Since 2021, Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Runway Show has aimed to include “women of all sizes, ages and races” in its showcase of summer styles.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.But for some models, this year’s event — streaming Tuesday on Hulu and Disney+ — highlighted a less glamorous reality: Women still can’t escape criticism of their bodies, even on a runway designed to celebrate them.“I feel like for so long I was so afraid to talk about my body, my weight loss surgery, anything relating to health ...
because I’ve become so afraid of what people say online or think of me,” influencer Remi Bader said in a recent Instagram video, responding to a wave of negative comments about her Sports Illustrated runway look.“At this point, I can’t win.” While celebrities are hardly immune to scrutiny, the recent online discourse around bodies has grown more fraught as culture has shifted away from the body-positivity movement that dominated the 2010s.
The change coincides with declining size inclusivity on runways, rising GLP-1 use and continued commentary on stars’ red-carpet appearances.Olympian Ilona Maher and reality TV star Bethenny Frankel, who also walked in the SI runway show, echoed Bader’s sentiment after facing a wave of appearance-related criticism when the event was teased on social media.“Is it unflattering, or is it just a bigger body existing in a suit?” Maher said in a social media video, responding to commenters who described her look as “not very flattering.”“If you got a body, you got a bikini body,” Maher added.Frankel, a “The Real Housewives of New York” alum, also addressed her followers directly about their critiques of her decision to be in the show.“So I guess we have to discuss what I looked like on that runway, because the internet is so fascinated with my age, my weight, my face, my hair,” she said in an Instagram video.She l...