--- title: Ozempic Exposed the Cracks in the Body Positivity Movement description: Catherine Mhloyi unpacks our willingness to make a potentially life-saving medication scarce in the name of self-love. canonical: https://time.com/6263689/ozempic-cracks-body-positivity/ author: Catherine Mhloyi article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-03-22T11:25:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:04.230Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Ozempic Exposed the Cracks in the Body Positivity Movement og:description: Catherine Mhloyi unpacks our willingness to make a potentially life-saving medication scarce in the name of self-love. og:url: https://time.com/6263689/ozempic-cracks-body-positivity/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfae014f7bafa0a0/698a3b4bcabb1d5ed1e513cb/ozempic-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: ozempic og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ozempic Exposed the Cracks in the Body Positivity Movement twitter:description: Catherine Mhloyi unpacks our willingness to make a potentially life-saving medication scarce in the name of self-love. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfae014f7bafa0a0/698a3b4bcabb1d5ed1e513cb/ozempic-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- # Ozempic Exposed the Cracks in the Body Positivity Movement > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=b5fa159c-191d-4ce5-a68b-f86b1e283fcb&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Sorry, But You Might Be Apologizing the Wrong Way [Watch (HLS stream): Sorry, But You Might Be Apologizing the Wrong Way](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uOTOC0DK.m3u8) (4:22)  _Published 2023-03-22. Marjorie Ingall, co-author of "Sorry, Sorry, Sorry," describes how and how not to apologize the right way._ Mar 22, 2023 11:25 AM UTC  illustration by Katie Kalupson for TIME by [Catherine Mhloyi](https://time.com/author/catherine-mhloyi/) ## Catherine Mhloyi Mar 22, 2023 11:25 AM UTC By now, we’re all familiar with the newfound popularity of Ozempic, a drug created to help manage type 2 diabetes, being used as the new miracle weight loss drug. [Recent studies](https://www.poison.org/articles/can-ozempic-help-me-lose-weight#:~:text=In%20a%2068%2Dweek%20trial,risk%20factors%20for%20heart%20disease.) have shown that the active ingredient in Ozempic, semaglutide, can cause weight loss and in 2021, the FDA [approved](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/well/ozempic-diabetes-weight-loss.html) a drug with a higher dose of semaglutide to treat “obesity.” However, the popularity of this new drug is increasing the weight of the pressure to pursue thinness. The return of low-rise jeans and Kim Kardashian shrinking her BBL were some of the first harbingers of the reversion back to a time when only our phones were allowed to be “thick.” It’s clear that the unlearning and undoing of a [century’s worth](https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=shas%5Fhonors) of harm by the rise of the “body positivity movement” is regarded as just another trend. I was born on the heels of Generation Y, so my mind and body developed during the [‘Got Milk?’ propaganda](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kids-who-got-milk-may-not-get-fat/) of the early 2000s. Truth be told, if Ozempic was introduced when I was growing up, I probably would’ve been eager to get my hands on some myself. I was raised—even in an African immigrant household—to believe that the worst thing you could possibly be is fat. I grew up wondering if the taste of Slim Fast would make me diminish and dance like the women in the [commercials](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG3GG6hTCNE). I lusted after those dry, unappetizing Weight Watchers pastries because I craved the feeling of eating chocolate without immediately feeling guilty afterward. I felt the disappointment in my mother’s gaze whenever she bought me clothes where the tag had double digits. I longed for a weight loss version of a get-rich-quick scheme to make the numbers go back down. Just 15 years ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find any dissenting voices concerned about these weight loss fads to make the impressionable masses shrink instantly. So what’s changed? In the past 10 years, there has been more mainstream recognition of many social justice issues, likely aided by the egalitarianism of social media. One of many issues brought to the forefront is the widely-accepted marginalization of fat people. For the first time, fat people had the power and the platform to be visible on our own terms, tell our own stories, and call for the advancement of body positivity. --- ### More from TIME --- The body-positive movement’s origins have always been political. The [movement](https://www.joyproject.org/the-black-femme-history-of-the-body-positive-fat-liberation-movement/) was started by fat Black women in the ‘60s and largely addressed the fact that fatphobia is rooted in [anti-Black racism](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/893006538). However, despite Black women being targets of [medical fatphobia](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-racist-roots-of-fighting-obesity2/) as well as their looks being used to [undermine their leadership](http://www.eatingdisorderscoalition.ca/blog/2021/11/26/the-forgotten-origins-of-the-body-positivity-movement) in the women’s rights and civil rights movements, the fat acceptance groups that followed also chose to center whiteness and undermine Black women’s contributions. And the reason why it’s so easy for people to hop on the Ozempic train is that the mainstream commodification of the body-positive movement is as flavorless and diluted as the low-fat diet regimens of yesteryear. **_Read more:_**[_What the Ozempic Obsession Misses About Food and Health_](https://time.com/6256680/ozempic-obsession-weight-loss-food-health/) Before 2014, I had never considered fatness as an identity. Even though my own experiences with eating disorders proved the exact opposite, I wholly believed that fatness was a choice and something separate from one’s self—a skintight suit I’d spend the rest of my life shedding. Learning about the pillars of the body-positive movement helped me unlearn these harmful ideas that perpetuated my internalized fatphobia and fatphobia towards those larger than me. At the time, I thought this process of unlearning was an obvious prerequisite for _anyone_ to consider themselves a participant in the movement. But the internet doesn’t require any proof of internal work for you to use #bodyposi with a photo of yourself. Millennials experienced the most profound shift from the Kate-Mossian beauty standard that dominated all media, to a steady increase in body-diverse representation. As warm and fuzzy as it felt in the beginning, to see a lingerie commercial featuring women with (and without) hips, thighs, and tummies freely [dancing around in their underwear](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/celebrate-you), the hyper focus on representation shifted the conversation away from liberation to a much more palatable discourse surrounding self-love. After all, the movement was originally created to disrupt the social order and dismantle the systems that keep white, thin, able-bodied people in power. The easiest way to undermine that effort and, yet again, center whiteness was to extract a by-product of years of marginalization that everyone (especially non-cis and non-male) can relate to and make that aspect a nameless and faceless enemy that is less threatening to the status quo: a negative self-image. But what’s wrong with focusing on self-love? Well, for one, self-love is clearly absent of politic. Self-love is what has been used to justify the erasure of the most marginalized bodies in favor of size-8-to-12 white women being pushed to the forefront. Self-love has equated “feeling bad about your body” with being marginalized because of it. Anyone who tries to speak out in opposition to the lack of radicalism is quickly silenced, being told that body positivity is for everyone because everyone has access to the feeling of insecurity. The fact is that insecurity is rooted in society’s discouragement of having any racialized features—and this includes fatness. Anything can be done in the name of self-love, and the selves that society loves have the power to cause harm without reproach. Dangerous diets and surgeries are bought and sold in pursuit of self-love. How else do we explain the willingness to create scarcity of a potentially life-saving medication in pursuit of vanity? Fatphobia is already inherently ableist, but watching the indifference towards making a drug (that is meant to assist with the very disease that makes society scorn fat people) be made inaccessible to those who need it in real time has further underlined the fact that fake concerns for public health is nothing more than a tactic meant to disappear anyone that they deem undesirable. For self-love in no way discourages the suffering of others. I count myself both lucky and unlucky that I am not easily swayed by idle affirmations. Of course, in my journey, I have been seduced by the adorable illustrations with positive platitudes attached to them that amount to some version of “love yourself.” But that was never enough to sway me. Why should I love myself when the world treats fat people like second-class citizens? Why should I love myself instead of trying harder to be a version of myself that the rest of the world would encourage me to love? My skepticism forced me to dig deeper. My self-love is an act of defiance because the only reason I was taught to hate myself was to uphold white supremacy. I was taught to hate myself so that other people could profit from it. I was taught to blame myself for my own marginalization instead of working to dismantle the systems that have placed me there. And more important than that, it’s not just about _me_. Our reliance on the “love yourself” and the mainstream body-positive ideology has made the issue of fatphobia an individual battle and in that, there is no solidarity. Without community, we are easily divided and conquered. The Ozempic craze is a swift wind that has revealed that we’ve spent the past decade building a house of cards. We need a new way to think about body positivity now more than ever. The mainstream idea of body positivity threatens the fight for fat liberation, as we face yet another massive push for fat elimination. This is what happens when a movement for liberation is reduced to something as fickle as women dancing in commercials. ## Transcript The reason why it's so hard to apologize is because we are designed to see ourselves as the hero of Our Own Story. And when we do a bad thing, we resolved that cognitive dissonance by deciding, we didn't do the bad thing. So being brave and being self-aware and you know, taking charge and saying you don't have to do the bad thing and I'm going to apologize for it, makes you feel like an absolute superhero. I'm sorry, apologizing is a habit like any other habit and just like you learn to tie your shoes. Just like you learn to brush your teeth. You can learn to become a good apologizer. We have a very easy six and a half. Step plan. Number one, use the words, I'm sorry, or I apologize. Not, I regret not. I'd like to apologize. No, say those exact words number to say what you did, don't apologize for the situation or what happened last week, you have to name your sin. Number three is so that you understand why it was bad, why? It was hurtful number for is don't make excuses, explain as much as you need to, but do not let that sort of slip into making excuses. Number five is, say what steps are taken to ensure that this doesn't happen? Again, number six is if you can make reparations in some way, whether that's paying for the dry cleaning, or making the entire staff undergo diversity, and equity, and inclusion training to that. And six and a half is listen, you have to let the other person have their say, you don't need all six and a half steps forever. Situation. If you just step on someone's foot, that's a quick I'm sorry and you move on different situations call for different apology approach. Protocols, if something is quick, a text is a great way to do it or just to get person. If something is a more serious offense, email is a good way to do it. And if you really screwed up, there is something very powerful about a stamp and paper and nice stationery. The one thing you have to be sure, when you are apologizing, someone you have to give them an out. You do not want somebody to feel trapped by you. If they don't, especially if you did something really bad, do not trap them in their car. You know, they need an Escape Route, and you also have to consider does that person want to hear from you, especially if your sin is so profound, you have to put their feelings in front of yours, and that means, you may have to just live with the bad thing that you did, if they never want to hear from you again. An an apology is they regret? They don't say they're sorry or they apologize if I regret something that's about how I feel. A good apology is how the other person feels and what's the other person's emotions front center, about apology or non-apology is also gaslighting. It can be I'm sorry I forgot that you are so delicate and such a snowflake and that you have no sense of humor and that you know, you don't really understand how the Work World works and you do all of those kinds of things that make you question. Whether you're crazy for wanting, the apology in the first place, an an apology does not take responsibility research on apology and forgiveness shows that the thing that people want the most is for the person who wronged them to understand that they did to say that they did and say how this isn't going to happen again. If you're not sorry and you apologize, you're almost always going to apologize badly and a bad apology is worse than no apology. A good apology does so much. It builds Bridges and heals wounds. It's also really hard. So we say apologizing is a courageous act because we are overcoming all of our own animal instincts, and all of our own self protectiveness when we do it. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6263689/ozempic-cracks-body-positivity/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6263689/ozempic-cracks-body-positivity/"},"headline":"Ozempic Exposed the Cracks in the Body Positivity Movement","datePublished":"2023-03-22T11:25:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:06:04.230Z","description":"Catherine Mhloyi unpacks our willingness to make a potentially life-saving medication scarce in the name of self-love.","url":"https://time.com/6263689/ozempic-cracks-body-positivity/","keywords":["health","freelance"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Catherine Mhloyi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/catherine-mhloyi/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health/","name":"health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6263689/ozempic-cracks-body-positivity/","name":"Ozempic Exposed the Cracks in the Body Positivity Movement"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Sorry, But You Might Be Apologizing the Wrong Way","description":"Marjorie Ingall, co-author of \"Sorry, Sorry, Sorry,\" describes how and how not to apologize the right way.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uOTOC0DK/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-03-22T18:56:32.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uOTOC0DK.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6263689/ozempic-cracks-body-positivity/","duration":"PT4M22S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6263689/ozempic-cracks-body-positivity/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```