Body Image, Fashion & Beauty

What’s Wrong With The “Thigh Gap”? Robyn Lawley Explains…

October 31, 2013

Plus size model Robyn Lawley is a woman who is setting the fashion world on fire! The 24 year old Aussie chick made history in 2013 by becoming the first plus size model ever to be hired by Ralph Lauren, which is a powerful statement from a label at the top of the industry. Let’s hope for an impactful trickle-down effect.

Robyn has her own line of swimwear, a blog called Robyn Lawley Eats which dishes on her fave meals in an effort to promote healthy eating habits, and has been on the cover of Vogue Italia, GQ, Elle France and is a regular on the catwalk during fashion week.

She is not one to shy away from speaking publicly about the issues that make her mad when it comes to fashion and body image, especially for young women. In fact, she sees it as her duty to use her voice to speak out in support of positivity, so other females know the difference between realistic and unhealthy self-images.

The Daily Beast asked her to write about a dangerous trend that is being spread even further by the power of social media: the thigh gap. It goes hand in hand with “thinspiration” and Robyn has had enough.

She describes the trend of people posting “idealistic” pictures of thigh gaps on pinterest and instagram as a stupid way to promote weight loss and dieting. When she was a teenager, Robyn remembers watching fashion shows whose models’ thighs would be skinny enough, they would never touch, no matter how vigorously they strutted down the runway. She would compare her own thighs, which always have touched together because she is a curvy girl.

“You can image my surprise when, a year ago, I was featured on a pro “thigh gap” Facebook page. The page displayed an un-retouched photo of me in lingerie. From the photograph, there appeared to be a gap between my thighs. Degrading and humiliating comments followed. I was called too “hefty” to be featured. The word “PIG” was often used to describe my appearance and my thigh gap was said to be not big enough. In the end I couldn’t keep silent, and after 900 or so comments about my body, I decided to chime in.

“I wrote: ‘You sit behind a computer screen objectifying my body, judging it and insulting it, without even knowing it.’ Fortunately for me, thousands of people respect my body, which means I get to travel the world advancing the ideal that healthy is beautiful and true acceptance comes from within, not from comments on a Facebook page.”

“The truth is I couldn’t care less about needing a supposed ‘thigh gap.’ It’s just another tool of manipulation that other people are trying to use to keep me from loving my body. Why would I want to starve and weaken my natural body size? I would have to change my entire frame just to achieve something that seems so trivial.”

Her message is the opposite of what these awful trends are teaching young girls. She wants to be a healthy role model advocating being strong, as opposed to skinny. Every body is built differently, so why are thigh gaps and thinspiration pics determining how a whole generation of women should looks, just to be considered beautiful or attractive?

“Women have enough pressure as it is without the added burden of achieving a ‘thigh gap.’ The last thing I would want for my future daughter would be to starve herself because she thought a ‘thigh gap’ was necessary to be deemed attractive. We have the power to change perceptions about body image—and we have the power to stop harmful trends like the “thigh gap.”

Ladies, please listen to Robyn’s words. She knows all too well what kind of damage a trend like this can have on your self esteem. Don’t be fooled by idiots out there who tell you you aren’t good enough because you don’t look a certain way. You are who you are for a reason. Your worth is NOT tied to your physical appearance. Be healthy, be happy and love the fact that your body is different to everyone else’s.

11 Comments

thigh gap hack says:
November 4, 2013 at 7:52 am

As the author of the book “The Thigh Gap Hack” (http://www.thighgaphack.com) this discussion interests me.

First, this model continues to pose in manners which make it appear as though she has a thigh gap, so she must think the look is in fact attractive or she wouldn’t do it right? This kind of negates her whole argument that she doesn’t care about a thigh gap.

Next, in order to be 6’2 and her size, she has to eat A LOT. Being her height, she should burn a lot of calories (this is why men have to eat substantially more than women to get fat). She is in fact overweight or plus sized although many commenters claim she is of normal weight.

Also, it is entirely possible to get a thigh gap despite not having wide hips. It only takes one person to disprove the theory that it’s impossible. I am that one, and my clients are the many others. Really, a gap boils down to the stubborn fat or muscles in the thigh.

Reasons why an olympian or athlete might not have a thigh gap is because they train their legs super hard (resistance training) and that builds the muscles which literally fills in the gap. Yes, they are lean but they train in a manner that is not conducive to a thigh gap – mainly because they want their bodies to do a specific thing (be more powerful, run faster, swim longer, etc.)

Most women are not trying to meet those goals and exercise or diet for purely aesthetic purposes. In other words, they want to look good naked for themselves and for their significant others. THere’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, nor anything wrong with the fact they consider thin and slim legs an attribute of looking good. Different strokes for different folks. Although, I should add that this is the majority opinion (thin = in)

Lastly, I would like to note that it is not necessary to go to extreme lengths, such as developing an eating disorder, to get a thigh gap. Just as those athletes, body builders and fitness models are able to get lean enough to reveal six pack abs without starving themselves (and actually consuming quite a bit of calories on occasion) a woman can do the same to reduce her body fat to reveal a thigh gap.

The wider your hips, the less body fat you will have to lose, and the narrower your hips the smaller your gap will be. But, the thing about a gap is that there is no one size fits all. As long as you have any bit of space between the legs when your feet are pressed together (heels too) you have a thigh gap!

It’s harder to lose stubborn fat, hence the name, but there are ways to do it safely. I write about it in my book. In fact, I cover diet hacks, exercise hacks, motivational hacks and outside hacks (like specific massage techniques and the latest non invasive treatments for women who don’t necessarily want to get much skinnier elsewhere on the body to achieve skinnier legs).

I just want to encourage you women who want a gap or skinnier legs to stop believing those people who claim it’s impossible or that since they’ll never have on (obvious since they don’t try very hard or do the wrong things) that you can’t have one. Noone is naturally HEFTY or FAT. If other people can do it, you can too!

Reply
- Melissa says:
  November 21, 2013 at 7:52 am
  
  The world needs less of your superficial brand of bigotry. The fact that you authored anything that anyone would take seriously given the blatant idiocy displayed through your comments is troubling. With one breath you defend negative accusations against those seeking or displaying a ‘tigh gap’ as information absent and/or judgmentally flawed for criticizing personal perceptions of beauty, and with the next you make hypocritical comments levying the same (self perceived) wrongs against those not pursuing the feature or sharing a varying perception of beauty by making hateful statements like: “No one is naturally HEFTY or FAT” (fixed your typos btw. Author – rofl).
  
  Are you seriously deluded enough to believe that women of prior generations that’s lifestyle forced hours of daily labor were less healthy than someone “hitting the gym” for an hour or so a number of days a week, while spending the bulk of their time “in the office”? Your stance and statement slander generations of hard working women prior to your introduction to the world, and the subsequent ‘period of enlightenment’ that followed. Those women didnt nor do they have the benefit of allocating a fraction of their day to physical activity, because occupation, social role and other similar demands require(d) that they be physically active for the entirety of a days duration. Grow up and step out of your own narcissism long enough to see the world with some clarity.
  
  But then again, I’m talking to someone thats making money by selling a particular brand of BDD (within the very first sentence of your piece no less). Which speaks volumes about your sense or morality and carried depth of personal ethics.
  
  Reply
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Maximilianus00 says:
January 8, 2014 at 7:26 am

Some WOMEN & Men are sick. Do Some other have to explian how they are sick?

Wouldn’t this have been a waste for human kind and disgrace?

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Brad says:
May 27, 2014 at 9:11 pm

As a man, I find Robyn absolutely, delightfully beautiful from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

I especially admire her for standing up to the idiocy run amok in the fashion world where 5’10” and 95 lbs is advocated as the supposedly “desired size” for women. Those models mostly look sick to me. If I ever met one, the first thing I would do is buy them a cheese burger and fries with a shake to go.

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