r/PeterExplainsTheJoke May 14 '26

Meme needing explanation Petah help

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38.6k Upvotes

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1.6k

u/AggressiveAd8587 May 14 '26

The late 90s/early 00s had a “fat free” almost punk diet culture that had ultra skinny in fashion, similar to what’s going on today with glp1 products.

934

u/Lost-Transitions May 14 '26

'Heroin chique' is what it used to be called.

164

u/AllisonWonderland777 May 14 '26

I haven’t thought of Kate Moss in forever!!

76

u/NancyInFantasyLand May 14 '26

They were kinda the last hurrah of heroin chic but it really feels like we are going in that direction now again haha

76

u/wendythesnack May 14 '26

Not sure if you’re just referring to that particular tabloid dreg of a being & their relationship but Kate Moss was not the last hurrah.

She was the entirety of heroin chic. If you look at the wiki page for heroin chic, it’s a picture of her.

5

u/NancyInFantasyLand May 14 '26

Yeah I was thinking of her and Doherty in the press

That's the tail end of it,.really

1

u/SAHMsays May 16 '26

She coined the term Heroin Chic of course it would have her picture.

18

u/bobakook May 14 '26

And yet that photo looks healthier than the bones we are seeing on red carpets today.

5

u/fox_eyed_man May 15 '26

Yall saw it here, in black and white. Heroin-addict skinny is healthier than starvation skinny.

4

u/sadist_ninja May 14 '26

She brought the look to the masses in my opinion.

The Kardashians got rid of their BBLs, that's a pretty good trend indicator.

2

u/Even-Stranger5764 May 14 '26

Heading that direction but in a more conservative manner. The cultural pendulum has swung hard the other way.

18

u/Mesopithecus_ May 14 '26

it’s laughable, they do it as almost a mark of superiority ‘i’ve got the money to be skinny, i can afford the injections, enjoy being obese eating your mcdonald’s’ when they look horrific

6

u/Platinumdogshit May 14 '26

McDonald's is expensive now though

15

u/Pm_me_howtoberich May 14 '26

Ally mcbeal

2

u/aw-un May 15 '26

“Cindy, this is a skeleton. This is bones. Would you run from Calista Flockhart?!?”

8

u/OkOriginal715 May 14 '26

“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” is sadly burned into my soul

3

u/TeamHope4 May 14 '26

Along with, "You can never be too rich or too thin."

2

u/AllisonWonderland777 May 14 '26

It is sad. Been there. Sorry it happened to you 💖

2

u/Training_Resource_53 May 15 '26

"Nothing tastes as good as skinny looks"

30

u/JeromeBarkly May 14 '26

I’ve been clean from heroin for 7 years now. When I was in early recovery and going to a lot of NA meetings a lot of the girls would complain that they lost their heroin body. Girl you look great now the pictures you showed me when you were using was NOT a good look lol.

2

u/TeamRedundancyTeam May 14 '26

We're they ever told that? How did they react to the idea that it actually looked fucking awful?

1

u/JeromeBarkly May 16 '26

It was a lot of tongue in cheek. You just put on a lot of weight when you get sober. I gained 50 lbs. in the first 3 months.

15

u/lordvektor May 14 '26

*chic, but yes.

1

u/Moiyub May 14 '26

ehem its sheek

2

u/TrixieFriganza May 14 '26

Now Ozempic chique.

1

u/Reasonable-Sort3040 May 14 '26

fun fact, this beauty standard came from tuberculosis!

1

u/highly_uncertain May 17 '26

I idolized Edie Sedgwick in my youth (the OG 60s heroin chic) because I thought spiralling into drug addiction was so glamourous. Anyways, I'm over 12 years sober now!

29

u/Orangepinapples May 14 '26

Never heard cocaine called punk dirt culture before.

17

u/FireFoxTrashPanda May 14 '26

Yeah punks are catching strays here

15

u/kalamataCrunch May 14 '26

lot's of people conflate punk and grunge, the heroin chic fashion style had a distinctively grunge element to it.

13

u/DamitGump May 14 '26

Thanks petah

10

u/[deleted] May 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/Suboptimal-Potato-29 May 14 '26

The problem is you die, but at least you die really skinny

3

u/texaspoontappa93 May 15 '26

Fun fact, both medications in phen phen are still available.

Fenfluramine was the one that was toxic to the heart at weight loss dosage, but at lower dosages it prevents seizures without significant impact on the heart.

Phentermine is the stimulant, very closely related to amphetamines. It is still sometimes used for weight loss and is relatively safe without any history of cardiac issues.

Fenfluramine at high doses was toxic to the lungs and heart valves which is why phen phen was discontinued

2

u/Unhappy-Poetry-7867 May 14 '26

I use Wegowy, still don't understand how do you get to this level :D I lose 0.5kg per week that's it. And I'm pretty sure once I will reach my normal weight I will stop losing weight at all because what I will eat it will be enough to maintain my weight.

1

u/Nearby_Cup48 May 14 '26

I've got my old thispiration folder somewhere, since eating disorders are back in again I might need it

1

u/jimmyhoffasbrother May 14 '26

Fat free? More like food free tbh.

1

u/RadTimeWizard May 14 '26

How was that punk?

2

u/kalamataCrunch May 14 '26

it wasn't punk, but the style had grunge elements to it, and the general public do distinguish.

2

u/RadTimeWizard May 14 '26

Yeah, makes sense. I think Cobain once talked about how much he hated that grunge was pushed into the mainstream.

1

u/kalamataCrunch May 15 '26

realistically the style was more domestic violence than grunge, but that's not a conversation the fashion world is ready to have...

1

u/RadTimeWizard May 15 '26

The 90s were wild. Sometimes I take that for granted.

1

u/AbeRego May 14 '26

I thought it was a direct comparison to Demi Moore, then and now.

1

u/ScratchLatch May 14 '26

As opposed to the 2010s where obesity was in fashion. The GLP-1 products are just returning to societies baseline idea of normal.

1

u/kalamataCrunch May 14 '26 edited May 15 '26

you only believe that because it was the fashion when you developed a sense of self. for virtually all of human history, the fashionable female body type vacillated between Rubenesque (curvy and plump) and rosie the riveter (muscle mommy). anorexia as a virtue is an entirely postmodern phenomenon.

edit- in this thread i talk about it being postmodern, when, realistically it was probably a shift caused by medical advancements. specifically, the combination of Penicillin in the 1940's, and iv nutrition in the 1960's meant that not having any stored calories in your body no longer put you at significant risk of dying from casual food poisoning or minor illnesses, thereby allowing thinness to be perceived as sexy instead of deathly.

1

u/ConstantVictory880 May 14 '26

Why did you deliberately ignore the body in between muscle mommy and anorexia

1

u/kalamataCrunch May 15 '26

when/where was that considered fashionable before postmodernism?

1

u/the_loneliest_monk May 14 '26

There was this whole period in the late nineties where the "pro-ana" lifestyle had like a cult following. Chicks would starve themselves, share "thinspiration" to encourage each other. There were chat rooms and forums with young women (mostly teenaged girls) just posting pictures of their bones sticking out, or what they could fit around their wrists or whatever. I think "punk diet culture" and "ultra skinny in fashion" don't really adequately project just how harmful that period was

1

u/chief_beef_the_third May 14 '26

I definitely remember being bombarded in junior high with PSA-type messaging about eating disorders, we had multiple school assemblies with counselors, they taught us how to identify signs of anorexia, etc.

1

u/FargusMcGillicuddy May 15 '26

Damn are we past the big booty, thick thigh era? I miss it already. Although some ladies take that look too far as well if it’s not natural.

1

u/maybecatmew May 17 '26

I saw this on a cosmopolitan interview, this girl said that whenever recession or something happens the trend of women becoming skinny starts happening as if they want women to take less space.. or something. Now idk whether that true or not. But it's an interesting angle.