powers the individual still holds. By creating conditions in which there is increasing hierarchical observation and judgement, corporations and the extremely wealthy diminish the control that one has over their purchasing behaviors. In order to regain agency over our personal consumption habits, we must first take a look at the ways we are consuming, viewing, comparing and judging others around us, and how that affects how we see ourselves.

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this essay was written in may 2025 for a fashion cultures and politcs course as part of my masters in fashion cultures and histories. it may be a little outdated but i think the sentiments still hold some weight in our current sociocultural situations. i’ll leave the references in the comments, let me know if you think this is still accurate and i hope you enjoyed <3