The Issue of Body Confidence: Thigh Gaps

In the world we live in, there seems to be a ridiculous obsession with thigh gaps especially amongst teenage girls. As apparent on my tumblr dashboard, numerous girls post pictures of said 'gaps' with comments expressing their desire for one. Many of these girls have the preconception that guys will like them more if they do have a thigh gap, so I decided to conduct a little experiment... I decided to 'interview' several of my guy friends from various locations across the world to see what they truly thought of them. I showed some of my friends the pictures below:

Two of these pictures are from a tumblr which promotes the gaining of thigh gaps and the other two are just pictures found on the internet of what I believe to be a healthy 'thigh size'. So I showed all four pictures to eight different guys and asked for their preferences. 7 out of the 8 said that they would rather a girl have the legs of pictures 1 or 2 and only one guy said picture 3.

Now the only reason I actually conducted this little experiment was to see whether these girls were truly starving themselves for male attention or whether their perception of beautiful was slightly misconstrued. It turns out that most of the guys I asked said that picture 3 was disgusting. Most of them actually pulled a face when they saw it saying that she looked too skinny even though she did have a toned stomach. I asked them whether they thought the girl in picture 1 was too large but they all disagreed, similarly with picture 2. I thought this was incredibly interesting as both celebrities from the first two pictures have been criticised by the media for being fat. Now bear in mind that one of them is actually a model for a leading lingerie brand.

So all this post was about is to show all my lovely readers that no guy actually says 'I would date that girl but she doesn't have a thigh gap' and in fact, unless it is a genetic thing, they don't exactly like it. Some girls that do have wide hips, when they are a healthy size, they do have a slight gap but it does not look unhealthy. 

Basically, all I am trying to say is that it is really not worth trying to starve yourself to the point of death simply to get a thigh gap. Okay, if you want toned thighs, go ahead but please please please do not put yourself through hell for it.

In English Literature I have been assessing feminist interpretations of a novel and came across the subject of the 'male gaze'. According to numerous feminist critics, women dress or act to please men. If you think about it, it is completely true. Even if you don't want to admit it, we do choose clothes that would please the opposite gender, not ourselves. Deny it if you want, but its true and the theory behind the desire of a thigh gap is tied to the idea of the 'male gaze'.

Now, this post may appear to ramble but it is actually really important that you take into account the information provided. Sure, it is not a scientific study of body types and DNA but it does address the issue of what guys truly think of the new craze amongst teenage girls. Below are some quotes from the interviewed guys that really stuck with me:

• [About picture 3] 'Is that even natural?'
• [About picture 3] 'that is actually disgusting'
• [About picture 2] 'WoOWO'
• [About picture 2] 'phwoar'
• [About picture 4] 'Dude, she looks twelve!'
• [About picture 4] 'thats not nice.'
• [About picture 1] 'she's well fit'

All of those above are direct quotes from when I asked the guys over Skype/Facebook chat for each picture. Of course other things were said, some of which contained expletives but you get the idea.

I hope this post does resonate with some of you because it certainly knocked some sense into my head and made me truly address the issue of it. So please, take this all into consideration before doing something that will ultimately affect you mentally as well as physically.