A brand new TikTok development has sparked discussions about physique picture and the usually racist and classist biases embedded in magnificence requirements. The development includes a viral filter that alters customers’ appearances to make them look both bigger or thinner. Most of the movies characteristic thinner individuals reacting with laughter when the filter makes them seem larger, whereas others present bigger individuals utilizing the slimming impact as “motivation.” These movies are sometimes set to Doechii’s track “Nervousness.”
It is yet one more instance of AI-driven instruments being utilized in methods that may reinforce dangerous magnificence beliefs — and it simply sort of sucks.
Following widespread criticism for selling physique shaming, the filter was faraway from the platform. It initially appeared in CapCut, a video-editing app owned by TikTok. Whereas TikTok advised CNET that it had removed the template from CapCut, comparable variations of the filter are nonetheless accessible. The corporate additionally advised the BBC that it was reviewing videos featuring the effect, making them ineligible for advice, and blocking them from teen accounts.
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If you happen to seek for “chubby filter,” you received’t get any outcomes, however customers have discovered methods round this by trying to find phrases like “chunky filter.” In response to CNET, the filter now features a disclaimer that reads: “You’re greater than your weight. If you happen to or somebody you recognize has questions on physique picture, meals, or train — it is very important know that assistance is on the market and you aren’t alone. If you happen to really feel snug, you’ll be able to speak in confidence to somebody you belief or try the assets beneath. Please bear in mind to handle yourselves and one another.” Nonetheless, Mashable didn’t see this disclaimer.
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Author Rebecca Shaw summed up the issue in a publish on X, commenting, “There’s an amaaazing new development on TikTok the place skinny ladies use a filter to turn into ‘chubby’ and snigger on the outcomes and everybody else laughs and it’s sooooooo humorous and we undoubtedly aren’t spiraling again all the way down to pro-ana, death-to-fats period that damages each younger girl.”
As The Cut notes, this sort of fats shaming is nothing new — however that doesn’t make it any much less dangerous.
