On the heels of this year’s Met Gala, it’s hard to ignore the message that the red carpet increasingly amplifies: smaller bodies are in. Group chats everywhere are lighting up with the question “Ozempic or not?” about our favorite stars, and even the celebs we have long admired for their curves and atypical (for Hollywood) figures seem to be falling into the ultra-skinny trap. Adding to the anxiety are online spaces, where timelines are littered with recommendations to choose disordered eating over balanced, nutritious approaches to health and fitness. Add to this the rising availability of GLP-1s like Ozempic, and suddenly it seems like everyone is losing more weight than ever before, faster than ever before.

As a woman, it sometimes feels like the standard is the less body the better, and avoiding representations of what women’s bodies “should” look like seems impossible. But unrealistic ideals and dark corners of the internet only give a limited view of how women are choosing to show up in (and for) their bodies. Against this backdrop of diminishment, another movement has emerged—one where muscle isn’t just functional, but aspirational. What if our strength could be the ultimate status symbol? What if the most luxurious accessory isn’t something you buy, but something you build?

Popular athletes and actresses with defined muscles stand out in celebrity circles, and watching them unabashedly flaunt their strength and grace is inspiring. Like Katy O’Brian, whose performance as a bodybuilder in last year’s Love Lies Bleeding required her powerful build. Or Sydney Sweeney, who proudly bulked up for her forthcoming role as boxer Christy Martin (and celebrated her strength in the faces of obsessive body observers everywhere). Olympic medalist and rugby player Ilona Maher, while facing intense body-shaming from internet critics, loudly and gladly rejects the body standards prescribed to her. She also showed us that strength is grace on Dancing with the Stars, where she made it all the way to the finale. More and more, these women and others set an example for girls and women everywhere: We do not have to shrink our size or power because it makes others uncomfortable.

But it’s not just celebrities—the vibrant, growing community of powerlifting and strength-training women also deserve our attention and admiration. Many post their progress online, and the comment sections celebrate their growth and progress and follow along for advice and help. Casey Johnston, a writer and lifter, flips food and body standards as she documents her own strength training progress, and she educates readers on everything gym and fitness, from how to act normal in the gym to how to eat like a big, beautiful horse. This network of women highlights the growing popularity of lifting while welcoming other women into the fold and should encourage us all to celebrate strength and muscle.

The prevalence of GLP-1s like Ozempic, however, reinforces that we are in an era of quick-fix optimization. While these medications can be right for some people, it’s important to take into account how they function and what other options might be. GLP-1s work in part by triggering your body’s production of insulin and lowering glucose levels (both of which, by the way, are benefits of muscle). Similarly to common crash diet tactics (think: juice cleanse, counting almonds), these medications cause people to drastically restrict caloric intake and can therefore make it hard to gain or even maintain muscle. And although continued strength training can reportedly prevent the loss of muscle that these drugs are so infamous for, it’s harder to work out and harder to build muscle if we aren’t fueling ourselves with enough food and calories. Period.

Muscles are a marvel because of what they do for our bodies and minds. Muscles are a flex because of what they require of us to create. Muscles are and always will be the hottest accessory because they look good with everything. Muscles are the ultimate luxury item: the physical manifestation of hard work, consistency, and commitment, an expression of time and focus that we dedicate to crafting them.

It’s time to embrace and enjoy the strength and grace that muscles enable. To recommit to standing tall in our power, rejecting outdated standards of womanhood, and to celebrate the space that muscles empower us to take up.

Of all the incredible things they do, Tsui has one clear favorite: “Muscles are literally the stuff that moves us through this world,” she says. “So this is very existential but: how do I enjoy the limited time I have as a human being on this planet? Having muscles lets us do that.”

Reset Your Algo:

What we feed TikTok and Instagram determines what we see. Follow these accounts to reset your algorithm and start seeing examples of powerful women who prioritize strength:

• @girlswhopowerlift

• @swolewoman

• @togethxr

• @thiswomanlifts

• @shereinabdelhady (Tik Tok)

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