discussion

mildredalien

Person_one wrote: »

Yes, there are people who are naturally very very slim who are healthy.

Why does that mean we can't be concerned about the messages young girls are getting about appearance? I don't believe every single model out there is of the naturally skinny type anyway, drug use has always been rife among models and a quick google finds a study showing that as many as 40% have eating disorders.

What teenage (and younger) girls are being told loud and clear is that they are supposed to be attractive, and that the thinner they are the better. That's problematic, whatever your natural shape.

It's concerning that the media focuses on one body type to the almost exclusion of others, and that young women and even children are given confusing messages about health and bodies. On one page of a glossy mag there could be pictures celebrating a woman's 'real curves', on the next there's some crazy diet to get you skinny, and later on there's a criticism of someone who's gained a few pounds.

However it's important to remember that women naturally come in all shapes and sizes, and it's judgmental and harmful to assume that someone is unhealthy or 'not a real woman' if they look that way. It's different pointing out a stereotype or media bias than pointing at a specific woman and judging her for how she looks.

Person_one

mildredalien wrote: »

It's concerning that the media focuses on one body type to the almost exclusion of others, and that young women and even children are given confusing messages about health and bodies. On one page of a glossy mag there could be pictures celebrating a woman's 'real curves', on the next there's some crazy diet to get you skinny, and later on there's a criticism of someone who's gained a few pounds.

However it's important to remember that women naturally come in all shapes and sizes, and it's judgmental and harmful to assume that someone is unhealthy or 'not a real woman' if they look that way. It's different pointing out a stereotype or media bias than pointing at a specific woman and judging her for how she looks.

Has anybody done that though? The picture in the OP was of a pair of legs rather than a specific woman.

A few people have taken personal offence when what was intended was concern for children and young women in general.

daisiegg

FBaby wrote: »

have you read the posts above? Or just not bothered and decided to stereotype for the sake of it? If you do read, you will see that a number of kids look like this naturally. It is not my daughter on the picture, but it very well could have been, her legs look just like that and her arms are proportionally as long and slim. Even her fingers seem to go on for ever. She is a size 6 1/3 feet but just about an E.

To be honest, although of course there are people who look like that naturally I don't think there are a LOT of people. Just because a handful have commented on this thread saying they have daughters who are like that naturally doesn't mean it is common. I teach in a large all girls' school so every day I see 1500 girls from the age of 11 - 18 and there are very, very few who have that build. Lots of them are slim, of course (in fact, the vast majority - the 'obesity epidemic' is not very evident at my school for some reason) but not extremely thin, long limbed, 'thigh gap' skinny. Thinking of all the adult women I know I can't think of any who have that physique. My sister is a size 4 but her thighs still touch when her feet are together!

But of course that doesn't mean it is right to pick on those who DO have that build naturally! But I also don't think it is necessarily wrong to tell our children that SOME people with that build do starve themselves and SOME models are airbrushed. If our children are otherwise well guided that should not lead to them bullying others.

midnightraven3

adverts like that do not worry me
what DOES concern me is the lack of knowledge, mainly parents, and yes i am a parent to 3 teens myself, of sites like tumblr, thousands of pages showing young girls how to achieve not only thigh gaps but bones sticking out, hip, ribs collar bones as that is what they define as "true beauty"

these sites are designed to appeal to teens, and their content is quite shocking, the more you look, the darker it becomes, teens cutting and expressing their emotions, VERY disturbing that young people feel this way over how they look:(
thousands of teens, and i am pretty sure their parents have no idea

this needs a addressing far more than any clothes site i'm afraid

claire16c

The pictures just look like the legs of a slim person. They don't look
Photoshopped or abnormal at all, as she's probably very tall plus naturally slim.

I just went and looked because I had no idea if I had this 'thigh gap' or not and it turns out there's about a 1.5cm gap if I stand with my feet touching. I'm about a size 8/10 on the bottom.

I have friends who are smaller or similar size to me so I'd expect their legs would be similar. My legs look not that much different to those in the pic except that above the knee my thighs go out & get bigger as they go up more than on those photos - however the model is wearing a skirt so we can't tell what hers are really like anyway. Plus she's probably about 6 inches taller than me so there would be more leg before this started to happen if you see what I mean.

I find it ridiculous people assume just because someone doesn't have thighs rubbing together they are dangerous skinny and it must be a fake picture!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

claire16c wrote: »

The pictures just look like the legs of a slim person. They don't look
Photoshopped or abnormal at all, as she's probably very tall plus naturally slim.

I just went and looked because I had no idea if I had this 'thigh gap' or not and it turns out there's about a 1.5cm gap if I stand with my feet touching. I'm about a size 8/10 on the bottom.

I have friends who are smaller or similar size to me so I'd expect their legs would be similar. My legs look not that much different to those in the pic except that above the knee my thighs go out & get bigger as they go up more than on those photos - however the model is wearing a skirt so we can't tell what hers are really like anyway. Plus she's probably about 6 inches taller than me so there would be more leg before this started to happen if you see what I mean.

I find it ridiculous people assume just because someone doesn't have thighs rubbing together they are dangerous skinny and it must be a fake picture!

Actually, if you look properly, you will see that, on the close up shot, the model's thigh does get wider immediately above the stripe in the tights, but this has been photoshopped out of the full leg length shot.


The dangerous thing about Photoshopping is not that it's done, but that people don't recognise it's being done.

Person_one

Before:



After:



Photoshopping has definitely distorted perceptions of what is normal for women's bodies. These are Victoria's Secret models, and they have thighs that touch at the top!

dizziblonde

Even photos of the "perfect" model are photoshopped. No one looks like they've escaped from the pages of a catalogue (however much posters on here might protest they do) without the help of the stylists, hairdressers, photographers and guy on the computer. People may be naturally slimly built - and want acceptance for that... but then if they want that - they need to accept that others are naturally stockily built and not jump down their throats for not being size 10 or whatever incredibly small number is the ideal this particular week (and there sure as hell ain't that tolerance going around in the world these days).

The photos posted don't worry me - they're photos, they're shopped, styled, manipulated to sell an image - and I hope I raise my girls to be equally as realistic and sceptical about what they see on-screen and in print media... what DOES worry me much more than that is how critical and destructive women together as a group can become - when it's real people you know picking at you and criticising your body, what clothes you wear, the music you listen to - I went to an all-girl school and it was an utterly toxic environment in terms of self-esteem unless you were one of the real in-crowd. Add in mobile phones, facebook and everything else and they can sustain the needling and bullying potentially 24-7, rather than when I used to escape it when I got off the bus at home on a night.

THAT scares me much more than any photos of models you could put out there.

Buttonmoons

My friend in college (who's 17 - I'm 25) she most definatley has an eating disorder, I think anorexia with some bulimia on the side. She rarely eats, survives off red bull, says her thighs are fat - she has a huge thigh gap - I could fit my head through it. She's about 5ft 11 and is 50kg - I've never tried a BMI thing on her, but I'm assuming thats underweight for her - Her mother puts her down and her boyfriend is horrible to her - but all I can do is try and make her feel a little bit better about herself.


I despise my legs, I have INCREDIBILY muscly calves - People are always making comments, groups of men like to say "bet she does a lot of squatting" "do you cycle a lot?" etc etc

claire16c

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Actually, if you look properly, you will see that, on the close up shot, the model's thigh does get wider immediately above the stripe in the tights, but this has been photoshopped out of the full leg length shot.


The dangerous thing about Photoshopping is not that it's done, but that people don't recognise it's being done.

I see what you mean on the right leg on the first pic but my friend has very similar legs to this and she doesn't have thighs that go out until right at the top near her bum. The second & third pics don't look like that, they do start to go out.

My friend doesn't like wearing short skirts because she worries people will think she has skinny legs & knobbly knees.