I will say first-hand that I'm all about equal rights for women. I'm a woman and I love women. All my role models so far (including my mother and my grandmother) have always been strong, independent, great women and I owe this life to them, to all the feminist movements that fight for women.
Recently, feminism has become so much stronger and more powerful than ever, especially with all the positive messages sending to women of all shapes and sizes to overcome body image issues and be proud of our precious body. This is so important and remarkable.
However, I have to say I don't agree with the most recent movement called #NoThighGap which is currently on trend on Twitter and Instagram. In short, #NoThighGap is about women sharing pictures of their thighs showing they are proud of their body regardless, given that thigh gap has always been considered attractive and desirable by media and pop culture.
Don't get me wrong. I do understand this movement is well-intended and I love the positive message but here's why I don't agree with it: It's not well-thought and rather insensitive. Especially the hashtag #NoThighGap. If it's about all thighs are beautiful, then why isn't it called #AllTypesOfThigh but specifically #NoThighGap?
Now we know thigh gap is mainly about bone structure, which means that the people who have thigh gap are probably born with one. I actually have no thigh gap (and I'm neutral about it) but I do have many female friends who are naturally skinny with a thigh gap. Thus I can't help but be worried they might see this popular hashtag and think there is something wrong with their body or they should somehow remove their thigh gap.
And even if this movement really has an underlying good intention promoting all thighs -- well, despite the fact that apparently the people taking part in this movement are only people with no thigh gap praising no thigh gap, then should my skinny friends take a picture of their naturally born thigh gap and hashtag #NoThighGap now?
I mean, does this sound ironic enough? How good is a movement if it's already misleading in its title?
This gives me the exact same confused feeling as when I saw all the body diversity movement on trend, the one that claims to be about diversity but only features plus-sized women. If it's about all bodies are beautiful, then shouldn't skinny women be featured and thus proud of their bodies the same way too?
Back to this #NoThighGap hashtag, it is indeed on trend because so many people could relate to the hashtag itself, i.e. having no thigh gap but being made trendy by a majority of women doesn't instantly make it about all women and all thighs. More importantly, thigh gap is not just about a beauty trend. To many people, it's as real as the fact that they are born with coloured skin and stretch marks. And if not already, these women should be included in any feminist movement too, even in its title.
In my opinions, I don't think praising no thigh gap is a permanent solution. Why don't we make thigh gap a neutral thing - the same way we should with body type - and stop attaching values of beauty to any of these body forms so that wearing a swimsuit or showing a stretch mark or taking a picture of our thigh doesn't have to be brave but just a perfectly normal thing?
Or if we want to make known that all body forms are beautiful, we really need to do it all equally at the same time!
Speaking of beauty and equality, how about #AllHumansAreBeautiful movement?
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