21st March 2011

Link reblogged from i am i am i am with 355 notes

Musings on the gap. →

findingthinagain:

Everyone knows which gap I’m talking about. The one between your thighs. 1/2 inch, two inches, three inches - the bigger the better, but ultimately most girls trying to lose weight would kill for the gap no matter how big or small it may be. But what I want to know is, why?
What’s so special about this little space? Who decided that it’s the end all be all sign of “skinny”? To be honest, I didn’t even know that it was until I found the vast (and sometimes terrifying) world of weight loss tumblrs. I fought exercise bulimia last year and dropped to my lowest weight ever, hitting rock bottom at a BMI of 15.5. Did I have a thigh gap? I have no idea, because I didn’t think that was something that mattered. I didn’t have a blog at the time, so my disorder was mine - no one knew about it, I didn’t share it with anyone, I didn’t tell anyone my goals.
When I made this tumblr though, I started thinking that maybe there was something to this gap craze. Maybe my thighs really were fat if they touched at the top. So I worked on making a gap happen, and I ended up with a pretty nice one. But for the past 4 weeks I’ve been legitimately trying to strengthen my legs - not just tone, but strengthen. And since then, my gap has been getting smaller. And I’ll be honest with you all, at first that bothered me. I didn’t want huge thighs. But then I realized how freaking awesome my thighs look right now, and I decided that I’m not going to let a made up ideal affect me.
Because that’s what it is. A made up ideal, perpetuated by this community. I love tumblr, and I love each and every one of you that follow me and that I follow, but this is stupid. And we can stop it. We can stop perpetuating these made up ideals. Why do we have to see a thigh gap, collarbones, hipbones, and ribs before we can see beauty? Why can’t we just skip all that arbitrary crap and really see ourselves and each other for what we really are, which is beautiful at every weight?
I’m not holding myself to other peoples’ standards anymore. I’m beautiful, and nothing is going to change that. Not the bones I can or cannot see, and especially not a space between my thighs.

What’s so special…

Source: findingthinagain