The way in which that beauty standards damage and impact us all has been a giant topic of conversation on the celeb circuit recently. Last month, Ariana Grande spoke out about fans judging her body and weight concerns, while earlier this week a trailer for the brand new season of The Kardashians teased Kylie Jenner attempting to seek advice from her sisters the part they play in upholding and perpetuating unattainable ideals. “All of us just have to have an even bigger conversation concerning the beauty standards that we’re setting,” she is shown to say.

Now, Julia Fox and Grimes have opened up concerning the subject in a discussion on a latest episode of Forbidden Fruits, the podcast Fox hosts with Niki Takesh. The conversation kicks off when Fox, who’s wearing an unexplained ginger Dolly Parton wig, says that Grimes looks amazing. In response, the musician says that when she was younger she desired to defy oppressive beauty standards. “I made some extent of not wearing make-up loads early in my profession,” she says, adding that eventually, she decided that she just desired to have a good time with beauty. “Sooner or later in life, you wanna be a baddie,” as Fox puts it.  

Grimes then opens up about having an eating disorder for 10 years, which results in a discussion concerning the way that body ideals have shifted within the last yr from ‘slim-thick’ curves back towards the thinness that was so heavily prized within the 90s and early 2000s. “I assumed it was good for some time,” Grimes says. “I actually feel like I shed [my] body dysmorphia in the course of the peak of the Kim Kardashian, Cardi B times, and now I feel without it. But I assumed those times were really good and I wish we could maintain a level of that because I felt like we did move past body dysmorphia and now it’s coming back.”

When Takesh asks whether or not they think it was harder to be a youngster after they were growing up or now, Fox and Grimes agree that there have been good and bad sides – and that while there may be more representation now, the pressure that social media and filters placed on young people is immense. “I believe this could be one of the crucial irresponsible things that tech is doing right away, is allowing these things to exist,” says Grimes.

“Loads of celebrities photoshop their images after which these girls have such unrealistic expectations because they’re like ‘why can’t I seem like that’ and it’s like, boo, they don’t even seem like that!” Fox adds. “I even make it some extent to not photoshop my photos. Obviously, if it’s a magazine, it’s different. But I all the time ask ‘hey can we just keep the photoshop to a minimum’. I don’t care if I don’t look pretty, looking pretty just isn’t on my agenda, I actually don’t give a shit. But [beauty standards] are super oppressive of course.”

The conversation then moves on to artificial intelligence and the role it’s playing in art and music right away. Amongst other gems, Grimes jokes that she is currently an information collection spy in San Francisco trying to seek out out what’s occurring with AI; that she is sitting on an album she recorded two years ago and is now bored of; and that she recently began attending a poetry night with a bunch of bankers, which sounds absolutely insufferable but apparently has produced among the craziest art she was witnessed.

Like previous occasions that the Kardashians have discussed the ways they’re impacted by unrealistic beauty ideals, what’s missing from this conversation about beauty standards is the ways during which, as public figures with huge platforms and influence, Fox and Grimes themselves impact the ways the young individuals who follow them take into consideration their very own appearance and body image, and the way they might use their platform to make a change.

Fox, particularly, has been vocal concerning the inconceivable expectations which can be placed on women and infrequently proclaims statements like “Ageing is fully in” and “I wanna see bellies hanging over the low rise jeans pls”. Nevertheless, at the identical time has been criticised for being paid to be the face of Botox-alternative Xeomin, which she justified by saying that she is “all the time going to get my bag”. 

That is just an informal conversation on a podcast, and nobody involved is arguing that they’re changing the world with this discussion. But when Fox, Grimes and Takesh really are as concerned as they appear to be concerning the damaging impact of filters and body standards on the vanity of young people, then they’ve the chance and the platform to start out some really meaningful conversations and really make a difference. 

Watch a clip of the discussion above or take heed to the complete episode here.