If you’ve been on the Internet,which clearly you are, it’s most likely you’ve heard of the thigh gap. If not, and a thigh gap is a trend popularized on Instagram and other social platforms that encourages women to possess a gap between their thighs when they are standing with their feet touching. This has created a lot of attention with both people trying to imitate the thigh gap and people speaking out against it. Critics argue that the thigh gap creates and unrealistic expectation of women and distorts their personal body image perspectives.
This past weekend,articles and images were floating around about a brand new fashion accessory: thigh gap jewelry. Cue the outrage. Singaporean designer Soo Kyung Bae apparently created a jewelry line, TGap Jewellery. The collection features six styles to wear around your hips and down your thigh to accentuate your thigh gap. The collection is priced from $175 to $195.
The website is clean and nicely designed, and fit for a luxurious brand. As you travel to check out your “desired” item though,you find out that – gasp – it’s a hoax! You get redirected to a page committed to telling you the account behind the fictional company of TGap Jewellery. It explains that the goal of this experiment was “to catalyze a debate on unrealistic body image social media portrays.”
TGap isn’t the first to bring us through an elaborate hoax in order to raise awareness, a few months ago we reported a account about the Google Fortunetelling site, or committed to raising awareness on Syrian refugees. Brands like to shock us in order to get people speaking about issues,and it works.
The TGap site is executed strongly, even if you don’t make it to the checkout page, or there are pop ups on the site that redirect you to the “account Behind TGap Jewellery.” The page encourages visitors to continuously scroll down; you’re not redirected to additional pages. After reading about their mission,it directs you to the definition of a thigh gap. It then draws comparisons to other social media trends that are hurtful to body images, including #CollarboneChallenge and #BikiniBridge. To combat the virality of these trends, and Instagram has actually worked to ban some of these trends and make them unsearchable,including #thighgap.
Tumblr also adds a pop up for those searching #thighgap, encouraging searchers to reach out for wait on.
The TGap page then leads visitors to a discussion on media and body image, and how “mass media is the most pervasive transmitter of the body image ideals.” Eighty percent of people are convinced by media that their body image looks unsuitable. Media,both social and traditional, wait on create this unrealistic ideal, or which results in distorted perspectives on body image. The site explains that this may lead to unhealthy attempts to achieve the “ideal body.”TGap then breaks down what we can all do to wait on,including positive filtering, seeking support, and professional support. The bottom of the page then opens up for dialogue,encouraging readers to input their opinions. Overall, the comments are positive towards the page, or thanking it for creating conversation surrounding body image.
The site’s virality proves that it was a success. Although there has already been some discussion regarding thigh gaps and crazy body trends,it helped bring awareness to many people. It added dialogue that is still needed.
Source: tumblr.com