There are two problems with the sea of thin bodies on the 2025 red carpets. You won’t like either.

This awards season there has been a shift in the images pouring out from red carpets that has been impossible to ignore.

Images filled with bodies that have shrunk and slimmed, noticeably detectable due to the fact that they are owned by famous beings whose every angle is documented ruthlessly via photos and film, making the changes to their bodies even more startling to witness.

Even if you are just a casual observer of awards season antics, it's clear to see that thinness has become more prevalent on red carpets during the 2025 season than publicists glaring at journalists for stepping away from the agreed-upon line of questioning or nude lips paired with a glimmering beige column gown.

Speaking of awards season, watch the moment Mikey Madison won Best Actress at the Oscars 2025. Post continues after video.

Of course, a thin body in Hollywood is no cause for surprise or whiplash. Smaller bodies, in an industry where, no matter what body type, have swung in and out of 'fashion' over the years, have always been the coveted ideal when you live in the city of dreams. Despite what the Instagram algorithms may lead you to believe, the entertainment industry has always maintained a silent but strong stance that 'thin is best'.

But this year, the curtain has slipped a little too much.

This year, the awards season red carpets felt devoid of even Hollywood's basic level of body diversity and many famous women's bodies looked noticeably smaller than they had even a few months prior.

This conversation will always lead to a vocal (and not incorrect) group of people who believe that bodies, particularly the bodies of women who already walk through the world with a heavy level of criticism and expectation placed upon their shoulders, should not be discussed at all.

And yes, one woman's body should never be plastered across the headlines, inviting the masses to jeer at and judge. But in the case of this year's red carpets, the shift in bodies is blinding and when it's a sea of seemingly enforced thin bodies in the industry that most has the power to influence how we think and feel about the world, and our own lives, then we need to have a bigger conversation about it.

Especially because the accusations and speculation around thin bodies have overshadowed the achievements that these awards shows are meant to celebrate.

If you need to be convinced of this fact, take a moment to think about the women whose names have been pulled into these headlines in recent days, accompanied by accusations about why ther bodies look smaller.

The woman who has been in the film industry for decades and was just nominated for her first Oscar, running on a platform built on self-acceptance and self-love.

The woman who is one of the most followed people on Instagram, who has helped so many people by sharing her own mental health struggles, who is now seen as a critically acclaimed actress along with running a billion-dollar business empire.

The actress and singer who starred in one of the most critically acclaimed and highest-grossing musicals of all time, with chart-topping albums to her name, and who this week was responsible for reducing the Oscars' audience to tears.

The woman who has become a powerhouse in the comedy space, going from being a beloved actress to a showrunner, producer and author, responsible for creating some of the most critically acclaimed and fan-favoured TV shows to ever cross our screens.

All these women (and many more) who this year have been reduced to conversations about how frail their arms look, commentary about their bones jutting out and whispers about how much their frames have shrunk.

Listen to Mamamia Out Loud where the hosts talk more about it. Post continues after audio.

Some of these comments are made out of anger, others out of concern, but many people have also started these conversations from a place of fear and battered down acceptance.

Feeling like the images of these women are the final nail in the coffin for body inclusivity, that the pressure to use weight-loss drugs has overshadowed everything else. A daunting realisation that even the most successful women, who were considered conventionally thin prior to this moment, must be feeling the pressure to shrink themselves down even further.

Of course, there should be no ridicule or judgement associated with using weight-loss drugs of any kind under medical guidance, but that isn't the concern even the loudest of critics are shouting about from the rooftop.

People's bodies can change for a number of reasons linked to both mental health and physical health, but that is a different conversion to the one that is playing out here. When the women who perform in our favourite TV shows, star in our favourite movies and sing our favourite songs all start to immediately look smaller in the same period of time, following decades of mounting pressure to be thin in the first place, it warrants a conversation about what the wider fallout will be.

The other glaring issue nestled within this conversation about the shrinking of women's bodies is that the anger directed at them is not solely hooked on a plea for more body diversity. In 2025 in Hollywood, there is now a 'wrong' way to be thin.

This is similar to a trap that plus-sized women have been confronted with for decades. Bigger bodies are allowed to slowly edge into the world of entertainment and fashion, but only if they present themselves as the 'right kind' of plus-sized woman.

Large breasts but a flat stomach. Full thighs but a chiselled jaw and hollowed cheeks. A Kim Kardashian-style bottom leading down to slim calves.

The few plus-sized bodies allowed into the spotlight have always been cursed to adhere to a strict formula. Now the critiques that have always existed in the shallows around skinny bodies have risen to the surface.

The world demanded these women slim themselves down, with the promise of more public adoration and more opportunities, and now a raging chorus is furious at the finished product they have been confronted with.All because their ideal version of thin doesn't include protruding collar bones, skeletal arms and hollowed necks.

Along with the reasonable caveats about not singling out and questioning specific people's bodies, continuing not to have this conversation leaves us all at a loss. There has to be a world in which we can acknowledge that many famous women took weight-loss medication not because it was medically required, but because they felt pressure to make their already conventionally thin bodies even smaller.

If this remains a conversation we are only allowed to have in whispers, then a series of glaring problems will continue to grow with the speed of weeds in an untended flower bed.

If there is suddenly a choice to be thin (albeit with a series of health and wealth issues attached in some capacity), then what becomes of the women who still live in bigger bodies, who will watch their already small slices of inclusion be diced down to fine powder? What becomes of the already conventionally thin women, who will forever be forced to walk a tightrope between desirable and repulsive? Always following an idealised version of 'thin' that seems plucked from a classic Disney movie.

There are problems with the sea of thin bodies that have circulated at the 2025 awards shows, and they will not be solved by sweeping them under the red carpet.

Laura Brodnik is Mamamia's Head of Entertainment and host of The Spill podcast. You can follow her on Instagram here for more entertainment news and recommendations.

Read more from our Oscars 2025 recap:

• Why the 2025 Oscars will be the most controversial ceremony of all time.

• All the best looks from the 2025 Oscars Red Carpet.

• How do you sit down in these dresses? A very serious investigation.

Featured image: Getty/Mamamia.