11-08-2025
‘Counter culture': Response to Noah Cyrus photos expose 2025 beauty standards
If you're looking for a direct indication of how fed-up women already are with the rise of 'skinny culture', look no further than the response to some photos of Noah Cyrus.
The 25-year-old singer and younger sister of Miley Cyrus was seen exiting Lady Gaga's latest concert and women are flat-out relieved by the images.
Cyrus was dressed in a skimpy outfit, wearing a bra as a top, hot pants, a leather jacket, and a beanie – of course, you've gotta stay warm!
The outfit isn't what anyone cares about though because online women are rejoicing over the fact that she looked 'pleasantly plump' instead of scarify thin.
One social media user amassed over 7 million views on X, by claiming that the Cyrus photos are a sign that there was a 'counter culture' emerging to offset the skinny culture being rammed down women's throats at the moment.
Another observed it was nice to see the body positivity movement 'gaining momentum naturally,' and one woman replied that she 'hoped' this was a sign that body neutrality was back.
'She looks so good,' another praised.
'She's so hot,' one woman gushed.
Another joked that she was 'ready' for body positivity to return because she likes cheese, and many other women echoed her sentiments of relief to see a celebrity looking voluptuous.
It wasn't a perfect oasis of body positivity; there was body-shaming.
Some trolls went as far as to claim Cyrus looked 'unhealthy' or 'gross', which really just further exposes how messed up our culture has become.
Cyrus isn't even remotely plus-size, and health isn't dictated by weight, so it was a relief to see social media users flooding the post to gush about her laid-back look.
The 25-year-old singer hit a cultural nerve, because she was wearing a revealing outfit that suggests she feels comfortable in her own skin, which is a body type we're seeing less of these days.
Body diversity in Celebrity Land in 2025 is so scarce that a woman who wears a size 10 is a breath of fresh air.
For a fleeting moment, body positivity and then body neutrality were in; we'd moved away from the toxic skinny culture of the 90s that was still going strong in 2012.
The grim culture where expressing shock and awe over Lena Dunham's objectively thin, but not thin enough body by society's standards in Girls was considered not only normal but worth debate.
We then entered into an era of far more self-love. We went as far as to surpass body positivity, which was all about celebrating your body at any size, to body neutrality, which was about realising that what you weigh or what you look like shouldn't carry any real weight, and the less you think about it, the better.
Alongside this was the cultural rise of plus-size influencers, supermodels like Ashley Graham, and Lizzo becoming one of the biggest singers in the world while crooning about 'thick thighs saving lives', and the trickle-down impact meant that suddenly talking about diets in the office felt naff.
Then just as quickly as the 'any body is a bikini body' movement appeared, it vanished and was replaced with rail-thin being the goal all over again.
Problematic terms like 'skinny tok' were coined, which is a hashtag on TikTok, where women share ways to become as small as humanly possible.
Even Lizzo lost weight and instead of preaching about self-love, she now fields questions on social media about how she did it.
It's a weird time to be a woman because the body positivity movement taught us that we shouldn't talk about other women's bodies, but suddenly they're all shrinking.
It feels bizarre to ignore, like you're ignoring the elephant in the room, or in this case, the rapidly disappearing movie star.
On one hand, Noah Cyrus is just living her life and looking great, which shouldn't become a cultural moment, but things have gotten so grim that it is.
Psychologist Carly Dober told that body standards and body image are, in general, always influenced by cultural factors, and the 'resurgence of skinny culture' hasn't been great for women.
'Some gains over the last decade with the body neutrality movement have taken a hit. I don't believe that skinny culture was ever eradicated,' she said.
Ms Dober said that if only one type of body is in fashion, it can be 'disastrous for young girls' because it can impact their body image.
'We need to see diverse bodies because this is the reality of what we would see if we were walking around, not only in Australia but across the globe,' she argued.
'There isn't one way that humans look, and genetics, environment, culture and personal preference all dictate how humans may look.
'If young girls only see super thin bodies, they will receive the message that this is the only acceptable way to look.'
