The "thigh gap" trend

[siead_lietrathua]

and whether or not she has one doesn't make it any less of a ridiculous standard of beauty. i mean, i get waist size, hair colours, etcetc cuz all that's fairly easily seen at a glance. but who in the planet is judging people on the space between their thighs, especially if it requires standing in one specific position to be judged as an accurate measurement!
do people really go up to each other in bars and be like "'scuse me miss, i think you're hot an all, but can you put your feet together and hike your skirt up?"

[Andara Bledin]

Its pretty easy to see that her legs are sticks. She definitely has a gap.

That pic only took 5 seconds to find. >.>

Her knee is bent. Hell, I very nearly have a thigh gap if I've got my knee bent, and I'm downright fat.

The only reason I'm even in this debate is because I want to show just how few people actually have a thigh gap.

Here's a somewhat recent image of Kate Moss (and she's a much healthier weight, now) where she's actually standing with her feet together, and the tops of her thighs touch, and her knee is still bent, reducing the amount of touch. Her hips and the shape of her thighs make it unlikely that she ever actually had a thigh gap of the sort that is the rage.

[Gravekeeper]

The only reason I'm even in this debate is because I want to show just how few people actually have a thigh gap.

I'm not saying lots of people have it. Even in this case the only reason I'm saying Kate Moss has/had one is because her legs were skeletal. She's also somewhat bow legged to begin with. I'm actually with you on this one because Moss had to starve herself and have a skeletal deformity to get a thigh gap. -.-

She herself admitted to severe depression in her modelling career due to being thin and bow legged.

[Lace Neil Singer]

The model on the left in the DM article is horribly thin! I'd hate to look like that! O_o

I know that a lot of people go the other way and talk about "curves" and "normal women", and don't want to sound like that, but seriously, a lot of guys have told me to my face that they love my big bum and boobs. It's hard for me to accept such compliments, having struggled with my weight for years, but I kinda have to when I have a fiance who also loves my curvy figure and loves me the way I am.

Fair enough if you're thin and naturally have a thigh gap, but it's awful to think of girls starving themselves to try and come up with one. Every woman is beautiful no matter what shape she is, and in my experience anyway, the guys I know love big hips, big butt and big boobs. I know this is only my personal experience but tho I know a few men with flat stomached and super fit girlfs, not a single one has this thigh gap.

[Gravekeeper]

Whatever shape you are, there's somebody out there that likes that shape.

Unless you're a rhombohedron. Then you might be in trouble. But I'm sure there's still a Deviant art group of geometry nerds devoted too you.

[KabeRinnaul]

Unless you're a rhombohedron. Then you might be in trouble. But I'm sure there's still a Deviant art group of geometry nerds devoted too you.

I hope you understand how much restraint it took for me to not go and find Rule 34 of abstract mathematical shapes to share on here.

[Lace Neil Singer]

If you have an "acute" angle, then you're probably alright. XD

[Duelist925]

If you have an "acute" angle, then you're probably alright. XD

Euclideon me? Stop being obtuse. It's a sin. (Or perhaps a sin, of things to come)

No matter your circumference, theres someone, somewhere, who enjoys your dimensions!

[Lachrymose]

Nice tangent there.

[mathnerd]

Oh, dear deity! What will they come up with next. I will never have a thigh gap. I have thighs that look like the ability to leg press a loaded semi might be possible. Okay, maybe they're not that bad, but I put on muscle pretty fast, and it shows in my bum, thighs and calves. Unfortunately, I had to grow up with sisters who took after my mother's five foot nothing, 89-pounds-on-her-wedding-day frame while I inherited my father's linebacker frame. While that did nothing for my self image, I've been fortunate in my adult life to have a number of male friends who smacked me over the head with the proverbial cast iron skillet and have (mostly) convinced me that I'm fine just the way I am.

Speaking as a woman who grew up fighting self image issues caused in no small part by mainstream media, this is one of the worst things I can think of for girls across the world to have to see.

[AccountingDrone]

I got both parents body - good heavy frame, solid endomorph [had to pause to look up the damned word] body, and annoying ability to stockpile fat in case of a famine. Though on the plus side, I could probably manage to survive on a nul-fat diet longer than a thinner person. I simply don't tend to lose weight easily [I didn't eat anything significant between Oct 3d and Dec 28th back in 1981 and only lost 20 pounds. All I could keep down was plain chicken broth, unsweetened tea and water, I had an undiagnosed virus - they kept testing me for mononucleosis and it was always negative. Although I did manage to go from 135 down to 94 pounds when I was having a miscarriage once. I can't recommend it as a way to lose weight however.]

I will never be the thin ectomorph ideal, and I always knew it would be impossible for me to be one so I never dieted trying to get that kind of body. I would love to be back down to 135, but that would mean losing over half my current weight and would be seriously difficult with my health issues.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I know full well that a size fourteen is the smallest I could ever be, tho I'd be perfectly happy as a sixteen. I'm an eighteen at the moment, having dropped two dress sizes.

Even if I did end up a fourteen, I still wouldn't have a thigh gap. And I don't think I'd want one, either. It's taken me a long time to be finally at peace with myself, having been a former yoyo dieter and suffering from an eating disorder as a teen.

[Shalom]

Nice tangent there.

I think this is the place to put this: The Dot And The Line

[Aethian]

I know I'll never have a thigh gap because I can't even stand with my feet touching without falling over. All because my calves are too damn big.

[the_std]

I just want to say that it took me this long to reply because I wasn't sure how to say this...

I was actually a little hurt by some of the replies to my post. Most specifically because I said I know it's unrealistic and absurd to want that thigh gap when I know I will never have one, and all I got back was a bunch of, "it's dumb and unhealthy to want one - it's stupid to use as a standard of beauty," back.

Well, no shit. Most of the standards of beauty we are subjected to as a society are not achievable in any healthy measure for 99% of people out there. But is that how societal pressure works? Does anyone look at pictures in magazines and say, "Yes! She's pretty! It'll cost me a kidney and my entire digestive system, but I am going to look like her, not matter what!"

No. People see this standard everywhere, both in subtle advertising and in-your-face forms, and it makes its infuriating, insidious way into the way you think, your reactions when you look at yourself.

Externally, I hold myself to a healthy standard - trying to eat well and exercise when I can. But a woman's brain doesn't always agree with logic, and occasionally, looking in the mirror, I get that tinge of anger and regret that I cannot look like the people in those magazines. If I could turn that off and just think constructive, healthy thoughts, don't you think I would? That's not the way that subtle out wards imaging and pressure works.

So thanks for the help, but it wasn't helpful at all.