A few weeks ago, you may remember the news of the A4 paper challenger sweeping the Internet. Made popular by Chinese women, this challenge is a way for women to show off their skinny waistlines. Granted, the viral attempt did not go over well with larger Americans or those who support equality for all body types. A hashtag quickly surfaced with both women and men stating they are not paper-thin. Challenges relating to body image and weight are nothing new to our social media generation. We've seen things as ridiculous as the Kylie Jenner lip challenge go viral, so nothing is that surprising to us. If anything, we might have tried one of these challenges before out of curiosity. Still, other self-conscious beauty trends continue to plague our society.
The thigh gap trend has been hotly debated in the past few years. While some females may naturally have this feature, it is uncommon for most of us. As a person with a small frame, reaching the thigh gap standard still seems nearly impossible. Yet, many out there have done what they could to diet to achieve this goal. Some have even gone to the lengths of surgery. It is not hard to see the evidence of our society peer pressuring our women into believing these ideals of beauty. These trends our highly damaging to the young people of our world.
Though the A4 trend seems to have passed, a new piece of news has gone viral this past week, and this time it isn't a trend. Soo Kyung Bae, a designer from Singapore, has seemingly created jewelry to follow the thigh gap obsession. Now everyone who is blessed enough to have a thigh gap can decorate the empty space with a slim piece of gold tassels. Your lean thighs would also have a touch of glam added to them as the chain wraps around them to hold the focal point of the jewelry in place. The best comparison would be that it's simply a necklace for your thighs. Talk about being stylish and trendy from head-to-toe.
The website offering the jewelry may seem legitimate at first glance, but in actuality the people behind this project are speaking out against the standards we place on women. When a prospective customer click to checkout, they are instead directed to a page explaining that everything is a hoax. Sorry, no thigh gap jewelry for you.
A lot of Internet surfers who have come across the website have thought the jewelry was real. This was probably Bae's intention and an intelligent scheme on her part. Her goal was to have people reflect on the things we value and obsess over. We're supposed to wonder why anyone would yearn to be a specific body type. We're supposed to dig deeper as to why America has prevalent cases of girls developing eating disorders and why so many are self-conscious towards their bodies. Is idolizing skinny Victoria's Secret models really beneficial to a girl out there who has a larger figure?
Companies like Dove, Aerie and Neutrogena have launched campaigns to inspire women to break down these ideals that society has set for us. Bae's thigh gap jewelry hoax is the icing on the cake and is bound to add more to the discussion. With viral trends like the paper-thin challenge, there will always be everyday millennials who speak out against these ideals on social media. It may just be a dream to change society's ideal woman, but people like Bae will not stop fighting. They want to keep the conversation going, so that women everywhere know that they don't have to starve themselves to get the model look.
