In recent years, a beauty trend called the “thigh gap” has become increasingly popular. A thigh gap refers to a space between a person’s thighs when they are standing upright with knees together. Some people view the thigh gap as an aesthetic ideal and actively try to attain it through extreme dieting and exercise habits. However, this obsession with the thigh gap is quite concerning, as it promotes unrealistic beauty standards and can lead to dangerous behavior. In this article, we will explore the origins of the thigh gap trend, reasons for its popularity, and its potentially harmful effects on body image and health.
What is a thigh gap?
A thigh gap is a space or gap that is visible between a person’s thighs when standing upright. This occurs when there is little muscle or fat on the inner thighs, causing them not to touch. While a small gap may naturally occur in some bodies based on bone structure, genetics, and fat distribution, a pronounced thigh gap is difficult to obtain without strict dieting and exercise regimes for most people.
Some key things to know about the thigh gap:
– It has become a buzzword in pro-anorexia (pro-ana) online communities.
– Pictures are often posted on social media to showcase thigh gaps as inspiration.
– It is associated with very low levels of body fat and being underweight.
– Genetics play a role, but extreme thinness is required for most to achieve a sizable gap.
– Not all body types can healthily attain a thigh gap even at very low weights.
Origins of the thigh gap trend
The glorification of the thigh gap is generally traced back to the proliferation of thinspiration and fitspiration imagery online in the 2000s and 2010s. Thinspiration refers to content that promotes weight loss, often to an unhealthy degree. Fitspiration ostensibly encourages fitness and healthy lifestyles but also often features extremely thin and toned bodies.
In these online spaces, especially pro-anorexia forums, the thigh gap emerged as a coveted body feature indicative of extreme thinness. Photos of models and celebrities with thigh gaps were widely shared and admired.
The thigh gap was associated with other markers of being very underweight, like protruding hip bones, visible ribs, and a very narrow waist. Pro-ana social media users treated images of thigh gaps as thinspiration to motivate extreme restriction and over-exercise.
As these online communities grew, the thigh gap became popularized among the mainstream as well, pushed by thetrend of mid-thigh skinny jeans in the early 2010s. Brands also used thigh gap imagery in controversial advertisements.
So while thigh gaps naturally occur in some people, the obsession with attaining a thigh gap originated primarily from social media promotion of ultra-thin figures as aspirational.
Why did the thigh gap trend become so popular?
There are several reasons why thigh gaps arose as a popular goal and symbol of beauty:
Promotion of thinness: The thigh gap trend emerged from pro-ana and fitspo online spaces that glorified extreme thinness and created an echo chamber. Even as it reached mainstream culture, the underlying message was that less fat is better.
Backlash against curvier body ideals: In the 1990s and 2000s, there was an emphasis on thin but curvy bodies, associated with icons like Jennifer Lopez. The thigh gap arose in part as a rejection of “curves” and re-emphasis on lack of fat.
Accessibility: Unlike measurements like waist size or weight, the thigh gap can be immediately assessed in photos. This made it easy to identify, compare, admire, and promote.
Competition: Online communities enabled users to compete for who had the largest thigh gap, fueling disordered eating behaviors. Members encouraged each other to continue pursuing the ideal.
Something tangible to strive for: Rather than just generally wanting to be skinny, the thigh gap gave members a concrete visual goal to work towards in their quest for thinness.
Status symbol: A pronounced thigh gap came to represent the elite levels of thinness only accessible through extreme restriction, exercise, and/or genetics. It was a sign of achievement within these spaces.
So while the origins of the thigh gap trend are complex, it essentially arose from and exemplified the pursuit of thinness above all else in certain online communities. The specific focus on the thigh gap added tangibility to this disordered drive.
Potential effects on body image and mental health
Setting the thigh gap as an ideal body goal can negatively impact both body image and mental health in several ways:
– Promotes dysmorphia: Viewing normal, healthy bodies as flawed or unsatisfactory in the absence of a thigh gap distorts perceptions. This contributes to body dysmorphic disorder tendencies.
– Encourages fatphobia: An obsession with eliminating fat, including in areas like the thighs, promotes internalized fatphobia and fear of weight gain. This is psychologically and socially damaging.
– Triggers disordered eating: Trying to attain a thigh gap leads many to develop or worsen eating disorders like anorexia, orthorexia, and bulimia.
– Increases anxiety: The rigorous control of diet and constant monitoring of thigh appearance is anxiety-inducing for many. There is also social anxiety around seeing normal thighs as unacceptable.
– Lowers self-esteem: Failing to attain narrow thigh gaps can be devastating for self-image. There is also status loss in pro-ana communities when the thigh gap ideal cannot be met.
– Normalizes self-harm: In addition to eating disorders, the lengths people go to for a thigh gap—over-exercising, plastic surgery, etc.—amount to self-destructive behaviors in many cases.
– Isolates sufferers: The shame, secrecy, and competitiveness surrounding thigh gap efforts often inhibits social bonds and support networks.
In these interrelated ways, the thigh gap obsession is troubling from a mental health perspective, as it enables body image disorders, anxiety, low self-esteem, and risky behaviors.
Dangers of trying to attain a thigh gap
Beyond mental health consequences, the measures taken to achieve a thigh gap can seriously endanger physical health:
– Malnutrition: Extreme calorie restriction leads to vitamin, mineral, and other nutritional deficiencies. This starves the body of needed nutrients.
– Weakened immune system: Lack of nutrition makes the body more susceptible to illnesses and infections.
– Loss of bone density: Very low body fat and inadequate calcium/nutrients accelerates osteopenia and osteoporosis risks.
– Reproductive issues: Missing periods, low fertility, and gestational problems are associated with low weight and body fat percentage.
– Growth impairment: Adolescents attempting a thigh gap may stunt their final growth and development.
– Organ damage: The heart, kidneys, stomach, and other organs can be impaired from sustained nutritional insufficiency.
– Death: Eating disorders have the highest mortality rates of any mental illness. Extreme malnutrition eventually claims lives.
Although a thigh gap itself is not inherently dangerous, the extreme measures many employ to lose inner thigh fat are extremely unhealthy and even life-threatening. The risks should outweigh any perceived “benefits” of attaining the idealized thigh gap.
Thigh gaps and unrealistic beauty standards
It is important to recognize that the thigh gap “ideal” promotes unrealistic and unobtainable standards of beauty for most women and girls. Consider:
– Genetic factors: Hip shape, frame size, height, and fat distribution are fixed and determine whether a thigh gap is possible. Most women cannot healthily attain a sizable gap.
– Photoshopping: Images of models and influencers showing pronounced thigh gaps are often digitally altered and do not reflect reality.
– Skewed demographics: Very few adult women have large thigh gaps. Promoting it as normal or ideal is misleading.
– Weight stigma: Associating thigh gaps with beauty and moral virtue attaches negative judgments to normal weights and body shapes.
– Diversity erasure: The thigh gap arose from pro-ana spaces that idolized one “ideal” body – extremely thin and able-bodied white women.
– Age discrimination: Younger women and girls are disproportionately expected to achieve the thin ideal represented by the thigh gap.
Rather than empower women, the thigh gap trend defines femininity in terms of fragility and absence – absence of fat, curves, strength, maturity, and diversity. It tries to reduce bodily diversity down to one unrealistic look.
Healthy alternatives to the thigh gap
For those bothered by their lack of a thigh gap or seeking to reduce thigh size for other reasons, there are healthy, sustainable alternatives to extreme dieting and over-exercising:
– Acceptance: Making peace with your natural thigh shape and the diversity of bodies.
– Body neutrality: Focusing on your body’s capabilities rather than aesthetics.
– Mindful eating: Developing a healthy, balanced diet without obsessive restrictions.
– Intuitive exercise: Moving in ways that feel good physically and mentally.
– Inner wellness: Cultivating fulfilling relationships, hobbies, passions beyond aesthetics.
– Body positive spaces: Surrounding yourself with communities that celebrate body diversity without judgment.
The thigh gap was an arbitrary beauty trend that promoted body dissatisfaction and dangerous behaviors. A healthy relationship with your body means accepting its natural shape, while focusing on overall well-being rather than any single feature.
Conclusion
The thigh gap trend exemplifies the harms that arise when societies obsess over an unrealistic, unobtainable beauty ideal. While a small gap between the thighs is natural for some, elevating it as an aspirational goal promotes body dissatisfaction, mental illness, disordered eating, over-exercise, and stigma against normal bodies that do not have an inner thigh gap. Furthermore, the measures taken to attain a large thigh gap put health in serious jeopardy.
Rather than empowering, the thigh gap sets up false expectations of beauty, stigmatizes natural diversity in women’s bodies, and defines femininity in terms of absence and fragility. It arose not for health reasons, but from online spaces promoting extreme thinness at any cost.
Moving forward, we must work to promote acceptance of the natural diversity of bodies and reject trends like the thigh gap that glorify one idealized body type. The goal must be internal wellness and self-acceptance rather than endlessly chasing ever-changing physical ideals imposed by others. True beauty comes from health, humanity and embracing who you authentically are.