From high BMI to the GLP-1 look': how weight-loss jabs are changing the face of beauty

Mona Lisa is widely admired for her enigmatic smile, and some experts claim she was seriously overweight. Growing use of weight-loss jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro may be changing perceptions of artistic beauty. Contemporary art already reflects shifting aesthetics, body image, and health, including depictions of cosmetic surgery. Researchers believe increased GLP-1 use could lead future artworks to portray very thin people with gaunt faces who lost weight rapidly. Prof Rosalind Gill says humans can perceive beauty in many kinds of faces and bodies, and hollowed-out features are becoming desirable, similar to earlier beauty ideals like heroin chic and redefined iconic images. Consumer culture may further accelerate a new look becoming a cultural ideal reflected in art.

"While GLP-1 face is often regarded negatively, humans have the capacity to perceive beauty in all kinds of faces and bodies, and features of this hollowed-out look are definitely becoming desirable in a similar way to heroin chic' in the 1990s and, before that, the resignification of certain iconic images of people with Aids as beauty ideals."

"Contemporary art often portrays trends in aesthetics, body image and health lots of painters and photographers have made art featuring cosmetic surgery, for example. But researchers believe the exponential growth in use of weight-loss jabs is changing our perception of beauty today, with future artworks likely to depict very thin people with gaunt faces who have lost weight rapidly while on GLP-1 medication."

"Add to this a voracious consumer culture with brands constantly in search of new looks to sell to us, and it is eminently possible that a variant of GLP-1 will become a new cultural ideal also reflected in art. Her prediction follows research by Dr Michael Yafi, a paediatric endocrinologist at the University of Texas, Houston, presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul."

"He speculated that while some artists, notably the Brazilian painter Fernando Botero, continue to celebrate heavier figures, weight-loss drugs would influence how people are portrayed in artworks. I think that as more people use these drugs, GLP-1"

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