Roxane Gay highlights how celebrities navigate a culture that idolizes thinness, revealing a troubling societal expectation that equates being slim with worth. Many celebrities actively engage in this by curating their images on social media, often adopting poses that enhance their lean appearance, like sucking in their cheeks. This behavior reflects a broader message that physical space correlates with personal significance.

Through her memoir, Gay critiques the obsession with body image and the pressures it imposes on individuals to conform to narrow standards of beauty. She emphasizes that in this context, the perceived value of a person diminishes with their physical size, underscoring the challenges that both celebrities and everyday individuals face in a thin-centric society.