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Old Navy Thigh Gap Reach – Thin Shaming Police Strike Again!

old-navy-thigh-gap-photoshopOh, brother! Just when you thought it was safe –

Here we go again! The thin shaming police are really working over time now and seriously reaching with the latest accusations of Old Navy photoshopping a thigh gap on to a ‘plus sized’ mannequin.

For those of you who have googled your way on to this blog – and journalists – please note that a true thigh gap is when someone is standing with their feet together, legs straight and there is a gap or space, ranging from small to large, in between the thighs. I mean, do these bloggers even do any research? They can start with my website or book to educate themselves before blindly throwing terms around to get a reaction.

CLEARLY, if you look at the picture in question from Old Navy’s website, the model has one knee bent and the picture is also taken from an angle. Many women would naturally have a small space between their thighs with the combination of these two things; bent knee and posing at an angle.

Also, is it possible that since we are talking about a mannequin here that the mannequin was actually fashioned in this way.

Finally, I’ve said it a billion times before, and I’ll say it again – there are overweight women and women with what would be considered BIG THIGHS with thigh gaps. This is because of the shape of their hip bones. If these women were to lose fat, they would be the ones with the really large thigh gaps.

On the other hand, there are women with smaller hips who have to work a little harder to get a thigh gap and if they were to lose a lot of fat and follow the other tips in my book to get lean and contour their thighs. They would have a smaller thigh gap.

This mannequin is representing someone’s (in fact, thousands of someones) body out there! It is not unrealistic nor is this picture magically water dunking women into trying to look like the picture. No one is forcing anyone’s hand here – we all have free will and minds to think and rationalize for ourselves! Since when does one model, or one mannequin for that matter, have such a stronghold over us?

n51e3578cd1fe8FACE THE FACTS: Many women and men find thigh gaps sexy, feminine and appealing all on their own. And just look at this picture and you’ll see why.

In the immortal words of Robin Thicke, “You know you want it!” ;D

In Defense of Target – Should Target Have Apologized?

Target-bikini_Photoshop_fail_bottomsIn this week’s roundup of thigh gap news:

TARGET PHOTOSHOP DEBACLE – WHY THEY DON’T NEED TO APOLOGIZE OR EXPLAIN:

As you all know by now Target has come under fire for photoshopping a thigh gap, as well as a narrower hip, arms and torso on a model for its bikini-wear. Ok, so we can all agree that it was a pretty bad photoshop job (and not just some technical glitch as Target claims). It was an oversight that made its way on to their website or a big publicity stunt to get people talking about target, or forgetting about their data breach which was recently in the news.

Of course, you have the hang-wringing, body policing, opportunistic journalists who have taken to their blogs and websites to publicly flog Target for setting ‘unrealistic body goals’ and standards for those girls who saw the ad. “They can’t un-see the ad and the feeling that they got when they looked down at their thighs and wondered why a huge chunk of their private wasn’t missing!”

THIGH GAPS EXIST IN REAL LIFE

Ok, that wasn’t a direct quote, but that’s the gist of their argument. If we dissect their argument we know that first, a girl with a thigh gap is not an unrealistic body goal because there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of women (and men) out there with natural thigh gaps – ergo: very realistic body type.

Of course, there are also plenty of women out there with narrow hips (like my clients and myself) who have gotten slender enough to see some light between their thighs – ergo: very realistic!

target-photoshop-521x336THIS IS STANDARD ADVERTISING PRACTICE

The other aspect of the uproar is that Target would DARE put a thigh gap on a young model who is already pretty slender. “Why would they even do this?!” These overly sensitive, outraged and offended people want to know.

Here’s the thing, every single company does this. So, if you want to be outraged at Target, you should be outraged at everyone – but it’s not healthy to go around raising your blood pressure for silly things such as this.

Companies make advertisements and marketing campaigns that appeal to their target market / demographic. In this case, target wants to TARGET teen girls, who as we all know (along with plenty of adult women) want slimmer thighs and thigh gaps. They find this look to be attractive and desirable.

Target, knowing this, wants the model in its ads to appeal to those young girls who ALREADY want thigh gaps. If Target were to put an obese girl in its pictures on its websites you can be sure that people who don’t find obese women attractive or see themselves reflected in the model won’t be interested in the product regardless of how cut the piece is.

MODELS APPEAL TO WHAT WE LIKE OR ASPIRE TO LOOK LIKE

If they can’t relate to the model or find the model inspirational, they won’t be compelled to want to wear, much less buy, the outfit that she is wearing. This is why the most popular models are beautiful and skinny. Most women want to be skinny and beautiful and look like the models do in the ads. We in turn buy those clothes to look like them!

Come on, we all know this to be true, so to rake Target over the coals for being business savvy, and in fact following common advertising practices is quite silly.

Yes, it was a botched photoshop job, but the only person who should be apologizing is the graphic artist/intern who was clearly either drunk on the job or on his last day. Let’s stop appeasing these extreme people who want to place the blame on everyone but themselves when it comes to their daughter’s/childrens self image.