“We Could Never Look Like the Girls from Tumblr”
How the Body Phenomenon Sparked a Generation of Eating Disorders
TW: Eating disorders and body image issues are discussed heavily throughout this text. Please proceed with caution.
If you were an internet user between the years of 2012-2014, you’ll remember the thigh gap phenomenon. According to the ‘thigh gap’ Wikipedia page, December of 2012 saw the thigh gap receive worldwide news coverage after the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, in which numerous models had distinct gaps between their thighs. From there, it became a fucking shit storm globally.
Recently, the popular picture-sharing company of Pinterest banned all weight loss ads from their platform, with active guidance from the National Eating Disorders Association in the US to update their policies. However, this has definitely not always been the case. Before Pinterest dominated the social media realm, there was Tumblr. Tumblr, another social media networking site, was hugely popular in the early 2000s. With hardly any restrictions on the content users were exposed to, the amount of graphic and highly damaging subject matter displayed was enormous, especially around body image.
Gabby was one of the many who suffered through the thigh gap phenomenon, starting on Tumblr. She reported coming across the ‘thinspo’ and ‘thigh gap’ hashtags on Tumblr when starting high school, as well as the ‘ana’ (short for anorexia) and ‘mia’ (short for bulimia) tags. In the ‘ana’ and ‘mia’ pages, Gabby talks about how everyone involved would “share tips on how to hide eating disorders from your family and friends”, eventually turning Gabby to her bulimia as it was “easier to hide”. The amount of people reblogging these harmful tips convinced Gabby that this behaviour was normal.
Carrie was another girl targeted by the phenomenon. She was signed up to the popular Tumblr pages such as ‘ProAna’ and ‘AnaSays’, romanticising eating disorders and idolising anorexia. She recalls watching videos that showed how to give liposuction with scissors and straws, which she even began to attempt herself, as well as taping the top of her thighs to appear smaller. “15-year-old me was OBSESSED with the idea of thigh gaps and overall being skinny.” Taping the top of your thighs was extremely common to try and pursue the thigh gap beauty standard, with yet another girl by the name of Kelly sharing how she wrapped rigid strapping tape around her thighs to the point where it would “cause pins and needles, cos it would cut the circulation off in my legs”.
Thigh gaps are almost impossible for most women to achieve. The majority of female bodies simply aren’t built that way, with clinical psychologist Dr Barbara Greenberg describing the craze on The Journal.ie website in 2013 as a “pipe dream”. “It is a matter of bone structure [which] the majority of women do not have.” But when the masses worship something so much, you begin to feel extremely alienated when you don’t fit into that standard. You compare yourself and your body to the bodies that are idolised worldwide, agonising over how you don’t look like them.
Rosa’s story of her first comparison of herself to those with thigh gaps begins in intermediate. On the playground, as a 12-year-old girl, she remembers “the girls who had thigh gaps were showing off that they had them, and the girls who didn’t have one were talking about how much they wanted them”. As soon as she got home, she searched up ‘how to get a thigh gap in 10 days’ on YouTube. This sadly doesn’t come as a surprise, with Google Trends showing that the region of New Zealand has the most searches of the term ‘thigh gap’ in the world.
Throughout high school, Gabby was also surrounded by a toxic environment of comparison, finding a group of friends who also followed the same hashtags and Tumblr blogs as her. “We would do thigh gap workouts together and ‘support’ each other’s eating disorders. We all got to a point where we could no longer pinch the fat on our bodies, but we were still unhappy because a thigh gap is unobtainable for most… No matter how small we got, we never looked like the girls on Tumblr. We would never be happy with ourselves.”
The impacts from this brainwashing trend sparked incredibly damaging effects both mentally and physically, with these ideals still heavily ingrained in the minds of many today. Gabby was exposed to daily ‘inspiration’ on how not to eat meals which included smoking as nicotine is an appetite suppressant. “Unfortunately, I’m still suffering from eating disorders and a nicotine addiction at 20 years of age.” Rosa also notes how the thigh gap phenomenon “still haunts me to this day”, as it was the time period in which her insecurities “got more serious”.
Kelly was also heavily influenced by this obsession to have a thigh gap and be skinny, sparking her long battle with extreme binging and restricting. “Last year, I was looking into weight loss surgery as I felt I wouldn’t be skinny any other way, but I decided to try and lose weight myself one last time. I did Optifast for a month. Finally, I got to the end of the month and had my first solid food as a ‘treat’ and it started the worst binge of my life. I binged for two weeks straight and I was so stuffed, I would be throwing up full food items.”
When asking my interviewees how they worked through their trauma as a result of the thigh gap phenomenon, I was met with some wonderful responses of recovery. The message of ‘reaching out’ when you need help is extremely important when it comes to topics like these, with Carrie taking the advice into her own hands throughout her own struggles, saying “I had a family friend who has a sporty, similar build to me. She was so confident in her skin, which stopped me taping my legs. I later told her I was really trapped in this situation and she helped me any time I needed it, sometimes helping me dress.” It can take an incredible amount of courage to ask for help, but Carrie’s story shows that while it can be scary, reaching out and letting your loved ones know what is going on can make a world of difference.
Kelly’s recovery story is also full of hope, shown on her journey to reclaiming and loving her body. Upon starting her Tik Tok, Kelly found a safe haven online. She discovered people who were on their own self-love journey, avoiding diet culture and negative stigmas. This sparked her personal experience with self-love that grew into something beautiful. “I truly fell in love with myself. I started buying clothes in my size that I actually liked, and I started doing whatever the fuck I wanted and didn’t feel bad about it or worry what other people thought.” Kelly still faces her own moments of struggle from time to time, but she claims to be so much happier “being fat and loving myself”, instead of being “skinny and starving myself”.
Beauty standards change so rapidly within our society. Back then, it was thigh gaps that were all the rage. Nowadays, the idea of being ‘thicc’ and having a huge ass is heavily glorified on the internet. Instead of focusing on loving our bodies the way they are in this moment, we have turned body types into ‘passing trends’ like a fashion cycle, constantly changing to fit the new societal ideal of what is beautiful.
Your body type might’ve been in trend back then, it might be now, or it might have never been. But we shouldn’t have to wait around for our bodies to be ‘trendy’ to feel at home in our own skin. We shouldn’t have to mold ourselves to fit whatever beauty standard is popular right now. The rise of body positivity on the internet has taken enormous steps in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go. In order to avoid another disaster like the thigh gap craze, representation of all bodies and unlearning of negative weight stigma is needed NOW. If you are wanting to contribute towards this brighter future, a few little things I recommend you start doing are following people of ALL shapes and sizes on your social media platforms, redirecting conversations around weight in your personal life to being more about feelings and less about looks, and reading up on topics such as the fat acceptance movement and anti-diet culture.
Despite the rise of things like body positivity and anti-diet culture, the issue of eating disorders, mental health difficulties, and other issues as a result of the thigh gap craze is just as relevant as it was back then. If you or someone you know is struggling with these issues, please don’t hesitate to reach out for help, whether it’s using the phone numbers listed or approaching a professional in your vicinity. We all deserve to feel beautiful and at home in our own skin. Reaching out for help is a vital step towards feeling that way.
Eating Disorders Association of New Zealand (EDANZ): 0800 2 EDANZ / 0800 2 33269
Lifeline – 0800 543 354 (0800 LIFELINE) or free text 4357 (HELP).
Mental Health Foundation - Free call or text 1737 any time for support from a trained counsellor