Don't Mind the Gap

Hello!

So, many of you read my rant about instagram a few months back about how there are a lot of negative and disordered messages being spread. A lot of you were particularly appalled to find out that #thighgap was an actual hashtag that lead to a lot of pro-ana/thinspiration images.

This upset me too, as girls and women are being encouraged to strive for an extremely unhealthy indicator of weight on which they base their self-worth.

Let's be honest; which one looks healthier and sexier?

Well, a while back, I stumbled upon a new hashtag that made me very happy. #fuckthighgaps! This was started by Chantal over at Nutty4Nutrition and she totally rocked it.

Lately, I have been paying attention to my own body language and the way I handle my body when I am not comfortable in my own skin. I realized that sometime in the past 6 months, I picked up a really bizarre habit. I find that when I am bumming around my house in shorts, I walk like someone who just got off of a horse, with my legs apart (okay, it's not that bad, but I feel like I look ridiculous). I guess that when my thighs started to become a little meatier, I started walking differently to keep them from rubbing together.

Why did I start doing this?? Maybe I am more influenced by social media perpetuated physical ideals than I thought I was. The fact is, I am never going to have a thigh gap again and I really don't want one! It's not attractive and it's not realistic. Everybody is built differently and some people are more likely to have a thigh gap than others.

But really, why would you strive towards such an insignificant thing? It will not make you happier, your friends will not like you better and men are not going to find you more attractive (it's not the gap between your thighs that they're interested in). The sad thing is that the media has led us to believe that thigh gaps are beautiful and necessary, and so many people fall into that trap.

The photo above really bothered me because the middle picture has so clearly been photoshopped to enhance her thigh gap as though without it she would somehow be inferior.

Not to sound too corny, but girls, it's the size of your brains, your hearts and your smiles that really matters, not the size of your thigh gaps. 

Now, I am off to work, where I will walk like a normal person and my thighs will become friends rather than avoiding each other, I hope you all can happily do the same :)

xoxo