Achieving a thigh gap is society’s latest trend, particularly in today’s youth. The thigh gap has become widespread among social media sites – namely, Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. It is through these sites that the concept of Hot Dog Legs arose. Models all across the runways sported thigh gaps, and it soon became an obsession for teenage girls. The thigh gap does not exist outside the world of media. It can only be defined by its online assessors. Of the few places the thigh gap is defined, Wikipedia says of it, “[it] is a gap between the thighs, when standing with the back upright, and the left and right knees touching each other.” The concept itself is not questionable, but the means to which girls achieve it is.
The thigh gap, for some, is a natural attribute because of body shape and metabolic processing. For some, there is no need for change in diet, and exercise to have a thigh gap. However, for others achieving a thigh gap is a complete change in lifestyle. Girls across the world have been starving themselves and over-exercising their bodies to attain ‘Hot Dog Legs.’ Social media only adds coal to the fire. There are numerous sites promoting anorexic and bulimic behaviors. These sites encourage extreme measures for the highly desired ‘Hot Dog Legs.’ They urge girls to starve themselves; if food is consumed, they swear by diuretics, and other unnatural methods. The following image reflects the suggested (and encouraged) calorie intake of someone who is trying to achieve a thigh gap.
Food is sacrificed for this miniscule space between one thigh and the other. This kind of dieting would be beneficial towards someone preparing for an impending famine. Having lived weeks off such meager rations of food, anyone co...
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Beauty is a cruel mistress. Every day, Americans are bombarded by images of flawless women with perfect hair and smooth skin, tiny waists and generous busts. They are presented to us draped in designer clothing, looking sultry or perky or anywhere in between. And although the picture itself is alluring, the reality behind the visage is much more sinister. They are representations of beauty ideals, sirens that silently screech “this is what a woman is supposed to look like!” Through means of media distribution and physical alteration, technology has created unrealistic beauty ideals, resulting in distorted female body images.
This is certainly not your objective. Yes, you want slimmer thighs but you don’t want new fat appearing in places that were never fat before. Can this really happen?
According to Beverly Ballaro, the combination of two trends, the technology-enabled media saturation of the American public, and the promotion by this media of highly unattainable body types, is largely responsible for an epidemic of body image pathologies afflicting American girls and women, as well as an increasing number of boys and men. She also mentions that the media has given certain images for each gender. Generally, for females the body image is extremely thin, and there is an emphasis on large breasts and for males, tall, slender, muscular and toned. For both genders, the most valued and appreciated appearance i...
Lippert, Barbara. “The Media Are Embracing More Diverse Body Types.” 11 December 2006: 36-42. Print. 01 April 2014.
“Many of the girls...include their stats -- height, weight and goal weight – when posting on such sites.” (Udovitch 20). The girls, Anas, broadcast their measurements over the internet to do the same thing as the Hunger Artist. They feel a sense of satisfaction by separating themselves from people who they presume are fat. They will never be satisfied with themselves until they are down to literally, just skin
Mackler, Carolyn. Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image. Ed. Ophira Edut. Emeryville, CA: Seal, 2004. Print.
“My lips and fingers were blue because I was so thin that my heart was struggling to pump blood around my body”, said teen model fashion Georgina (Carroll 1). The new skinny has become excessively scrawny. Is it definitely not normal for today’s society models to walk around with blue fingers starving themselves until their organs start failing! As for the model agencies, they couldn’t care less of the pressure and dangerous practices they put the models through in order for them to stay thin for the runway. Even fashion Designers continue to produce the smallest couture sample sizes and scout for the slimiest bodies to wear the designs not aware of the consequences of the pressure they not only put on models, but on the society girls to look like these starving models. And when the models continue to get offers from the most important fashion industries like Prada, it motivates them to keep doing what they are doing to stay in the shape they are in (Carroll 1). But little did the outside world know what this pressure had on the models and what they were doing to their bodies to peruse their modeling careers.
Body image as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary “a subjective picture of one's own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of others” Women are assaulted from all angles about what the perfect body is and how to get it. The media has a very influential effect on society. The media distorts and misrepresents beauty into something that is unattainable for women, especially young girls. Whether it is the airbrushed Victoria’s Secret model in magazines or advertisements about new weight loss options, women are more insecure and unhappy than ever before trying to achieve the ”perfect body” to make them happy. The media as well as our own issues with self-image has pushed the fashion industry into the multi-billion dollar machine it is today. According to Susie Orbach, women are urged to conform, to help out the economy by continuous consumption of goods and clothing which are quickly made unwearable next fashion season styles in clothes and body weight. With the exploits of too thin women on magazine covers, these are the women whom we have chosen to look up to as what normal is even though the average woman is a size 12. We are starving ourselves to fit the ideals of what is visually put out there by the media and what the fashion industry wants us...
In her novel “Beauty Myth”, Naomi Wolf argues that the beauty and fashion industry are to blame for using false images to portray what beautiful woman is. She believes the magazines are to blame for women hating their bodies. Wolf states, “When they discuss [their bodies], women lean forward, their voices lower. They tell their terrible secret. It’s my breast, they say. My hips. It’s my thighs. I hate my stomach.” (Wolf, 451) She is focusing on how w...
Life in the 20‘s had started to change waist lines and the bust disappeared along with a shorter hem. For those who could afford it, they attend...
People feel increasingly pressured by the media about their bodies. Each day we are bombarded by the media with all sorts of image related messages about the “perfect
Graydon, Shari. “How the Media Keeps us Hung Up on Body Image.” Herizons Summer. 2008:
Vargas, L E. (2013) The Negative Effects of The Media on Body Image. Personal.psu.edu. Retrieved 30 Nov. 17 from:
Firstly, Sarah Murdoch, the representative of Bonds underwear, is of the opinion that fashion industry encourages “unhealthy body images” (Dunkerley, 2008) that is thought to be unrealistic and unhealthy for most women and girls. Besides, the fact that most designers prefer to choose thin models than bigger size ones (Bolger, 2007) shows us an astonishing phenomena that there are series of clothes from size 0 to size 4 seen not only in the fashion shows but also even on the sale markets because they think that there will be “stigma attached” when doing something for “plus-size people” (Stevens, 2010). Naomi Crafti representing Eating Disorders Victoria thinks that teenagers are becoming obsessed with “the very skinny models on the catwalk” in the fashion shows (Stevens, 2010) which gradually leads to “eating disorders, mental health” and “negative body image on young people” (Stevens, 2010). Fashion industry skinny trend seems to poison young women’s attitude towards their appearance.
Many people hope for the “perfect” body, the one they see in all the magazines.