“You can’t stop the beat” is what Vogue continues to tell dissidents following its publication of a video acting as both a “Hairspray” homage — starring a cast with zero mid- or plus-sized people — and a runway for fresh spring looks. 

Gigi Hadid runs through different sets in varying ‘60s-inspired looks as she and the rest of the cast lip sync to what Vogue calls the “rousing” finale of the show, “You Can’t Stop the Beat.” 

The looks themselves are safe and vaguely intriguing: leopard print, bold colors, classic silhouettes, florals — as Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) would sardonically say in “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006), “groundbreaking.” 

Alongside Hadid, the video features guests including Laverne Cox, Cole Escola, Alton Mason and Marc Jacobs — a diverse and star-studded cast to be sure, but missing one of the key elements of everything that “Hairspray” stands for: body inclusion. How can a video paying homage to a truly groundbreaking musical about intersectionality and inclusivity be “rousing” if the only honest homage in the video is the words the performers are pretending to sing?

I have a lot of personal stake in every facet of this video. I am evidently a fan of the musical, a loyal Vogue reader since 2019 and someone who appreciates inclusive representation of different body types.

As someone familiar with not being conventionally thin, thanks to polycystic ovary syndrome and also someone who makes Thanksgiving uncomfortable by being “woke,” Tracy Turnblad has been a hero of mine since I first watched “Hairspray” (2007) at nine years old.

Set in ‘60s Baltimore, Tracy shocks the world by dancing her way into a series-regular spot on a teen-television phenomenon despite being the only plus-sized cast member. 

Tracy’s fame builds as she wields a noticeable influence on local pop culture with her own iconic looks being replicated by her young fans. She ultimately uses her platform to fight for racial integration on television and to give credit to the Black teens of Baltimore who supply most of the new dance moves on the show. 

The entire musical builds to “You Can’t Stop the Beat” as the characters not only accept their identities but also celebrate them, so when I watched Hadid and Escola lip sync lyrics sung by Edna, a character who finally gets to celebrate her body and who is historically played by drag queens, it felt like a tone-deaf joke.

Each plus-sized character in the show has their skinny counterpart in Vogue’s video: Gigi mostly lip syncs over Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky), Cox mimes Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah) and Escola mouths for Edna Turnblad (John Travolta). Skinny people appropriating the sung words of plus-sized characters may seem innocuous, but the video as a whole indicates something concerning about the trajectory of fashion.

When the voices of plus-sized performers come out of the lips of thin bodies for the purpose of establishing what is widely considered fashionable, it reinforces which body types are “in fashion,” ultimately weaponizing what is supposed to be a body inclusion anthem.

As thinness reenters pop culture as an indicator of beauty thanks to trends like Ozempic and other quick weight loss methods, being thin becomes an accessory, an aesthetic or a talent. When Hadid mimics the voice of Nikki Blonsky in a video by a major fashion publication, there is an instant disconnect between the value of plus-sized bodies — both as human beings and as performers — and fashion. 

Vogue’s choices in the production, therefore, feel sinister as it becomes clear that bigger bodies weren’t taken into consideration at all. The production was helmed by Vogue veteran Bardia Zeinali, an art videographer whose body of work indicates the perpetuation of an ultra-thin silhouette for women as fashionable, with almost none of his filmography featuring plus-sized bodies. 

Furthermore, the description of the video on YouTube features what the editors likely thought was an adorable anecdote: “Vogue cover star Gigi Hadid, who played Amber Von Tussle at just nine years old in a production of Hairspray, revisits her childhood as she steps onto the stage to perform the musical’s rousing finale, ‘You Can’t Stop the Beat.’” 

Hadid’s connection to the musical is that she played — and still looks like — one of the characters that harasses Tracy the most, thanks to her body type. 

It’s bad enough that the main focus of the video is a thin supermodel whose sister is associated with bragging about being thin; a common joking refrain today involves people asking those who complain about only having iced coffee for breakfast, “Should we invite Bella Hadid?” But to make matters worse, not even the ensemble had upfront body representation despite having the most opportunities for diversity, thanks to the number of dancers featured in both the video and the musical.

“You Can’t Stop the Beat” was cherry picked to sell skinniness as fashion, removing all of its context. As a result, Vogue released a half-baked homage that forsook its source material, making me concerned for the near future of fashion. 

That being said, the video also made me even more appreciative of “Hairspray”’s magic. Despite my dissatisfaction with Vogue’s lack of inclusion, the musical continues to ring true for me as I treasure its celebration of diverse bodies even more. 

I’ll continue to stream Queen Latifah’s rendition of “Big, Blonde and Beautiful” without Gigi Hadid appearing in my head. Because of “Hairspray,” you’re timeless to me.

Anna Jordan is a sophomore writing about pop culture controversies in her column, “Chronically Online,” which runs every other Thursday. She is also a chief copy editor at the Daily Trojan.