The liposuction society: Lipophobia as an aesthetic driver and a factor of psychological distress on social media

Abstract

Aesthetic standards permeate and impose demands on the individual, immersed in the social context, to adapt to the standardization of an ideal body. In this context, lipophobia, considered as an aesthetic and social discourse that imposes negativity on body fat, remains the tonic of a society that establishes, for itself, the thin and “lean mass” indexes as symbols of a healthy. Rooted in the social imagination for a long time, lipophobia finds, in the recent phenomenon of social networks, fertile ground to proliferate as a moralizing maxim. Therefore, the objective of the present work is to investigate the engines that lead not only to the maintenance, but also to the propagation of lipophobia in social networks. From a diagnosis of society and the behavior of subjects immersed in social networks, we seek to address the foundations and motivators of lipophobic discourses, their reasons, their propagation mechanisms, their effects, and also the psychic impacts arising from body aesthetic pressure. By tracing a profile of this liposuction society, we intend to promote debate and discussion about a research locus that has not yet been investigated - social networks - highlighting its importance in the field of public health.

Keywords:
Lipophobia; Social Networks; Biomedical Power; Psychic Suffering; Public Health.

Resumo

Padrões estéticos permeiam e impõem exigências ao indivíduo, imerso no contexto social, a fim de que se adéque à padronização de um corpo ideal. Nesse âmbito, a lipofobia, considerada como um discurso de caráter estético e social que impõe negatividade à gordura corporal, mantém-se como a tônica de uma sociedade que estabelece, para si, o magro e índices de “massa magra” como símbolos de um corpo saudável. Enraizada no imaginário social há tempos, a lipofobia encontra, no recente fenômeno das redes sociais, terreno fértil para se proliferar como uma máxima moralizante. Sendo assim, o objetivo do presente trabalho é investigar os motores que conduzem não só à manutenção, mas também à propagação da lipofobia nas redes sociais. A partir de um diagnóstico da sociedade e dos comportamentos dos sujeitos imersos nas redes sociais, buscamos abordar, neste ensaio acadêmico, os fundamentos e motivadores dos discursos lipofóbicos, seus alicerces, seus mecanismos de propagação, seus efeitos e, ainda, os impactos psíquicos advindos da pressão estética corporal. Traçando um perfil dessa sociedade lipoaspirada, intentamos promover o debate e a discussão sobre um locus de pesquisa ainda pouco investigado - as redes sociais - salientando sua importância no âmbito da saúde pública.

Palavras-chave:
Lipofobia; Redes Sociais; Poder Biomédico; Sofrimento Psíquico; Saúde Pública

Introduction

Living in society requires conforming to the prevailing body aesthetic. Although beauty standards are not unique to our time, the imperative for beauty emerges in contemporary societies: it is not only desirable to be “standardized”; it is a moral duty to be so (Coelho; Fagundes, 2007). Aesthetic pressure is therefore materialized in the social demand that spreads the perfect body prototype.

In this context, lipophobia, a discourse that demonizes body fat, is rooted in the social imagination (Vianna, 2018). Marks that reveal an accumulation of fat on the body, such as cellulite, bulges, excess skin, and the like, are seen as symbols of poor shape and ill health in several social settings, which is even supported by biomedical discourse (Fischler, 1995). This concept is spreading and carries with it an excellent potential for guilt and psychological distress in individuals who do not intend or are unable to achieve the aesthetic standards dictated by society due to multiple factors.

As a discursive element, lipophobia operates on social media like a dynamo that fuels large-scale lipophobic discourse. The proliferation of these discourses occurs through the spectrum of what is considered shareable on social media: exacerbated positivity and the lack of pain and distress (Han, 2019). Since fat is an unequivocally negative aspect within the aesthetic limitations of shareability, lipophobia only gains fertile ground for dissemination.

Based on this premise that lipophobia is not only latent in social networks, but also burgeons as a totalizing discourse (Fischler, 1995), we aim, in this academic essay, to investigate, through bibliographical research, the bases - philosophical and scientific - that underpin the permanence of lipophobia as a current maxim in digital society, seeking to understand, based on authors who conduct current analyses, how the propagation of such discourses occurs and what are the potential impacts on the individual’s psychological distress. Thus, based on a diagnosis of the digital society we live in, immersed in social media, we seek to highlight the prevailing aesthetic paradigms - the beautiful smooth - and how biomedical discourse fosters and underpins lipophobia. Finally, we seek to highlight the mechanisms that enable or facilitate the spread of such discourses on social media and the importance of this topic for healthcare practices.

This topic is highly relevant, both due to the lack of in-depth studies on the topic and the rarity of establishing social media as a research locus. We do not intend to point to specific solutions, much less exhaust the topic. Through critical analysis based on bibliographic research, we will seek to shed light on the topic and question how lipophobia emerges as a hegemonic aesthetic narrative. In any case, establishing the foundations for understanding the social context in which we live will not only strengthen the protective measures to be adopted in Public Health but also provide a safe starting point for future analyses of the impacts generated by the digital society.

Lipophobia and the digital society

The social influence on body shaping is unequivocal and powerful. Barthes states that “my body is for me the image that I believe the other has of this body” (1982). Moreover, is not this discovery precisely the drama of Gengê, Luigi Pirandello’s character in “One, None, and a Hundred Thousand”? In the Italian Nobel laureate’s novel, the character, upon hearing his wife point out a “crooked nose” that he had never previously noticed, goes into crisis and develops a profound malaise: “I could not see myself living [...] I am that stranger whom I can only see living or know in this way, in a moment of distraction. A stranger whom only others can see and know, not I” (Pirandello, 2015, p. 20-21).

Thus, there is no doubt that the body is a concept necessarily mediated by the individual and social, culture, and personal values, psychological, and symbolic (Le Breton, 2003). Like Pirandello’s Gengê epiphany, the body is not just one, but also none and a hundred thousand. Therefore, it is evident that aesthetic pressures, established by social impositions in the space-time context, exert a commanding influence. Anyone who intends to go “against the tide” of social demands will undoubtedly face intense resistance:

When we choose non-submission, the moral forces against which we rebel react against us, and it is hard, due to their superiority, for us not to be defeated. […] We are immersed in an atmosphere of collective ideas and feelings that we cannot modify at will (Durkheim, 1978, pp. 36-37).

Thus, every society has its own idea of bodily perfection. As one might expect, achieving this perfection is not easy. Beyond thinness, today’s imaginary scale, which idealizes, at its apex, the immaculate body, is measured by the elimination of fat (Fischler, 1995). The logic of competition, individual merit, and competitiveness, inherent to neoliberal ideology, directly affects the shaping of individuals’ bodies and fosters a constant, self-reinforcing dissatisfaction with one’s own image. In a society that abhors fat, the aesthetics of smoothness, firmness, muscle, the percentage of “lean mass”, and thinness take over the imagination as a goal to be achieved. In this context, the term was created by the French social scientist Claude Fischler to

designate the rejection of animal fat, and simultaneously pointing to a lean figure as a model of beauty and health. This cultural, aesthetic, and hygienic standard was legitimized by biomedical discourse, which, when representing the body, emphasizes quantitative issues and biological parameters, disregarding subjective issues and sociocultural references, making the model somewhat reductionist (Vianna, 2018).

This aesthetic subject submits to the ideological architecture that projects the “perfect” body and turns it into a construct, an abstract ideal exploited as an object of consumption. To achieve this not-always-attainable ideal, the body needs to be watered daily like a fragile plant, thus ensuring the eternal return to routines of care and, consequently, to shopping.

For this individual to achieve perfection, for muscles and vitality to blossom, fat must be eliminated from the body. From miraculous supplements to magic pills, from appointments to plastic surgery, from grueling physical exercise to dietary asceticism, homo aestheticus internalizes within himself that achieving standardization through the elimination of body fat is not only possible but also tangible. Despite often being harmful to the body’s constitution, the habits that represent the pursuit of this ideal are presented by the media and scientific establishment as belonging to the broader imaginary of “healthy living”. This association is strongly marked by routine stimuli replicated in newspapers and television and internalized as absolute truths in the individual, who reproduces these dominant ideological forms as if they were the fruit of their consciousness, which seems to fit the formula already foreshadowed by Marx and Engels (2007).

Thus, the internalization of symbolic elements that evoke the aesthetics of a beautiful and healthy body consequently leads to fat “demonization”. Lipophobia (from the Greek lipos (fat) and phobia (fear)) reflects the fact that the discourses that standardize body aesthetics are fat-averse, grounded in the current narrative of biomedical power that also condemns it (Fischler, 1995). Similarly, the market bombards us with countless shelves of “light”, “zero-fat”, and other products. We therefore live amid the glamorization of “lean mass” as synonymous with personal success and well-being (Sudo; Luz, 2007). This social imperative fosters and reinforces an unhealthy relationship between food and guilt:

Any comment about eating habits, for example, generally triggers a chatty, bizarre, and childish competition over who exercises more, who eats less fat, who can lose the most weight in the shortest time, who quits smoking the longest, who consumes the most vegetables, natural foods, and medicines, and the like. Parallel to this, all consumption of high-calorie foods is preceded by true acts of constriction and preventive rituals to atone for the sin being committed. Those who refuse to play the game are seen as emotionally problematic, as they unscrupulously indulge in physical and moral self-destruction. After all, we believe, without fitness, we have no chance of being victorious. The evil of the century is the evil of the body (Costa, 2004, p. 199).

It is not a stretch to say, therefore, that our society seeks to constantly maintain its liposuction - literally or symbolically. The situation becomes even more dramatic with the rise of social media.

The proliferation of social media as a new communicative bias, grounded on image-based and other-directed content - that is, directed at the perspective of others - has further fueled this persistent discursive model that preaches aversion to fat. The daily and incessant replication of photographs and videos of perfect bodies, custom-modeled (whether by applications like Adobe Photoshop or by manipulating photographic perspective) to conform to the aesthetic standardization of our time, internalizes this ought-to-be regarding the body.

Although social media has not managed lipophobia as an aesthetic model, lipophobia becomes increasingly exacerbated in this locus. In order to gain more “likes”, negativity must be extirpated, avoided, and not consumed. As Byung-Chul Han (2019, p. 15) states, “today, it is beauty itself that becomes smooth, as all negativity, every form of shock and aggression, is taken from it. Beauty is exhausted in my like.”

In this locus, body molding becomes one of the facets of the excess positivity that dictates the rules of the game on social media. Regarding this nuance, it is easy to see that in the digital revolution’s society, being happy is not enough because “it is not just about achieving this much-desired state of mind; it is also necessary, and perhaps above all, that this happiness be visible and that others can verify it with the legitimizing power of their perspectives” (Sibilia, 2014, p. 42). The lipophobic discourse, thus, no longer comes solely from a single interlocutor - radio, television, newspapers, economic power - but from millions of content producers on social media, who, every day and hour, foster the almost infinite reproduction of the perfect body narrative.

These multiple content-generating sources would be problematic in themselves, but there is another factor driving lipophobia to another burgeoning level. The content published on social media is nothing like the old diaries or even the old blogs of the dawn of the internet. Indeed, these tools were primarily intended for intimacy and introspection, rarely requiring likes or interaction. On social media, however, accounts or even the ideal of happiness appear to be valuable and desirable only when they can be spectacularized and admired by others (Sibilia, 2014). The act of sharing, then, becomes a new existential performance. Social media users appear to be always happy and fulfilled, their bodies beautiful and well-cared for, or so they seek, showing the suppression of any negativity in their posts (Han, 2019).

In this society where positivity is the keynote of discourse, where misfortune or failure must be massively hidden or reprimanded, the fat-averse body aesthetic seeks to exclude everything that is not thin from bodies. Byung-Chul Han (2019) states that “today’s society, obsessed with cleanliness and hygiene, is a society of positivity that feels disgusted by any form of negativity”.

In this context, fat is not only undesirable, it is also disgusting, dirty, and repulsive. Since anything that might express negativity - that is, anything that exceeds socially standardized limits - is automatically rejected and discarded by the prevailing discursive power, lipophobia is exacerbated as a totalizing, massifying narrative that generates psychological distress. Bauman (2008) had already identified this excess of positivity in the premonition phase of social media:

The most characteristic value of consumer society, indeed its supreme value, regarding which all others are urged to justify their merit, is a happy life. Consumer society is perhaps the only one in human history to promise happiness in earthly life, here and now, and in each successive “now” - in short, instantaneous and perpetual happiness. It is also the only society that avoids justifying and/or legitimizing any unhappiness […], even in consumer society, unhappiness is a punishable crime, or at least a sinful deviation that disqualifies its bearer as an authentic member of society (Bauman, 2008, p. 61).

On social media, this dimension of excluding negativity establishes new ethical parameters. The beautiful must be shared. The ugly must be repressed and hidden. This life theatricalization aspect, of the neglect of real narratives in favor of the aesthetics of appearing-being, is one of the main characteristics of the new ethics of social media. In his 1983 book, The Age of Emptiness, Gilles Lipovetsky (2005) already reported that, in the 1980s, “the individual wants to be alone, always and increasingly alone, at the same time that he/she cannot bear himself/herself being alone” (Lipovetsky, 2005, p. 30). This statement dissects the genesis of a behavior that is blatant today: the individual’s almost uncontrollable need to constantly be communicating and connected, while at the same time hiding from the outside world behind a screen.

Therefore, the “man behind the glasses” from Drummond’s “Poem of Seven Faces” seems to have metamorphosed into “the man behind the screens”. The distance from social interaction, while favoring performance on social media, also enables the fictionalization of reality. Thus, the subject adopts the role of social artist, fictionalizing his/her own life, whether by sharing a photo manipulated to remove traces of fat from his/her body or by writing about himself/herself on digital platforms. Performance transforms social media into a stage; it transforms them into a theater in which it is possible to create nonexistent or partially nonexistent narratives about one’s own life (Sibilia, 2008).

Like any artist, this performance, in turn, only makes sense to be theatricalized if there is an audience and applause. Followers, in the logic of social media, therefore fulfill this role of viewers and artists simultaneously. The act of sharing must necessarily consider the “filter” of the other’s perspective, without which the networks’ raison d’être cannot be exercised. Thus, the performance should not be spontaneous - quite the opposite, it must be scripted and strategically conceived from the perspective of the other, which is the subjective conditioning factor for the performative action (Sibilia, 2014). This new way of being will constitute behaviors and subjectivities that are other-oriented, that is, other-directed.

The distance afforded by screens allows for the rise of what Lipovetsky and Serroy (2015) have called homo aestheticus. Indeed, today what is admired is no longer having, typically in capitalist society, but appearing: appearing happy, appearing to have a good life, appearing to have friends - in short, a festival of appearances, typical of the man who emphasizes aesthetics to the neglect of reality.

This logic is not dissociated from the logic of consumption. Quite the contrary, the homo aestheticus’ way of being is entirely oriented toward market logic, so that this intertwined connection between aesthetics and consumption inaugurates, according to French authors, a new phase of capitalism: “artistic capitalism” (Lipovetsky; Serroy, 2015). In this setting, absolutely everything deserves to be stylized. Thus, everything gains the “mark of aesthetic ambition: gardeners became landscapers, hairdressers, hair designers; florists, floral artists...” (Lipovetsky; Serroy, 2015, p. 29). This new phase of capitalism, therefore, is marked by the fusion of art, culture, and consumption. The commodity itself becomes merely a detail - aesthetic ambition inaugurates a new form of fetish, aggregating culture, values, and emotions.

It is not inevitable to conclude, therefore, that the spread of lipophobic discourse is entirely legitimized by artistic capitalism. Lipophobia is evident in commercial products, whose labels are quick to assert that the consumption of light and zero-fat foods is associated with a healthy lifestyle. Restaurants and markets promise low-fat foods, and sports products claim to help “burn localized fat”. It seems apparent that we are constantly reminded that fat is something consistently negative and undesirable in most social spaces.

Thus, this homo aestheticus, a product of artistic capitalism, is eager to consume emotions and values. Social media only aids this proliferation of entertainment, making it accessible to all, immersing us in “the era of media overabundance, of hyperspectacle, omnipresent and proliferating” (Lipovetsky; Serroy, 2015, p. 265).

As one might expect, to be theatricalized, this performance must follow aesthetic standards of what is “positive” and “negative”. Thus, the proliferation of technology, combined with the performative molding of social media, in which negativity is excluded, strengthens the lipophobic tendency already found in pre-social contexts. The demand for the “perfect body” reveals itself as a moral duty and carries within it the mark of shareable aesthetic ambition. Thus, the control of bodies is an even more dramatic reality today:

Now, the global economy is driven by computers and the internet, mobile telephony with its diverse communication and information networks, satellites, and the myriad of tele-informatics gadgets that clutter the markets. All of this contributes, in an oblique and complex way - albeit no less powerful for that - to the production of the bodies and subjectivities of the 21st century (Sibilia, 2015, p. 27).

However, the lipophobic discourse must adopt a viable notion of beauty adapted to the logic of consumption in order for the emergence of the “positive” and “negative”. The aesthetic foundation would be nonexistent without this foundational aspect.

The beautiful smooth as the aesthetic basis of lipophobia on social networks

There is no doubt that this systematic feedback loop of a performance that excludes any possibility of negativity demands a new conception of beauty. To this end, Byung-Chul Han (2019), in The Salvation of Beauty, offers a profound aesthetic analysis of how the concept of beauty, in the shareable world of social media, has systematically driven away wrinkled, misshapen, and non-smooth forms. In this setting, “the world of the smooth is a culinary world, a world of pure positivity, in which there is no pain, injury, or guilt” (Han, 2019, p. 14).

The author affirms that “the aesthetics of smoothness is a genuinely contemporary phenomenon. […] Beauty is isolated in pure positivity. The empowered subject of contemporaneity transforms beauty into an object of likes” (Han, 2019, p. 27). That is, only that which can be liked is beautiful, and, consequently, that which is devoid of negativity. Thus, in this new contemporary aesthetic,

The negativity of pain diminishes the sensation of beauty. Even ‘robustness’ and ‘strength’ diminish it. Beautiful are characteristics such as ‘tenderness’ and ‘gracility’. The body is ‘graceful’ when it consists of ‘smooth parts’ that do not display any roughness or that confuse the eye (Han, 2019, p. 29).

The control and commercialization of personal data, a recent phenomenon dubbed “dataism” and pioneered by social media, further fosters the smooth body aesthetic. The South Korean philosopher argues:

The body is in crisis today. It is not only shattered into pornographic parts, but also into digital data records. The belief in the mediation and quantification of life dominates the digital age as a whole. […] The body is equipped with digital sensors that capture all its data. The quantified self transforms the body into a screen of control and surveillance. Data is gathered to be placed and exchanged on the internet. Dataism dissolves the body into data, making it compatible with data. On the other hand, it is disassembled into partial objects similar to sexual organs. The transparent body is no longer a narrative scene of the imaginary. Rather, it is an addition of data or partial objects (Han, 2019, pp. 25-26).

It seems to us, therefore, that lipophobia becomes a legitimizing attribute of a new aesthetic directed at the perspective of others - an aesthetic characteristic of social media. This smooth beauty is internalized by the subject as a social norm, as a duty; we become guardians of our own bodies.

Tutorials on how to avoid poses or angles that might make a body appear slender or thin are abundant on social media, especially YouTube. One such video, from Layla Monteiro’s YouTube channel (2019), watched by nearly 2 million people, teaches women “tricks”, “poses”, and “angles” to make them appear thinner and slimmer in their photos and videos. Similarly, a video from Alex Cursino’s YouTube channel (2020), watched by over 1 million people, teaches men “how to always look good in male selfies”. These examples, drawn from a near-infinite sea of them, seem to indicate that smooth, beautiful hair is the new aesthetic trend on social media.

When simply modulating angles and perspectives is impossible, it is common practice to manipulate photographs using applications that remove body fat, such as Adobe Photoshop, whose manipulations almost always aim to make the body smooth, curvy, blemish-free, and illuminated. Thus, the idealized body is manipulated when it is impossible to achieve.

The aesthetics of smoothness and lipophobia are reinforced even in places where the aim, paradoxically, is to combat aesthetic pressure, such as in news articles that supposedly question the digital manipulation of photos to disguise body fat, but instead call on experts to comment on artists’ “Photoshopped or un-Photoshopped” photos (Metrópoles, 2022). Therefore, even in specific loci that seek to re-discuss aesthetic standards, lipophobia is found as a narrative focus, whether directly or indirectly.

As a result, we can see how Byung-Chul Han’s (2019) keen look at the situation we experience on social media regarding the concept of beauty brought the idea of smooth beauty to support his “digital beauty” concept, which, while carrying within itself aesthetic content, also assimilates its function of controlling what is shareable:

Digital beauty banishes the negativity of the non-identical. It allows only consumable, useful differences. Otherness gives way to diversity. The digital world is a world that humans have distended, so to speak, with their very network-skin and retina. […] The denser this network is woven, the deeper a screen is established between the world and the other, the outside. The digital retina, this digitally connected skin, transforms the world into an image on the screen and a control screen (Han, 2019, p. 60).

The concept of smooth beauty is not recent. On the contrary, it was already the subject of analysis during the Enlightenment, including by Edmund Burke (1993), in his aesthetic treatise, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, initially published in 1757. In his analysis, Burke advocates the smoothing of beauty and opposes body fat, stating that “rough and angular bodies undoubtedly excite and irritate the organs of touch, causing a sensation of pain, which consists in the violent tension and contraction of the muscular fibers” (Burke, 1993, p. 152). Regarding the “fat” body, the philosopher is blunt:

There can be no doubt that rough and oblique bodies irritate and disturb the sense organs, as they cause a sensation of pain consisting of a strong tension or contraction of the muscle fibers. There are dwarfed men and women, almost always so fat and stocky in comparison to their height that their figure is quite unpleasant to us. […] The bulky and gigantic, though quite compatible with the sublime, opposes the beautiful. It is impossible to imagine a giant as an object of love. When we give free rein to our imagination while reading fiction, the ideas we naturally associate with this size are of tyranny, cruelty, injustice, and everything hideous and abominable. We imagine the giant ravaging the country, despoiling the innocent traveler, and then gorging himself on his half-living flesh (Burke, 1993, p. 163).

Thus, it would not be far-fetched to attribute to Burke, if not a direct influence, at least an endorsement of the idea, current on social media, that natural beauty opposes smooth beauty. The latter is manufactured, carved, and tailor-made for immediate consumption. Natural beauty, as the opposite of smooth beauty, seems to be disconnected from digital beauty, since “natural” also carries with it a charge of negativity that is incompatible with the positivity that should reign on social media:

Natural beauty is the opposite of digital beauty. In digital beauty, the negativity of the other has been completely nullified. That is why it is completely smooth. It cannot have any tears. Its sign is complacency without negativity, the like. Digital beauty forms a smooth space of the same that admits neither strangeness nor otherness. [...] The temporality of natural beauty is the already of the not-yet. It appears on the utopian horizon of what is to come. The temporality of digital beauty, on the other hand, is the immediate present without a future, but also without history. It is simply present (Han, 2019, pp. 40 and 41).

In any case, the aesthetics of smooth beauty on social media (or digital beauty) as a philosophical foundation of what is, or is not, shareable on social media, notably linked to the preservation and proliferation of lipophobic discourses, is firmly legitimized by biomedical power, which serves as a support and primary logical-scientific foundation for the liposuction society.

Medical discourse as a reinforcer of the aesthetics of digital beauty

Thus, it becomes clear that lipophobia, as a discourse, is fostered not only as a body aesthetic standard that imposes a moral duty on the subject but also subjects them to the ideal of smooth beauty prevalent on social media. However, medical-scientific discourse also plays a fundamental role in the propagation and internalization of the lipophobic imaginary, being taken as the indisputable foundation reinforcing the aesthetic of smooth beauty on social media.

Canguilhem (2009) emphatically states that biomedical discourse, given its legitimizing power, is crucial in constructing social imaginaries of body aesthetics. In this context, thousands of scientific studies are replicated linking obesity and body fat as risk factors and comorbidities that contribute to the deteriorated symptoms of other diseases. Thus, “based on this conception, the fat person comes to have a visibly disproportionate and unhealthy body” (Sudo; Luz, 2007).

Thus, it is no coincidence that the fat body is shrouded in negativity. Beyond the aesthetic issue that radiates as a modus vivendi and promotes the proliferation of lipophobic discourses, biomedical power legitimizes the “abnormality” of this body by linking it to “unhealthy habits”. This decisive influence of medical power in attributing negativity to the body is by no means a recent event or foreign to humanity; on the contrary, archaeological analysis of medicine almost always shows that medical knowledge produces truths that matter in the domination of individuals’ bodies (Foucault, 1988).

There is no doubt about the importance of biomedical studies in reducing the incidence of obesity-related illnesses. This academic essay did not aim to cast doubt on the validity of scientific findings, but rather to question the reinforced smooth skin’s aesthetics from this perspective. The truths replicated through biomedical discourse seem to be subject to extreme reductionism, as if a “risk factor” were ineluctably a necessary factor for the onset of a given disease. The overweight body is automatically assigned the status of “unhealthy”, and the thin body is given all the hallmarks of “healthy”.

This negative stigma that consequently surrounds the “unhealthy body” will directly influence the proliferation of lipophobia as a common discourse on social media, legitimized by biomedical power. As the aesthetics of smooth beauty involve the production of content in the digital world, fat, cellulite, and skin blemishes (considered “negative” by biomedical power) are eliminated from performance and remain hidden, whether through the biased perspectives of cameras, digital photo manipulation, or, ultimately, plastic surgery or cosmetic procedures.

Indeed, the terror and negativity surrounding fat and the fat body are systemic and universal (Fischler, 1995). This negativity, combined with the power of biomedical discourse, is fueled not only by a passive structure - resulting from the logical consequences of associating body fat with a risk factor - but also by an active, market-driven interest directly linked to aesthetics (Han, 2019).

According to the Brazilian Society of Plastic Surgery (SBPC BLOG, 2020), Brazil achieved global leadership in cosmetic procedures in 2019, with over 2 million procedures (surgical and non-surgical). In this context, liposuction, a surgical procedure that removes localized fat from a specific part of the body, ranked first in the country, with over 230,000 procedures. Globally, in that same year, liposuction was the second most performed surgery in the world, second only (by a small margin) to silicone implants in female breasts (Portal Hospitais Brasil, 2021).

You do not need to be a great statistician to conduct a critical analysis of these numbers. Lipophobia is a torrent of discourse, with aesthetic content, that radiates through the most intimate bodily dissatisfactions. Our society not only has a profound aversion to fat, but it is also liposuctioned. While we want this fat to be suctioned out through surgical tubes, we also aspire to its eradication from the shareable world of social media.

Therefore, the aesthetics of smooth beauty, while not a creation of the digital world, remains a prevailing discourse, even grounded in biomedical power. Each year, the number of cosmetic procedures reaches record levels, especially among younger people (Jornal da USP, 2021). There is a direct link between the ideal of smooth skin, fostered on social media, and the resurgence of lipophobic discourse. This tension triggers a dizzying increase in cosmetic procedures (surgical and otherwise) and favors the emergence of psychological disorders and distress associated with body inadequacy or dysmorphia.

Lipophobia, psychological distress, and gamification on social media

The impacts of this aesthetic imperative are more profound and directly affect mental health and the entire public health system. Notably, in a society that proliferates lipophobic discourses based on the “moral duty” that demands a perfect, thin body, it is not surprising that psychological disorders are triggered precisely by aesthetic pressures.

Relatively old studies, such as that of Haines et al. (apudBragança, 2016), have already observed that, in both obese children and adults, excess body fat is associated, by “normal” people, with words such as “laziness”, “dirt”, “stupidity”, or “ugliness”.

In the systematic review conducted by Bragança (2016), a vertiginous increase in cases of vigorexia in Brazil was identified - a psychological disorder of muscular dysmorphia also called the “Adonis Complex”, characterized by an excessive fixation on obtaining degrees of definition and muscular development, even if the hypertrophic pattern is already shown to be above average (Assunção apud Bragança, 2002). The authors affirm that this process stems directly from the ideological domination of the media and the consumer market, which encourages the idealization of “body image through an unattainable illusion, where individuals will never feel satisfied with their own appearance” (Bragança, 2016).

Vigorexia, in this context, is related to the emergence of several comorbidities, such as anorexia, bulimia, food poisoning (due to the abusive use of supplements), chemical poisoning (due to the use of anabolic steroids), heart disease, musculoskeletal injuries, anxiety, and depression (Bragança, 2016).

Furthermore, as Fandiño et al. (2004) point out, there is a direct relationship between the increase in mood disorders in obese patients seeking weight-loss treatments. That is, psychological distress is greater in people who adopt a lipophobic discourse, thus seeking to conform to the aesthetic body standard, than in people who, in some way, accept living with excess body fat.

Thus, it is inevitable to conclude that the increased aesthetic pressures arising from the logic of interaction on social media will further contribute to the emergence of psychological distress among people who do not conform to this established, clearly lipophobic standard. This occurs because, for Byung-Chul Han (2019), one of the aspects of today’s society is the appropriation of play by capital, which he calls “gamification”:

To generate greater productivity, emotional capitalism also appropriates play, which would, in effect, be the other side of work. It “gamifies” the world of work and life. Play emotionalizes and even dramatizes work, thus creating greater motivation. Through the rapid sense of accomplishment and the reward system, play generates greater performance and income (Han, 2018, p. 69).

The gamification found in and encouraged by consumer society transforms the achievement of the perfect, thin body into a game. Homo ludens, therefore, seeks to join the game of “free will”, ignoring the fact that the lipophobic narrative already dictated the rules of the game. This man, in fact, upon accepting the game, does not even know its rules: he does not even engage in the critical debate about what, ultimately, such a perfect body would be.

Television programs that explore body gamification are still common: the goal (almost always) is to reduce body fat and overcome excess weight. Examples of these types of television programs include the segment “Medida Certa”, broadcast on Rede Globo’s Sunday program “Fantástico” (G1, 2022), and the American reality show “The Biggest Loser”, which even had a Brazilian version, called “Quem Perde, Ganha”, broadcast by Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT) (HZM, 2021). The exploitation of the game as a goal destroys its playful aspect: the body yields to aesthetic pressure only during the broadcast of the program, thus becoming a product, something to be sold as an underlying aesthetic symbol - a fat-free body. The pleasure of physical exercise fades into consumption, transforming into the desire for the goal and ignoring the enjoyment of the present. This appropriation, by capital, of the pleasure inherent in playfulness, drains the emancipatory power of the game and transforms it into consumption - that is, into an object of desire (Han, 2018).

Thus, the gamification of this body by capital brings with it an aesthetic pressure under the guise of playfulness. When we transpose the logic of gamification to social media, we observe that the game fuels a subliminal competition among internet users based on the shared world. After all, who will achieve the perfect body first? Gym routines, sports, and poses that strengthen muscles are replicated daily on social media. The comparative analysis of another’s body is constructed at a psychological level - body gamification is no longer found in television programs, but rather implied and contained in the social stratifications arising from networks. Social media has dramatically expanded the scope of gamification - it contains the game itself, the rules, and the comparative judgments that arise from an endless competition. A thousand eyes observe, day by day, the body’s evolution climbing another rung on the ladder of perfection: lipophobia wins.

This excessive game is abundantly and quickly replicated through interactions on social media, notably influenced by catchphrases such as “focus, strength, and faith”, which ultimately fuel a hidden race and competition among internet users in pursuit of weight loss (Lira, 2017). These interactions are purely emotional and do not involve judging others’ bodies. Comments are used both to reinforce anti-fatigue behaviors and to condemn a body that displays body fat above the socially acceptable average. People who choose to share a fat body are often targets of collective insults - shitstorms - which can undermine the mental health of those who seek to ignore the anti-fatigue discourse. As Han states:

Digital communication favors an immediate release of affection. Because of its temporality, digital communication conveys more affection than feelings. Shitstorms are currents of affection and are characteristic of digital communication (2018, p. 60).

Thus, the rapid and emotional spread of messages facilitated by social media could lead to an immeasurable increase in psychological distress related to lipophobia. Studies in this area are still lacking, but it is plausible that gamification processes exacerbated by the incessant competition and rapid exchange of information on social media will significantly contribute to the resurgence of symptoms already highlighted in the scientific literature related to lipophobia.

Final Considerations

This academic essay was never intended to establish a watershed in the identification of the relationship between lipophobia and social media, nor did it aim to objectively address and point to a solution to the demystification of body fat as a symbol of social negativity. Instead, it was limited to questioning and weaving together elements that might shed light on the foundations that underpin the preservation and proliferation of lipophobic discourse on social media, which, without dissent, are causes of psychological distress.

In any case, we understand that identifying the founding elements of aesthetic pressure - notably the fusion of the aesthetic theory of smooth-digital beauty, science-driven biomedical discourse, and gamification on social media - can significantly help direct and improve public health care practices. Delving deeper into the epistemological origins of this contemporary malaise stemming from the relentless pursuit of the perfect body - to be sculpted through the elimination of body fat - will undoubtedly shed light on pioneering measures to address it, both at the microand macrosocial levels.

We must not lose sight of the fact that lipophobia, associated with social media, attributes a negative label to body fat and carries devastating potential in terms of psychological distress. We are constantly urged to follow aesthetic standards, which are not limited to the body but also to the way of life in several spheres of social life. Thus, we understand that this work may be just the beginning of extensive discussions in other social spheres - gamification is not exclusive to lipophobic discourse.

To this end, it will be essential to draw on the studies and analyses of those currently proposing to identify these dystopian settings created by social media. We cannot ignore that we are increasingly subjected to a regime of extreme control provided by dataism and digital surveillance - in this context, our desires are often fabricated, not necessarily genuine. To what extent is individual desire influenced by the aesthetic pressure of the digital world and social media? Does the machinery of gamification generate psychological distress, imbuing us with desires we previously had no interest in?

Such questions represent theoretical provocations that demand further exploration and investigation in future studies. Until then, to remind us of the importance of critical thinking in the midst of a liposuctioned society, we highlight the subtle mantra, almost a prayer, that Byung-Chul Han (2018) presents as an antidote in his book: Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power - “Protect Me from What I Want”.

Data Availability Statement

The research data are available within the main text of the article.

References

• BARTHES, R. Encore lecorps Paris: Critique, 1982.
• BAUMAN, Z. Vida para o consumo: a transformação das pessoas em mercadoria. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 2008
• BRAGANÇA, V. Vigorexia: A patologia do culto ao corpo. Revista Uniaraguaia, v. 9, n. 9, p. 319-330, 2016.
• BRASIL é o top 1 mundial em número de cirurgias plásticas. Portal Hospitais Brasil, 4 out. 2021. Available from: https://portalhospitaisbrasil.com.br/brasil-e-o-top-1-mundial-em-numero-de-cirurgias-plasticas/ Accessed on: 30 jul. 2022.
  » https://portalhospitaisbrasil.com.br/brasil-e-o-top-1-mundial-em-numero-de-cirurgias-plasticas/
• BURKE, E. Uma investigação filosófica sobre a origem de nossas idéias do sublime e do belo Trad. Enid Abreu Dobránszky. Campinas, SP: Papirus, Editora da Universidade de Campinas, 1993.
• CANGUILHEM, G. O normal e o patológico Trad. de Mana Thereza Redig de Carvalho Barrocas. 6. ed. rev. Rio de Janeiro: Forense Universitária, 2009.
• COELHO, E.; FAGUNDES, T. Imagem corporal de mulheres de diferentes classes econômicas. Revista de Educação Física, UNESP, Rio Claro, v. 13, n. 2 (Supl. 1), p. S37-S43, 2007.
• COSTA, J. F. O vestígio e a aura: corpo e consumismo na moral do espetáculo. Rio de Janeiro: Garamond, 2004.
• CURSINO, A. Como sempre sair bem na selfie masculina. YouTube, 19 jan. 2020. Accessed on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdeqfI1HxVg Access in: 30 jul. 2022.
  » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdeqfI1HxVg
• DURKHEIM, E. Educação e sociologia 7. ed. São Paulo: Melhoramentos, 1978.
• FANDIÑO, J. et al. Cirurgia bariátrica: aspectos clínico-cirúrgicos e psiquiátricos. Revista de psiquiatria do Rio Grande do Sul, v. 26, p. 47-51, 2004.
• FISCHLER, C. Obeso benigno, obeso maligno. In: SANT’ANNA, Denise Bernuzzi (org.). Políticas do corpo São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, 1995.
• FOUCAULT, M. História da sexualidade I: A vontade de saber. Trad. Maria Thereza da Costa Albuquerque e J. A. Guilhon Albuquerque. Rio de Janeiro: Edições Graal, 1988.
• HAN, B. C. A Salvação do Belo. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2019.
• HAN, B. C. Psicopolítica: O Neoliberalismo e as Novas Técnicas de Poder. Belo Horizonte: Âyiné, 2018.
• LOURENÇO, T. Cresce em mais 140% o número de procedimentos estéticos em jovens. Jornal da USP, 11 jan. 2021. Available from: https://jornal.usp.br/atualidades/cresceu-mais-de-140-o-numero-de-procedimentos-esteticos-em-jovens-nos-ultimos-dez-anos/ Access in: 30 jul. 2022.
  » https://jornal.usp.br/atualidades/cresceu-mais-de-140-o-numero-de-procedimentos-esteticos-em-jovens-nos-ultimos-dez-anos/
• LE BRETON, D. Adeus ao corpo: antropologia e sociedade. Campinas: Papirus, 2003.
• LIPOVETSKY, G. A era do vazio: ensaios sobre o individualismo contemporâneo. Barueri, SP: Manole, 2005.
• LIPOVETSKY, G.; SERROY, J. A estetização do mundo: Viver na era do capitalismo artista. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015.
• LIRA, A. G. et al. Uso de redes sociais, influência da mídia e insatisfação com a imagem corporal de adolescentes brasileiras. Jornal Brasileiro de Psiquiatria, v. 66, p. 164-171, 2017.
• MARX, K.; ENGELS, F. A Ideologia Alemã 3. ed. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2007.
• MEDIDA Certa: relembre momentos deste quadro de sucesso do Fantástico. G1 - Fantástico, 10 fev. 2022. Available from: https://g1.globo.com/fantastico/noticia/2022/02/10/medida-certa-relembre-momentos-deste-quadro-de-sucesso-do-fantastico.ghtml Access in: 14 jan. 2024.
  » https://g1.globo.com/fantastico/noticia/2022/02/10/medida-certa-relembre-momentos-deste-quadro-de-sucesso-do-fantastico.ghtml
• MEIRELES, C.; FERREIRA, T. Veja em fotos: expert analisa o bumbum de J. Lo. com e sem Photoshop. Metrópoles, 22 jul 2022. Available from: https://www.metropoles.com/colunas/claudia-meireles/veja-em-fotos-expert-analisa-o-bumbum-de-j-lo-com-e-sem-photoshop Access in: 30 jul. 2022.
  » https://www.metropoles.com/colunas/claudia-meireles/veja-em-fotos-expert-analisa-o-bumbum-de-j-lo-com-e-sem-photoshop
• MONTEIRO, L. Como sair bem nas fotos: POSES, ÂNGULOS, TRUQUES... YouTube, 23 mar. 2019. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPeuG-hz0_Q Access in: 30 jul. 2022.
  » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPeuG-hz0_Q
• O BRASIL ultrapassou os Estados Unidos e se tornou o país que mais realiza cirurgias plásticas no mundo. SBPC BLOG, 2020. Available from: http://www2.cirurgiaplastica.org.br/blog/2020/02/13/lider-mundial/ Access in: 30 jul. 2022.
  » http://www2.cirurgiaplastica.org.br/blog/2020/02/13/lider-mundial/
• PIRANDELLO, L. Um, nenhum, cem mil 4. ed. São Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2015.
• SIBILIA, P. Autenticidade e Performance: a construção de si como personagem visível. In: OSWALD, M. L.; COUTO JUNIOR, D. R.; WORCMAN, K. (org.). Narrativas digitais, memórias e guarda Curitiba: Editora CRV, 2014.
• SIBILIA, P. O homem pós-orgânico: a alquimia dos corpos e das almas à luz das tecnologias digitais. Rio de Janeiro: Contraponto, 2015.
• SIBILIA, P. O show do eu - a intimidade como espetáculo. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 2008.
• SUDO, N.; LUZ, M. T. O gordo em pauta: representações do ser gordo em revistas semanais. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, v. 12, p. 1033-1040, 2007.
• “THE BIGGEST Loser”: análise do reality show mostra efeito do exercício no metabolismo e na perda de peso. HZM, 2021. Available from: https://hzm.com.br/blog/the-biggest-loser-analise-do-reality-show-mostra-efeito-do-exercicio-no-metabolismo-e-na-perda-de-peso/ Access in: 14 jan. 2024.
  » https://hzm.com.br/blog/the-biggest-loser-analise-do-reality-show-mostra-efeito-do-exercicio-no-metabolismo-e-na-perda-de-peso/
• VIANNA, M. V. O peso que não aparece na balança: sofrimento psíquico em uma sociedade obesogênica e lipofóbica. Polêm!ca, v. 18, n. 1, p. 94-110, jan.-mar. 2018. DOI: 10.12957/polemica.2018.36073.
  » https://doi.org/10.12957/polemica.2018.36073.

Edited by

• Editors:
  Ivia Maksud, Paulo Fraga

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  08 Dec 2025
• Date of issue
  2025

History

• Received
  01 Aug 2022
• Reviewed
  15 Feb 2024
• Accepted
  05 June 2025