Serena Williams, GLP-1s, and the Return of Thinness Culture
First, let me be clear: women have the right to choose what they do with their bodies. Serena Williams included. No one should dictate those choices, and no woman should be judged for them.
But choice doesn’t mean culture is neutral. And Serena’s new ad for Ro, the weight loss company selling GLP-1 drugs lands at a complicated intersection of culture, commerce, and health.
The cultural disappointment
Serena Williams isn’t just a tennis champion. She’s an icon who redefined what a woman’s body could look like in sport. Strong. Muscular. Powerful. She was proof that beauty didn’t require shrinking yourself to fit a thin ideal.
For women like me, she was evidence that strong was beautiful. She and Beyoncé were rewriting the narrative for a generation of women raised on Kate Moss, “heroin chic,” and the lollipop-head ideal.
That’s why this ad stings. When Serena says, “Yes, I’m on Ro. It’s not a shortcut. It’s science. After kids, it’s the medicine I need. This is healthcare,” it doesn’t just sound like personal choice. It reads as an endorsement of a narrative that smaller is better. That thinness equals health. That we’re not enough unless we’re skinny.
And here’s the thing: this isn’t new. It’s diet culture in its 2025 packaging. Same old message, thinness equals health. Just delivered through a weekly injection, a telehealth platform, and the language of science.
For Gen X women, this must feel like déjà vu. We lived through heroin chic super models in the ’90s, Weight Watchers in the 2000s, Noom in the 2010s. Now, in 2025, it’s GLP-1s sold as healthcare. Different decade, same diet culture dressed up in new clothes.
And if Serena Williams, the woman who stood as proof that a body can be unapologetically big, strong, and beautiful feels pressure to slim down, what hope does that leave the rest of us?
The health reality
GLP-1s are not simply another wellness hack. They’re medications designed for people with serious health conditions.
For the right person, they’re powerful:
Improve insulin resistance
Support meaningful weight loss in obesity
Lower risk of heart and metabolic disease
But they also come with trade-offs and exclusions:
Muscle and bone density loss if you don’t eat enough protein
Nutrient deficiencies when calories are too restricted
Digestive side effects, gallbladder issues, pancreatitis
Clear contraindications (from thyroid cancer risk to gastroparesis and more)
For Gen X women, this especially matters because we are at the age where we begin losing bone density and muscle at accelerated rates. The biggest predictor of longevity isn’t thinness, it’s strength. Choosing GLP-1s without a personalised, strategic approach risks undermining the very foundation of long-term health.
Why this matters
Serena is no longer an athlete. She’s a businesswoman and cultural icon. Her husband, Alexis Ohanian, sits on the board of Ro and has invested in the company. This is as much commerce as it is weight loss.
But the cultural message is clear: thin is back. And it’s being sold as “science” and “healthcare.”
The truth is diet culture never disappeared. It just keeps evolving into the next marketable version of itself. In 2025, it involves a celebrity, wears a lab coat and calls itself healthcare. But shrinking women down has never been the path to health. Personalised, holistic health strategy for supporting building strength, muscle, bone density, and metabolic flexibility still are.
That’s healthcare.
