The Bikini Bridge and the Thigh Gap: Why the LACKadaisical Attitudes Toward Body Image Trends Need to Get Serious

Yesterday, we wrote about fat-shaming in the media.  Since today is Student Saturday, we're going to talk about some fat-shaming trends that are especially popular with teenagers: the bikini bridge and the thigh gap.  If you haven't heard of either, here's some reading material on both:

 Wikipedia Thigh Gap Definition

 Why the Thigh Gap is Mostly Unattainable

 Modeling and the Thigh Gap

4Chan Bikini Bridge Hoax

 Zhou Article: Thigh Gap and Bikini Bridge

Both of these trends focus on something that is particularly interesting to us as feminists: an absence of body.

A disturbingly pervasive Freudian idea fought by feminist theory (if you've heard it, great, if not, we'll be your fabulous, fat, feminist tour guides through theory!) is Freud's description of the female body as a "lack." He characterizes women as inherently less-than men, simply because they lack a phallus. The phallus makes men the superior sex, and women their less-than counterparts. This idea may seem strange, silly, or outdated at first, but it really does pervade our culture today.

The bikini bridge and the thigh gap are perfect examples of Freud's "lack." College student and blogger for the Huffington Post's Women's Blog Angela Zhou describes the obsession with these trends as follows: "How ridiculous does it sound to boast what is thought of as a lucrative physical body part, when in fact no part of anyone's body makes up a thigh gap or bikini bridge. Both are simply an absence of body that many women now worship" (Zhou).

So, let's recap. Freud theorizes about women having lesser status because of what he calls a biological lack and defect.

Decades later, women idolize parts of their body that are lacking--they believe that a thigh gap and a bikini bridge, blank spaces in which their bodies do not exist, increase their value and attractiveness. They strive to lack and succeed whether or not they fail. That is, they either get the gap and thus succeed at lacking, or they fail to obtain a thigh gap and lack the unattainable lack! (yes, it IS ridiculous and circular logic---let's crush this trend!)

 

These trends relate to yet another part of feminist theory: the gaze.  This is easiest to understand in terms of movies and advertisements. The gaze refers to the idea that women on screen are objectified by a male gaze. You can see this in certain commercials for shampoo or lotion when the camera focuses on a section of a woman's body, dehumanizing the woman and using her as an object to sell a product.

While using a leg or arm in an advertisement for lotion makes sense, the issue here is that it follows a trend of objectifying women and women alone.

The thigh gap, though new to some, is actually quite old.

It comes from the modeling industry, an industry that caters directly to the gaze by encouraging unhealthy body obsessions.

However, it has now leaked into popular culture through the media, and now this unhealthy obsession is not only a problem that models face, but one that young girls face. In her piece for the Huffington Post, Zhou recalls sitting on the beach talking inanely about the thigh gap with her friends.

In the WW's experience with student teaching, she heard many young girls talking about the thigh gap as well. 

This is a serious issue, and one that focuses on something that doesn’t even exist.  It is literally an obsession with nothing.

As though these problems weren’t troubling enough, the unhealthy thigh gap obsession is furthered by the fact that it is literally physically unattainable for some women (see article linked above) because their bone structure does not allow for it. SOUNDS FAMILIAR. Just as Freud Others women as the “lacking” (less privileged, less valued and esteemed) counterpart to men, women who seek an unattainable thigh gap devalue themselves over something that they cannot possibly obtain! (Even if they do manage to obtain it, they are OBTAINING A LACK OF SOMETHING).
Why participate in trends that celebrate something that isn't there? This is the trend of the unattainable; the celebration of what women don't have rather than what they do.

Similarly, we have the bikini bridge.

If you read the articles above, you know that the bikini bridge began as a way to shame fat people, devised by an individual on 4chan. (In the BB’s experience, other users on this website post horrible and offensive things, too). This is such a prevalent and important issue to discuss because it is so old YET current, it ties into Freud’s theory AND feminist theory, it is meant to be “thinspiration” YET it is anything but (healthily) inspirational.

Again, the lack of space between the two hip bones, leaving them exposed to hold up a bikini bottom so that it does not touch the typically flat stomach beneath, shows how the female lack is idolized. What supposedly began as a cruel joke to shame fat people who couldn’t obtain the bikini bridge—and those people who aren’t even fat but still can’t obtain it—has turned into something that some women actually expect of themselves.

In addition to STRIVING to LACK SOMETHING, both the bikini bridge and the thigh gap encourage unhealthy behaviors. This isn’t about shaming skinny people by un-shaming fat people or saying that skinny is bad and fat is good, or vise versa; it isn’t about saying that dieting is no good; it isn’t about denying the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. IT’S ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE BIKINI BRIDGE AND THE THIGH GAP, FOR MOST, ARE PHYSICALLY UNOBTAINABLE AND LUSTING AFTER THEM DRAGS WOMEN BACK INTO A PLACE OF LITTLE EMPOWERMENT AND UNHEALTHY BEHAVIORS. WOMEN STRIVE FOR A LACK WHEN THEY SHOULD BE STRIVING FOR SELF-LOVE AND WHOLENESS.

 We're going to say that again because it is really important.  Instead of focusing on being a confident, comfortable, WHOLE human being, women are trained to focus on a mostly unobtainable LACK of body.  The entire quest to be thinner to be prettier, or even to be thinner to be healthier, is based on the idea that the less space you occupy, the more worthy you are of being a human being.  This next example comes from the WW's favorite show, Doctor Who.  For those Whovians who started with Rose Tyler and Christopher Eccleston, think back to Cassandra, the last human.  For those of you who don't watch Doctor Who, do that.  But if you don't have time, here's what I'm talking about.  Rose and the Doctor travel five billion years into the future to see the final destruction of the Earth, and attending the event are other notable, wealthy members of alien society.  One of these celebrities is Cassandra O'Brien, the last pure human.  She is literally a piece of skin, stretched like a canvas, with a face.  She has achieved PURE human beauty for a woman, and that beauty is unparalleled thinness.  Here's a picture for all the non-whovians:

You can also see this idea in the following spoken word poem, which focuses on the shrinking of women to accommodate male figures in their lives:

 Spoken Word Poem

The two trends we focused on today, the bikini bridge and the thigh gap, feed into this bizarre idea of worth based on less space occupied.  Unfortunately, these ideas are readily available and accessible to young people.  That's what makes these trends dangerous.