New weight-loss drugs meet old biases against fatness, challenging recent gains in body positivity

On Feb. 18, 2025, the Clayman Institute was privileged to host author and weight-based discrimination expert Virgie Tovar and the award-winning beauty reporter Jessica DeFino for “Body Talk: Fatphobia in the Age of Ozempic,” a discussion on how the politics of fatness and the body have been challenged by the introduction of GLP-1 agonist drugs. 

Charting the rise of the fat liberation movement in the early aughts and its increasing visibility in the 2010s, Tovar made an impassioned case for a return to principles of body positivity and fat dignity in the face of a revanchist weight loss industry that has falsely claimed that the new class of semaglutide drugs has the potential to eliminate obesity altogether. Fatness, Tovar argued, should be seen as a morally neutral feature of human diversity, and those in fat bodies should not be compelled to change their size or appearance in order to access health care, employment, or public respect. 

DeFino, meanwhile, added context to this history, charting how the wellness and beauty industries coopted body positivity in the 2010s to rebrand weight loss as self care, and how that era’s trend of embracing a range of body sizes led the industry to focus new marketing attention on skincare and anti-aging products – what DeFino characterized as an “above the chin” approach to monetizing women’s physical insecurities. 

The new age of Ozempic, the panelists warned, could lead to a widespread regression in body image, with the rise of weight loss medications encouraging a revived moralism regarding fatness and thinness. DeFino drew parallels with Botox – another medication that turned out to have aesthetic side effects – and the ways in which the two drugs “use systems of discrimination to justify their existence, fatphobia for Ozempic and ageism for Botox, and both say you can avoid being discriminated against if you just look the right way.”

As the discussion progressed, the panelists moved from considering the recent history of body politics and fatphobia to discussing the nature of anti-fat bias itself. DeFino discussed what she termed “cosmetic inflation” – the increasing pressures on consumers, primarily women, to engage in more and more strenuous, laborious, and expensive procedures and products as standards for their physical appearance continually increase. The panel also discussed the ways that fatphobia, body policing, and the moralization of food are often perpetrated by those who have been victimized by them. The panelists discussed fatphobia in women and its role in shaping mother-daughter relationships – a reminder that one of the foundational tools for expanding acceptance and respect to people in different bodies is having patience and compassion for ourselves.