Posted October 5, 2013

Star, The (South Africa)

It’s the latest weight loss craze among American teens striving to emulate the models they see in magazines: the “thigh gap”, in which slender legs, when standing with feet together, do not touch.

Experts say the cost of what teens see as an ideal body shape is self-esteem problems that can lead to eating disorders, depression and even suicide.

On Tumblr, Pinterest and Facebook, “thigh gap” photos abound: close-ups of sometimes unbearably skinny legs published by young girls eager to show off their success – or bemoan what they see as a failure to whittle away fat.

“My thigh gap is huge,” brags a Tumblr user with the handle foster-the-beatles.

Another user, skinnysizezero, cheers her fellow dieters on, saying: “Together we can lose weight. Together we can be skinny.”

The obsession with leg shape is not new, but has been dramatically amplified by social media websites and their 24/7 influence on the lives of American teens.

The fan Twitter account Cara’s Thigh Gap is dedicated to the extreme slenderness of British model Cara Delevingne.

But clinical psychologist Barbara Greenberg warned that for most women, the “thigh gap” is a pipe dream, even via dieting and exercise.

“Most women are not built that way to have that space between their thighs,” she said.

“It is a matter of bone structure,” she said.

For teenagers, adopting what Greenberg called an “unrealistic obsession” can be dangerous – increasing pressures that can lead to depression, even suicidal behaviour, as well as to severe eating disorders, which can cause lasting brain and bone damage.

Shannon Snapp, a sociologist at the University of Arizona, blames magazines, movies and TV for spreading the “thin ideal” and urges consumers to stop buying into it.

“That message is internalised by young women and girls: If you want to be successful, if you want to be liked, this is the way you should look,” Snapp said – “thin everywhere except for their breasts.

“Teenage girls are probably the most likely to be feeling the pressure to look that particular way, because they are going through puberty: For the first time, they are compared to adult women,” she said.

Likewise, San Jose State University sociologist Natalie Boero said the skinny-obsessed “are looking for social acceptance and to fit in”.

“Young women are aware that in a sexist and sizeist culture, their bodies are their currency, and they are looking to increase their perceived social value,” she said.

Abigail Saguy, a body image expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, said: “Attaining thinness is a way of signalling elite social status.”

Worse, “fatness not only connotates low social status, it may predict low social status”.

“Studies show that heavier girls and women are less likely to get hired and when they are hired, they are paid less,” Saguy said, adding that larger women were also less likely to marry.

However, a counter-movement against the “thigh gap” is building, with girls also taking to social media to mock the obsession.

One YouTube video, 5 Ways to Fake a Thigh Gap, posted by “tadelesmith”, suggests, for example, that girls who want a gap between their thighs should move their legs apart.

And on Twitter, Common White Girl says she is relieved that her thighs touch, saying: “Not having a thigh gap saved my phone from falling in the toilet.” – Sapa-AFP

The Star

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