As affirmation ideology takes a backseat to reality and health concerns, a notable plus-size model with a personal stake in bigger bodies deems pharmaceutical breakthroughs a “smack in the face” to her career.
Between the scary skeletal looks of some celebrities and those clinging to the body positivity mantra for people to “be who they want to be,” there are those who’ve acknowledged risks to their health, continued to struggle with weight loss, and found success with GLP-1s. Now, a year after partnering with JCPenney for a namesake collection of plus-size fashion, supermodel Ashley Graham is griping about the “really disheartening” pendulum swing away from claiming obesity should be accepted.
During a recent interview with Marie Claire, the 38-year-old model, entrepreneur, and mother of three covered a range of topics, including pharmaceutical interventions for weight loss, as the magazine’s Entertainment Director, Neha Prakash, wrote after Graham “helped push an industry long defined by exclusion toward something more expansive… Now, in an era of GLP-1s and reports that runway bodies are shrinking once again, that progress feels precarious.”
“It’s really disheartening,” said the model. “There was a pendulum that swung that was so body acceptance, positivity, everybody be who they want to be. And now it’s going back this whole opposite way that feels like a smack in the face to the women who have felt they’ve had a voice.”
Acknowledging that fashion “goes with the times–and GLP-1s are a time,” Graham went on, “I know that there are and there’s gonna still be women who are considered plus size forever.”
“This drug isn’t going to wipe out a whole statistic of women,” further stated the model who participated in the “woke comeback” of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show after a six-year hiatus.
Graham’s position appeared to align with that of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), which, as previously reported, came out against weight loss aids over how they allegedly “stigmatize” obesity.
National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance not keen on popular weight-loss drugs https://t.co/hb9jP2Z3mo via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) August 16, 2025
“Why would I stop now, and why would I get angry about the work I’ve done?… I put my head down, and I focus on the women we’ve built the community with,” insisted the model as the White House announced a dramatic price reduction for GLP-1s. “There’s so many [plus size influencers and creators]…they’re all over the place with their sizes and their proportions and how they look and how they’re relatable. And to me, that’s the coolest part about all of this. Seeing that these girls, who were raised on social media at such a young age, are now coming in and they have a platform to say to the younger generation, ‘Be yourself, be who you want to be. If you have cellulite, who cares?'”
The 2025 announcement of her partnership with JCPenney indicated that 68% of American women wear clothes size 14 or above, using descriptors like “curvy” and “full-figured.” Now with her bottom line at stake, Graham spoke to the importance of continued advocacy “for women of all shapes, all sizes, and all backgrounds to have clothes that fit…to have people who don’t have confidence, have confidence in themselves.”
“I also don’t think that my community is just curvy women. I think it’s all kinds of women because, really, confidence at the end of the day, it doesn’t discriminate,” she argued while social media reactions decried the “messaging campaign designed to facilitate monetization of the obesity crisis.”
Because obesity was never “positive”. Just liberals playing their never ending word games.
— Donna Fanabla (@Annod2125) May 4, 2026
She wants you to be positively radiant in your coffin.
— Captain Keystone (@CKeystone65930) May 4, 2026
I mean what a horrible thing for people to add years to their life, fight back against diabetes and obesity…. We should prioritize making Ashley feel good about herself. Smdh.
— Jonathan Bartholomew (@jonathan13601) May 4, 2026
Makes perfect sense when you understand that the “body positivity movement” was just a messaging campaign designed to facilitate monetization of the obesity crisis.
— AJ Kay (@AJKayWriter) May 4, 2026
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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