Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Runway Show models say every body is a target online

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.

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 later elaborated on her SI experience in a separate video posted to TikTok, saying last year people “made such a big deal” about her age when she participated in the show for the first time.

“People are allowed to be happy,” she said. “And for years, people wanted body inclusivity, then people went back to like, the, you know ‘glamazon aliens.’ How about this? Do what the f– you want to do.”

Some health experts say the latest discourse reflects a persistent problem: treating bodies like trends.

“We just swap one unrealistic ideal for another,” said Jennifer Harriger, a professor of psychology at Pepperdine University, who specializes in body image and social media.

Harriger noted that #thinspiration and pro-anorexia content that flooded social media like Tumblr more than a decade ago has evolved into this era’s #SkinnyTok, a hashtag that people use to post content teaching others how to get skinny, often in dangerous and disordered ways. Though TikTok banned the hashtag last year, the content persists online.

Societal notions about what a woman’s body “should” look like thrive on social media, said Harriger. That means the algorithm will keep pushing content as users engage with it, until people are “just bombarded with messages about very unrealistic ideals.”

The rise of GLP-1s, which have helped many lose weight and combat other health issues, has added a new layer to the body-image conversation.

“The issue isn’t the medication itself; it’s how it’s being marketed, it is so omnipresent now,” said Chanel Kenner, a registered dietitian who has worked with people with eating disorders. “You can’t turn on any show and not have ads.”

She added, “I don’t blame or judge anyone who takes these meds for aesthetic reasons, because the messaging is so strong. It’s hard, because we’ve been led to believe that your life just magically will get better in so many ways if you’re just thin.”

It’s hard, because we’ve been led to believe that your life just magically will get better in so many ways if you’re just thin.

-Chanel Kenner, a registered dietitian

Mikala Jamison, who writes a Substack newsletter called Body Type, described the current social media landscape as an echo chamber that makes people feel like they’re living in a “skinny apocalypse.”

Both Jamison and Harriger suggested that the key to making online conversations about bodies less toxic can be found within the online communities themselves.

“Expand your feeds, follow different types of people, look around at what the bodies in your real life look like,” Jamison said.

Meanwhile, Harriger said she believes the solution is teaching “media literacy skills for individuals engaging with social media platforms.”

That way people can recognize “what harmful messages are and how to critically evaluate the content that they’re viewing often,” she added.

For curve model Ella Halikas, spreading confidence remains a pillar of her social media message.

What’s difficult, she said, is getting people to stop focusing on one ideal body type.

“I’m tired of still having to talk about our bodies,” Halikas, who also walked the SI runway show this year, said. “Like how in 2026 are we still talking about this?”

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