We all have been told by our mothers to love ourselves. Our closest girlfriends tell us that we are just beautiful the way we are. But do we actually believe them? Most of the time, no. No matter how many compliments a woman gets, it’s never enough; they’re never enough. It’s hard to believe that we’re perfect the way we are when the ‘perfect body’ in media looks completely different.
There has been a new trend floating around popular websites such as Pinterest and Tumblr, thinspiration. Thinspiration, or thinspo, consists of pictures and quotes to encourage weight loss. Weight loss can be a good thing if done the right way, but thinspiration does not work that way. The pictures include extremely thin women with unhealthy looking bodies, with a quote that pushes “skinny is better”.
Thinspiration has always been in our faces; on television, magazines, fashion runways. With the help of social media, thinspiration has become a dangerous trending topic. For those of us who are fit and have the right mindset, thinspiration does not have an effect on us. But for those who are suffering from low self-confidence and not comfortable in their own body, thinspiration can be very addictive. It is very easy to find thinspiration on social media. Girls are looking to thinspiration for encouragement, by starving themselves to obtain the body they desire.
There are many forums online dedicated to discussing thinspiration. They include mostly young women and girls, and even some men, who talk about their “success” of not gaining weight and brag about how much they did not eat. The forums include thinspiration pictures and quotes to keep the users motivated, to keep them from eating and pushing to lose even more weight. Many of the users save their favourite thinspiration pictures to look at later; some even post them on their mirrors. Others memorize thinspirtation quotes such as “Do not reward yourself with food, you’re not a dog.” and “A moment on the lips, forever on the hips.”. Sounds too bad to be true right? Wrong, google doesn’t lie.
The obsession to have a thigh gap, a collar bone that sticks out more boldly than others, or hip bones that stick out, is growing every day. Right now, there are over 50, 000 posts on Instagram under #thighgaps. The trend to have a thigh gap has not stopped growing. A lot of the pictures that I have found online are all of women who look unhealthy. Many of the users on these forums or using the hashtags ‘thigh gap, collar bone, hip bone’ on social media sites , are often a healthy weight or naturally skinny.
Being naturally skinny, I have been told to become a model, “you have the body for it, look at that thigh gap”. Any time I try on clothing at a store, someone points out how skinny I am, green with envy of the thigh gap I was born with. We all have that one friend who eats like a sumo wrestler but yet stays thin (I am that friend). Girls see that their friends with the ideal body they want and they become jealous of their friends’ bodies. What these girls need to understand is that not everyone is meant to be that thin. Just because your friend is naturally skinny, doesn’t mean it’s going to look good on you! Girls need to accept that everyone is different. We all have different body types for a reason.
As young women, it is important for us to stay strong and to not be influenced by the negative images we see in social media. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do about the forums; except report them to the specific website they are on, but even that isn’t enough. The best we can do is post positive fitness images, and push social media to shine the light on having a healthy weight and being fit.
Whether you have a natural thigh gap, or none at all, you are beautiful. You should not be ashamed of the body you have! If you’re pushing to lose weight or stay fit, be sure to do it the right way. Thinspiration is overrated anyway.
Sources:
http://www.alioffthemark.com/2013/05/what-is-thinspo-and-why-is-it-so.html