Current:Home > Markets'You have legging legs': Women send powerful message in face of latest body-shaming trend -FundPrime
'You have legging legs': Women send powerful message in face of latest body-shaming trend
View
Date:2025-04-13 08:55:18
Thigh gaps are back and resurfacing on the popular social media site TikTok under a new name "legging legs."
The new trend is targeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha users as it gains traction with its hashtag.
On TikTok, many of its users can be seen shown posting videos of them wearing yoga pants, backing up to show their bodies in full view and pointing out their thigh gaps that are, "the best look in yoga pants."
Many users, primarily women, are bashing the trend calling it "hurtful," a "new insecurity," and a reminiscent of the 2014 "body image" posts that circulated on Tumblr.
In 2014, many young girls viewed posts on social media, primarily Tumblr, which showed women standing up straight, their feet together and showing a small gap between their thighs. Girls who did not have a thigh gap were to be considered fat and felt pressure to loose weight in order to fit into the ongoing trend.
Bill to ban minors from social media:Terminating youths' accounts, passes Florida House
TikTok users unite to stop new thigh gap trend
"This is disgusting," said Holly Essler, a clinical therapist, in a TikTok post. "Do not let social media tell your body that it is a trend. If you have a body and you have leggings, you have legging legs. Wear the leggings, be proud, be confident, you have legging legs."
One content creator, who goes by Emily, called social media very toxic and the trend “the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”
“Do we understand that there are 15-year-old girls that wear leggings every single day that now feel that they cannot wear leggings because they don’t have ‘legging legs’?” she asked the trend makers in her TikTok post.
Another user talks about the impact the 2014 Tumblr thigh gap trend that impacted many school-aged girls who pursued that image.
"Let's not do that again," Soph said in her post. "Lets not go back there. If you want to wear leggings, wear leggings. Your legs look beautiful in them no matter what. Leggings are leggings and legs are legs."
'The kind of stuff that lives with you'
One parent was almost brought to tears after hearing about the legging legs trend. Shannon Cole, a mom of teenage girls, says this trend can lead to serious issues like eating disorders, something she went through in her life.
"We're talking about treating a [expletive] thigh gap like it's a trend. It's not a trend. Eating disorders are not [expletive] trends." Cole said in her post. "If you see this video and you have one of those videos up I suggest you take it down. For you own mental health and for all the young women that are going to come across these videos."
Cole said this trend could cause young girls to have body image issues when seeing these types of videos online.
"This is the kind of stuff that lives with you," Cole said.
veryGood! (182)
Related
- Jamie Foxx gets stitches after a glass is thrown at him during dinner in Beverly Hills
- Tearful Isabella Strahan Details Painful Third Brain Surgery Amid Cancer Battle
- A woman wrangled the internet to find her missing husband. Has TikTok sleuthing gone too far?
- Biden administration announces another round of loan cancellation under new repayment plan
- Arkansas State Police probe death of woman found after officer
- The Talk Canceled After 15 Seasons
- Starbucks releases new Mother's Day merch, including sky blue Stanley cup
- Tearful Isabella Strahan Details Painful Third Brain Surgery Amid Cancer Battle
- Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
- Jury convicts Memphis, Tennessee, man of raping a woman a year before jogger’s killing
Ranking
- Civic engagement nonprofits say democracy needs support in between big elections. Do funders agree?
- Manhattan court must find a dozen jurors to hear first-ever criminal case against a former president
- Colorado group says it has enough signatures for abortion rights ballot measure this fall
- Several writers decline recognition from PEN America in protest over its Israel-Hamas war stance
- FACT FOCUS: Inspector general’s Jan. 6 report misrepresented as proof of FBI setup
- Why Kyle Richards Needs a Break From RHOBH Following Mauricio Umansky Split
- Man charged in slaying after woman’s leg found at Milwaukee-area park
- Biden is canceling $7.4 billion in student debt for 277,000 borrowers. Here's who is eligible.
Recommendation
US wholesale inflation accelerated in November in sign that some price pressures remain elevated
A near-total ban on abortion has supercharged the political dynamics of Arizona, a key swing state
If O.J. Simpson’s assets go to court, Goldman, Brown families could be first in line
Lonton Wealth Management Center: The impact of previous FOMC rate hikes on global financial markets
The 401(k) millionaires club keeps growing. We'll tell you how to join.
Maine’s supreme court overrules new trial in shooting of Black man
World reacts to O.J. Simpson's death, from lawyers and victim's relatives to sports stars and celebrities
International migrants were attracted to large urban counties last year, Census Bureau data shows