The Thigh Gap

The glorification of diet fads such as the Dukan, “No Carbs before Marbs” and Samantha Brick’s latest contribution to the world of journalism, the “polo diet”, has convinced women of all ages and sizes that life just isn’t worth living if the gap between your thighs is less than three inches.  British women these days are 5’6 on average and weigh in around 10st 3lbs, giving them a BMI of 23 and placing them in the upper-half of the ‘healthy’ scale.  Sure, you could lose 6 BMI points and still hover around the healthy mark, but why can’t we be happy in our own skin?

It’s a kick in the teeth to anyone who has suffered from an eating disorder, seeing all their hard work to reach a healthy weight dismissed in favour of people wanting to know your diet tips, your gym routine and your favourite “thinspo” sites.  If you ask a girl who she aspires to look like then chances are she’ll reel off the name of a heavily-modified pop star or Victoria’s Secret model, rather than an ambassador for health and fitness. There are endless apps to help you document your calorie intake, magazine spreads dedicated to two-week diets and ITV’s ‘Lorraine’ recently aired a fifteen-minute segment entitled “Mind the Gap” that showed “six simple exercises for lovely-looking thighs," along with an interview with a woman who, alarmingly, underwent plastic surgery in order to achieve the coveted look.

There's nothing wrong with admiring a supermodel, but make sure it's for the right reasons..

What the health blogs, television panels and newspaper articles are consistently failing to recognise is the paper-thin line between promoting healthy lifestyles and encouraging activities associated with a destructive mental illness. You might start out with the best intentions, but if you’re skipping carbs after midday and sticking to salad for dinner then your body will start to suffer physically as a result. You might have that thigh gap, but the skin on your hands will start to peel, crack and bleed.  You might be able to squeeze yourself into that size six dress, but will that matter when your hair starts falling out?  Not to mention the bruises, the headaches, the fainting, the furtive whispers of others, and the irreversible organ damage that comes from long-term malnutrition and excessive working out.

Olympic heroines Jessica Ennis and Rebecca Adlington were trolled during the Summer 2012 games for their muscular ‘unfeminine’ body shapes and heavy weights, but when it comes to tests of endurance I’d put my money on Jessica over Cara Delevigne any day.  My thighs are touching as I’m writing this, and I’m happy.  Self-confidence should come from strength, ambition, and achieving your goals; in an age where women are equal, and taught to strive for success, why on earth are we not encouraged to make our bodies as strong as our minds?