Latest news with #thinness
Irish Times
04-08-2025
- Lifestyle
- Irish Times
Hello Ozempic, bye bye body positivity
When I was a millennial in my late teens, skinny was the beauty standard. The sort of skinny that simply doesn't lend itself to an Irish constitution and the spud-heavy diet traditionally advocated by generations of Irish mammies. No one here is getting scurvy on mammy's watch – let's put it that way. This idealisation of extreme thinness has haunted millennial women from their girlhood; never mind that it could only be achieved for the vast majority of people through an elective form of malnutrition or a liquid diet following invasive jaw surgery. Yet, we are all the product of time, context and culture. READ MORE Celebrities in the early 2000s largely looked like a younger Lindsay Lohan. It was an intense time in the culture. Kim Kardashian still had her original hair, face and lower body. Paris Hilton's hip bones jutted sharply from low-rise jeans and if your clavicles didn't look like the grab rail in your granny's newly renovated walk-in shower, you were considered overweight. It was common to be told that you were. Eating disorders were, unsurprisingly, widespread. Then, as now, much of our perception of young women's value was tied up in appearance, though boys too are now more subject to similarly untenable aesthetic standards than they once were. In the mid-2000s, we experienced a reactive swing in the opposite direction. Body positivity became almost as overbearingly dictatorial as the overt negativity that had preceded it. During this time, I was a beauty editor in London, working for the sorts of publications that disseminate the standards most of us feel so simultaneously erased by and covetous of. [ Drugs like Ozempic aren't changing negative narratives around diet and weight Opens in new window ] Our bodies are presumed to signal for our values, our habits, our self-discipline and our access to resources. Photograph: Getty Images While editors were putting plus size models in magazines, they were also still personally hyper-conscious about weight. The lunch table at work events still murmured with comments about feared weight gain, the virtue of abstaining from 'bad' foods, or the current popular weight loss trend. Whatever the angle, conversations on weight always seem to adopt a moral quality. That has never changed – our weight is treated as a proxy for virtue. Women have spent the last decade or so talking a big talk about body acceptance, but the desire to shrink clearly never went away. It seems that the rise of GLP-1 weight loss drugs like semaglutide – better known by its brand names Ozempic or Wegovy – has merely proved the purported body positivity movement was at best for many a place holder mentality. It fell from favour as soon as thinness became chemically accessible. Actions are more telling than beliefs, however loudly professed, and thinner frames are once again dominating. While times and trends change, the challenge for anyone who has looked in the mirror and felt inadequate is to somehow maintain a healthy relationship with body image when the standards simultaneously shift and influence how we are treated by other people. Thinness is the standard for women again, though there is now an added pressure for the sort of muscle tone that only strict diet and specific kinds of exercise can achieve as weightlifting becomes more popular. For men, lean mass and impractical (for most) muscularity is the standard. With advancements in aesthetic procedures and science, and with information on nutrition and fitness widely accessible online, beauty is theoretically easier to access now than ever before. But not for everyone. These sorts of aesthetics are tied up with wealth, or at least not with poverty – they require gym access, significant free time for multiple lengthy workouts each week and a protein-rich diet. Beauty standards are always tied to status and wealth. [ Weight loss drug Wegovy to cost around €220 a month as supplies go on market in Ireland Opens in new window ] We judge ourselves and one another by ever-shifting standards while ignoring the mechanism by which they change. Photograph: Getty Images Our bodies are presumed to signal for our values, our habits, our self-discipline and our access to resources. With an estimated 1.25 – 1.5 million people in the UK taking GLP-1 weight loss drugs, the vast majority of whom are paying for them privately, according to The Guardian, a leaner body is very much higher status again. We know that there is advantage in looking as close to whatever the current beauty standard is as possible. There was in the 1920s, when Coco Chanel popularised previously low status tanning as evidence of a moneyed, well-travelled life of leisure. There was in 2015, when Instagram-filler-face made so many celebrities and influencers look like uncanny facsimiles of Kylie Jenner. There was in the early 2000s, when emaciation was associated with youth and self-discipline, and there is now that wealth and thinness are once more (for however long GLP-1s remain expensive) concomitant. We still on some level consider that lack of attractiveness by the current definition equates to lack of value. We judge ourselves and one another by ever-shifting standards while ignoring the mechanism by which they change. Until we can notice them and their influence upon our thinking more actively, we're doomed to perpetuate and fall prey to them endlessly. The challenge now is what it has always been, and it's a struggle conducted internally – to look in the mirror and see value, regardless of the external messaging. That's very tough in a world where distance from the beauty standard means relative disadvantage – none of us would want a harder life.
Digital Trends
19-07-2025
- Digital Trends
I love the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but I wish to buy this foldable phone instead
Thin. Thinner. Thinnest. That's been a hot trend in the smartphone industry lately. Is the race to the thinnest phone crown truly meaningful for an average user? I doubt it. But it certainly makes for nice billboard claims and cheeky social media jibes at rival brands. Recommended Videos Ever since Samsung introduced the Galaxy Z Fold 7, the industry has been buzzing about its thinness and how it sets a new standard. Does it set a new record? Honor disagrees. In the context of foldable phones, being thin has its ergonomic benefits. But the situation gets absurd when thinness comes at the cost of utility. By utility, I mean practical features, such as battery life. As the buzz around Galaxy Z Fold 7 was getting hotter, I got my hands on a new phone, the Vivo X Fold 5. And after spending some time with it, I realized that it's a more thoughtful foldable phone than Samsung's sleek new device. Is it all about the waistline? Let's start with the most obvious topic of contention, which is the in-hand feel of the device. Both devices have flat sides, but the Vivo phone has slightly rounded corners, which makes it easier to hold compared to the sharp edges on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. As far as the thinness goes, you won't feel the difference in your hands. Here are the figures for your reference: Unfolded (in mm) Folded (in mm) Vivo X Fold 5 159.68 x 72.60 x 9.2 72.8 x 158.4 x 8.9 Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 159.68 x 142.29 x 4.3 143.2 x 158.4 x 4.2 The difference in thickness is just 0.1 millimeters in the unfolded state. When two halves are closed shut while using only the exterior display, the waistlines of the two devices are only off by 0.3mm. That's a negligible gap, and the weight difference between the two phones is also merely two grams, so there's that. But where Vivo marginally lags behind Samsung, it more than makes up for it with a sturdier build. When dealing with an uber pricey foldable phone, every extra layer of protection matters, more so than your average slab-shaped phone. And this is where Vivo races ahead of Samsung. The Galaxy Z Fold only offers an IP48-cleared build, which means it can survive liquid immersion in 1.5 meters of freshwater for up to 30 minutes. Its Vivo rival, on the other hand, comes with an IPX8, IPX9, IPX9+, and IP5X-certified hardware, which means it is more resilient to dust and water exposure. In a nutshell, the Vivo phone can also handle jets of water, though nothing as adventurous as water parks. The hinge and display assembly of foldable phones is notoriously prone to damage. And as our investigation highlighted, Samsung is no stranger to the fragility woes on foldable phones, which culminate in fittingly pricey repair and replacement services. The meaningful parts One of the biggest problems with foldable phones is their shrinking size, which means they are increasingly getting starved of battery space while driving high-resolution screens. Samsung's latest foldable phone doesn't break any new ground, while its Chinese rival makes a massive leap. The Galaxy Z Fold comes equipped with a 4,400mAh battery, despite being equipped with an 8-inch inner flexible OLED panel and a 6.5-inch display on the outside. If you're someone who is investing in a foldable phone to get the best out of its large screen real estate for content consumption, don't expect the battery to last a full day of heavy usage. On the Vivo X Fold 5, you get a much bigger 6,000mAh battery. This is a dual-cell silicon anode battery that is claimed to last over a week in standby mode and can handle over a dozen hours of online meetings without requiring a top-up. But it's not just the capacity where Samsung remains a laggard. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 only supports 25W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. That's one of the slowest charging speeds on a phone out there, let alone a device that costs as much as two thousand dollars. The Vivo X Fold 5 brings support for 80W wired charging to the table. During my tests, the battery went from 15% to full capacity in just about 45 minutes. Even the wireless charging pace is speedier than Samsung's wired format, as the Vivo fold supports 40W wireless mode top-up. Another crucial benefit is that the 80W fast charging brick comes bundled in the retail package. Samsung, on the other hand, will have you shell out extra cash because the Galaxy Z Fold 7's box doesn't come bundled with a charger inside. A few other pitfalls The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a massive evolution, but only for Samsung fans. The Vivo X Fold 5 leapfrogs it in a few other crucial areas. For example, Samsung offers a 200-megapixel main primary camera, but the ultrawide and zoom snappers rely on fairly non-remarkable 12-megapixel and 10-megapixel sensors. On the Vivo X Fold 5, you get a trio of 50-megapixel cameras at the back. In fact, Vivo has even managed to fit a periscope-style folded lens zoom system that offers much better results at long-range photo and video capture. Samsung serves two 10-megapixel front cameras on its foldable, while the Vivo device offers a pair of 20-megapixel selfie cameras on its latest offering. Vivo's camera prowess has consistently managed to impress, especially with its fantastic color processing and video capture chops. The X Fold 5 is no different. Talking about the display, the Galaxy Z Fold 7's main OLED display goes up to 2,600 nits of peak brightness with the Vision Booster tech enabled. On the Vivo X Fold 5, the flexible 8-inch screen and the cover display, both reach an astounding 4,500 nits. Also, Vivo has figured out a rather cool multitasking experience that looks quite similar to Apple's Stage Manager. Overall, despite the generation-over-generation progress made by Samsung, the Vivo X Fold 5 emerges as the more meaningfully rewarding device over the Galaxy Z Fold 7. The fact that Vivo's sleek phone also happens to be significantly more affordable than its Samsung rival just happens to be the cherry on top.
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Yahoo
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is my dream foldable
It was only a couple of months ago that I discovered the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge's thinness was more than just a way to grab some headlines, and it made the phone genuinely more pleasurable to hold, use, and live with on a daily basis. Well, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is set to be equally transformative, and after barely spending an hour with it. I couldn't be more pleased that Samsung has continued its dogged pursuit of thinness, as it has made the Z Fold 7 the big-screen foldable I could see myself using every day, without fooling myself into thinking I'm not making a compromise. Let's get straight into it. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is far thinner and lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 6, and it makes a huge difference in the way the phone feels when you pick it up, hold it, and stow it in your pocket. It measures 8.9mm thick when closed and 4.2mm when open, weighing 215 grams. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 was 12.1mm closed up and weighed 239 grams. The Z Fold 7 even manages to be lighter than the Galaxy S25 Ultra by a whole gram. These numbers don't reflect one of the other major changes, though. On the front of the Z Fold 7 is a 6.5-inch, 21:9 aspect ratio screen, which feels truly "normal," and the phone is easily used with one hand. You no longer have to perform a risky, potentially very expensive juggling act to reply to messages or open apps on the cover screen due to the 5mm increase in width. Open the phone, and you're now greeted by an 8-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen, and it looks glorious. Look straight at the Z Fold 7, and you'll see the crease has been practically eliminated, visually, and you can barely feel it under your finger either. It's still kind of there from the side, but you have to make an effort to see it. Samsung has managed this by making the glass covering the open screen slightly thicker, increasing durability and strength at the same time. It's just one of the durability improvements in the Z Fold 7, which has a stronger titanium lattice work under the screen compared to the carbon fiber lattice used on previous models, and updated Advanced Armor Aluminum for the chassis and hinge. However, is the Galaxy Z Fold 7 the thinnest foldable smartphone in the world? No, that um, honor, goes to Honor with the Magic V5, which is 4.1mm thick open and 8.8mm closed. That's only if you buy the Ivory White version, though, as the other colors are 4.2mm thick open and 9mm thick closed, and it's 217 grams in weight or 222 grams if you choose one other than the white model. Fractions of millimeters aside, both the Magic V5 and the Z Fold 7 are amazing feats of engineering, and shouting about being the thinnest foldable in the world actually obfuscates in meaningless bluster how much of a difference the size truly makes. How can I easily illustrate this difference? I spent some time with the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and the new Galaxy Watch 8 smartwatches at the same time as I tested out the Galaxy Z Fold 7. While I was playing with the smartwatches, I switched the Z Fold 7 between my front jeans pocket and the back pocket. It disappeared in both, and I mostly forgot it was there until I wanted it. The Z Fold 7 seems to have moved beyond the era of compromise, which afflicted its predecessors, where you had to put up with a foldable's size and weight to enjoy the dual-screen convenience. Now, it simply feels like "a phone," and that has been the dream since the first day I picked up the original Galaxy Fold. The Galaxy S25 Edge took traditional phone convenience to the next level, and the Z Fold 7 does the same for foldable smartphones. There was a case to be made for the Z Fold 6 doing something similar, but it was recommended you still go out and hold it for yourself before buying, as one person's definition of acceptable is another's unacceptable. You should still try the Z Fold 7 out for yourself, but I think you'll just say "wow" when you see it and pick it up, rather than immediately think about whether you'll be able to tolerate the size and weight long term. Samsung described the Galaxy Z Fold 7 as giving you an "Ultra experience," but has stopped short of actually calling it the Z Fold 7 Ultra. It means it has squeezed some really impressive technology inside the thin and light phone. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor is onboard, along with 12GB or 16GB of RAM, there's a 4,400mAh battery, and One UI 8 over Android 16. Yes, the Z Fold 7 will come with Google's latest OS installed, and it has been specially designed for foldables, right down to Gemini Live being adapted for use on the large, open screen. All the usual Galaxy AI features are available, although compared to the AI overload at the Galaxy S25 series launch, they were emphasized less here. Circle to Search has gained an interesting new in-game search feature, where it will provide real-time hints and tips without leaving the app itself. The Now Brief is back and includes weekly activity updates along with its daily roundups. Samsung will support the Z Fold 7's software for seven years. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is Samsung at the top of its game. The Galaxy S25 Ultra's 200-megapixel main camera sits alongside a 10MP telephoto camera for a 3x optical zoom, and a new 12MP wide-angle camera with autofocus and a macro mode. The open screen's under-display selfie camera has been greatly improved, and now has 10 megapixels and a 100-degree field of view. The higher resolution is immediately obvious, too. On the cover screen is another 10MP selfie camera. While some may complain about the 3x telephoto, the Z Fold 7's camera is a technical improvement over the Z Fold 6, and the ISP has been optimized to make the most of all the cameras. Evidence of whether all this makes a difference will come when we take more photos, as it was impossible to draw any conclusions taking them inside the event space, where I tried the phone. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is Samsung at the top of its game. The foldable feels superbly made, very high quality, and still suitably futuristic, even though we've seen similar phones for a good few years now. The thinner, lighter body is a massive leap forward compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and earlier, and it has finally reached the point where it won't feel like much of a compromise to use at all compared to a non-folding phone. If you have one of those earlier Samsung foldables, the Z Fold 7 is likely to be a substantial upgrade. For those yet to take the plunge on a big-screen foldable, this is the one to try. Such innovation and engineering don't come cheap. The basic 12GB/256GB model is $2,000 or £1,799, which is a lot to pay for any mobile device, but like the previous models, this is a phone you should be thinking about keeping for the next three years or so. Thanks to the Z Fold 7's streamlined new shape, durability enhancements, and close-to-top-spec camera, this will be easier than ever to do.
Irish Times
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
‘Skinny is social capital': Extreme thinness is back and it's more dangerous than ever
The internet was meant to democratise culture. Mobile phones. Online bulletin boards. Social media. Writers such as Howard Rheingold and Clay Shirky praised its role in political mobilisation – anti-globalisation protests, Arab Spring, riots in the Philippines. They rarely mentioned the pro-ana (anorexia) movement, where girls and women gathered online to share starvation tips and 'thinspiration'. Photos of jutting ribs were captioned like inspirational posts. Instead of 'all dreams are within reach', they said, 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'. A social media trend has made extreme thinness aspirational once more (if it ever wasn't). But SkinnyTok, as it's known, shuns old-school diet culture. Instead, thinness is coded as luxury, wellness and discipline. I could unpack the ideology but influencers are doing it for me: 'Skinny is the outfit,' says one creator. 'Being skinny sends a message. You respect yourself. You prioritise yourself ... It's ... not just about looking hot; it's high value.' 'I feel like it's such a currency to be skinny,' a thirtysomething woman gushes alongside her before and after photos. It's easy to mock this as teenage drama but its reach is wider, especially for women who've already lived through several beauty regimes. When I was a teenager, I liked to watch music videos on weekend mornings: Beautiful, Dirty, Toxic, Cry Me a River. In my memory, the women in these videos merge into one hard torso in low-rise jeans. I'd stand on my dad's EZ recliner so I could see my reflection in the mirror over the fireplace, lifting my pyjama top to survey the contours of my less-ideal body. READ MORE One of these videos was Beyoncé 's Crazy in Love. She prowls down an LA street in hot pants and heels. I loved her confidence. I loved her body – her strong calves and thighs. 'Huge legs,' my sister declared, wandering in. 'I think she looks amazing,' I remember saying. 'Well, if she looks amazing then I look amazing,' she replied, as though that settled it. (She was tall, slim and athletic, but my dad had recently called her 'thunder thighs' for wearing a minidress.) [ Bridget Jones and me: 51 and in slimming knickers Opens in new window ] For those of us who came of age in that era, noughties body culture is like a stretch mark on the psyche: it fades with time, but it's never quite gone. This was when Bridget Jones was 'fat' at 130lb. When tabloid magazines ran 'circles of shame' to highlight celebrity cellulite. When a swarm of size-00 women styled by Rachel Zoe lugged giant handbags down the red carpet, their stick-figure arms straining beneath the weight. Terms like 'thigh gap' and 'muffin top' entered the lexicon, shorthand for how our bodies could succeed or fall short. Of course, thinness has been the western beauty ideal since the early 20th century. No longer a sign of poverty, a snatched waist was a sign of a woman who could afford, but didn't want, food. By the time 1990s 'heroin chic' emerged, the link was firm. As Susan Bordo argues in Unbearable Weight, womanness on the cusp of the millennium dovetailed with desirable social and economic values: self-discipline, restraint, ambition. Sophie Gilbert, meanwhile, author of Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women against Themselves, claims noughties diet culture weaponised shame 'in a way that would neutralise women's ambitions and ... protect patriarchal power'. In the 2010s something changed. As Keeping up with the Kardashians became prime viewing, the ideal softened – not away from thinness exactly, but toward an aesthetic that embraced 'thick' thighs, a Brazilian butt, muscles. 'Clean eating', 'wellness' and 'glow-ups' outpaced the language of calorie-counting. Slimness (and whiteness) were still idealised, but there were more ways to look beautiful – or at least more ways to optimise. Plus-size models such as Ashley Graham graced the covers of Vogue. The culture became less openly hostile to flesh, more critical of body shame. Books like Rory Freedman's Skinny Bitch (2005), 'perhaps you have a lumpy arse because you are preserving your fat cells with diet soda' now felt off-key. Fatphobia hadn't died but we were saying the quiet part quietly. [ Emer McLysaght: Can we please send the Kardashians some big knickers and a slanket? Opens in new window ] If Kim Kardashian 's curves once stood for 'body positivity', the end came in 2022 when she crash dieted into a Marilyn Monroe dress for the Met Gala. In 2025 the size-zero body is back – now cloaked in the aesthetics of self-care and girl dinner. Last Tuesday, after European regulators expressed concern, TikTok blocked the search for #Skinnytok. But when I input 'skinny' into the search bar, I'm met with a page full of videos. In one, an ostentatiously thin woman outlines the difference between regular and 'wealthy skinny'. Wealthy skinny has less in common with TikTok's book wealth trend (basically having lots of books as furniture) and more with 'clean girl beauty' or 'quiet luxury'. Regular skinny is tacky and trend driven, she explains. Wealthy skinny, on the other hand, is about control. 'It's not about looking hot for the summer. It's about restraint, polish and discipline. It's effortless.' Above the videos a disclaimer reads 'you are more than your weight'. Social media helped drive body positivity. Now it sells disordered eating as a lifestyle choice. In this world, skinny is social capital. It's high value. Not dieting but 'gut health', not hunger but 'balance'. It's not always clear if this content is earnest or rage bait. Comments swing between 'how do I get this rib-cage?' and 'eat a sandwich'. Either way, it doesn't matter. Extreme content, like extreme bodies, drives engagement. But I suspect I'm drawn to this debate because, right now, I don't feel very skinny. Metabolism, medication and excessive biscuit eating has converged so that, despite being a healthy weight, I feel less than ideal. Feeling bad about my waist feels shallow, stupid even – like I've drunk the diet Kool-Aid. But women aren't stupid. Or duped. Or vain. We've been shown the shape of the world in the ideal shape of our bodies, and we've absorbed the message. To be skinny still feels like it is to be accepted in the world, if not the body, we live in.
Bloomberg
04-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Samsung's Galaxy S25 Edge Shows the Limits of Impressively Thin Phones
A decade ago, Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and other smartphone manufacturers all battled over the same thing: making the thinnest phone possible. But the industry later pivoted, with technology giants focused instead on jamming in as much battery life, the brightest screens and the fastest chips available. That led to the tradeoff of thicker devices. It's now 2025 and the war over smartphone thinness is back on. Of the major brands, Samsung is kicking things off with its new Galaxy S25 Edge. It arrives just a few months before Apple is expected to release a similarly skinny iPhone.
