Friday, November 08, 2013

The Thigh Gap


This is not a gender gap.  It's the gap which Lululemon company's founder Chip Wilson thinks should exist between women's thighs:

If you are one of the women who spent $98 on a pair of Lululemon pants and found them to be faulty, the company’s founder would like you to know: It’s not the pants’ fault. It’s your thighs.
“Frankly some women’s bodies just don’t actually work for it,” founder and former designer Chip Wilson said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. One design of Lululemon yoga pants was recalled for being too see-through last May. And while Wilson admitted that he knows there was a serious flaw with the sheerness of their pants, he said new complaints over pants pilling just shows that “they don’t work for some women’s bodies”:
Even our small sizes would fit an extra large. It’s really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there over a period of time, how they much they use it.

So I immediately checked in the mirror!  Feet touching, check.

I only have a gap between the lower thighs, from knees half-way up.  The tops of my thighs sorta touch*.  Now I have to buy a pair of yoga pants to learn which part of my body is created all wrong for this clothing!  Or I guess I could try to walk straddle-legged while wearing them.

More seriously, as the linked article states, desiring to have a "thigh gap" or beginning to expect that women should have one can be dangerous:
Women’s legs naturally touch. In fact, there’s growing concern among eating disorder specialists over a fad trend of trying to achieve a “thigh gap” — having thighs that don’t meet even when one’s feet are touching. That’s physically impossible for most people, but has nonetheless become a goal for young women putting pressure on themselves to look a certain way.
This judgmental crap about women's bodies is very tiring.  It absorbs energy that could be used for doing good, for having fun, for just living.  When it all gets too much for you, think of the fact that nobody's tomb stone will say "She achieved an incredible thigh gap."



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*All this applies to the human avatar.  The goddess part of me has a single scaly tail and would never consider wearing yoga pants!  Or anything but emeralds.

Added later:  Turns out that Chip Wilson is not keen on working women or women on the pill.  For instance, here are his conclusions about breast cancer:
"Breast cancer also came into prominence in the 1990's. I suggest this was due to the number of cigarette-smoking Power Women who were on the pill (initial concentrations of hormones in the pill were very high) and taking on the stress previously left to men in the working world."
For some actual stuff about cancer risk and contraceptive pill, check out this site.   And then look for alternative firms that sell yoga pants.