Within the last decade, muscle has become a ‘must have’ physical accessory for countless young women across the board.

In the 1950’s having curves like the iconic Marilyn Munroe was considered ‘sexy’. In the 1960’s it was all about mini-skirts and petite figures. The 1970’s strongly embraced natural beauty, and from the 80’s onwards, diet fads were all the rage.

However in the last 15 years, diet fads and being ‘skinny’ have taken a slight turn. Being fit, healthy and muscular has taken the contemporary world by storm.

But, have these new and improved ideals really become the new skinny? Or does it merely continue to replicate a woman’s need to be thin?

In some cases, the principles of being fit and healthy have encouraged women to strive for their physical and mental best, allowing them to feel content within themselves, at their own pace.

Often described as a more realistic approach, these new motives have inspired women to achieve genuine self-confidence without attaining unrealistic goals, ultimately providing a good measure of motivation, and in return, self-satisfaction.

Husband Brad, and model Wife Katie Willcox have established a company named ‘Healthy is the New Skinny’ (HNS) which based on the latest physical trends, aims to teach young women that one’s greatness and worth cannot be measured by physical beauty, but rather by their personal wellbeing and happiness.

The company was created based on Willcox’s negative experiences in the modeling world from the early age of 17, and aims to break the industries unnatural and unattainable ideals by pushing the varied qualities of beauty in women of today.

“The most valuable thing we have in life is our health, and that should be our focus. Health and happiness are the key to beauty and keeping the mind, body and soul in balance.” Willcox says.

Another advocate for health and fitness is ‘bikini body’ expert and personal trainer Kayla Itsines.

As one of the fastest growing fitness personalities in the industry, Itsines pushes these ideals through her work-out regimes and nutrition guides, ultimately aiming for women to achieve what she calls, a ‘bikini body confidence’.

With an insatiable desire to help women accomplish their goals of being healthy, fit and strong, Itsines continues to motivate and succeed in enabling women to see these rapid results in just 12 weeks.

However while these advocates push for strength and good form, these new ideals to an extent, still mirror the pressure placed on women to fulfill a certain look.

While the image itself varies in size and shape, ranging from having curves to being super thin, the unattainable pressure placed on women to look a certain way, whether it be in the modeling industry or elsewhere, still prevails.

As certain physical standards are not manageable for all women, the level of discontent and insecurity often cause an unhealthy obsession out of an unrealistic desire.

Therefore, have the elements of being ‘fit and healthy’ become a weapon that allows skinniness to be a moral imperative?

To this day, women still assess their health based on their adherence to a toned, thin and muscular body criterion, ignorant to significant medical factors such as diet, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Can’t women of differing or bigger body types be healthy too?

In 2009, professional tennis player Serena Williams was criticized by Fox Sports journalist Jason Whitlock regarding her size 16 figure and excessive ‘junk in the trunk.’

“She’d rather eat, half-ass her way through non-major tournaments and complain she’s not getting the respect her 11-major-championships résumé demands…Seriously, how else can Serena fill out her size 16 shorts without grazing at her stall between matches?”

Winning more than $46 million in career prize money (as of August 1, 2013), more any female athlete in any sport in history and 19 Grand Slam titles, a women with enormous accolades is still being criticized for her lifestyle habits and lacking size six waist.

So, has the modeling and weight loss complex really embraced women to fulfill genuine good health and fitness, or is this just another deceiving scheme to rebrand skinniness with healthiness?

Cassandra De Palma is a third-year journalism student from La Trobe University. You can follow her on Twitter: @cass_depalma