'First a thigh gap, now leggings legs - toxic body trends are back to haunt us'
Ten years ago, millennial women were standing up straight, with their feet together, looking in the mirror desperately looking for a gap between their thighs - because if you didn't find one, you simply 'weren't thin enough'.
This problematic Noughties trend made women worldwide feel insecure. It was a catalyst to disordered eating and an aching sense of unworthiness. And we're only just collectively healing from it, if we're lucky.
Fast-forward ten years, and so much progress has been made in the body neutrality and positivity space, but you'd be fooled when opening TikTok that things haven't progressed at all, thanks to Gen Z's answer to the toxic thigh gap trend - 'leggings legs'.
Leggings legs is exactly as vile as it first sounds - a so-called trend dictating whether women have the perfect legs to wear leggings or not. Describing the bizarre movement, body-positive influencer A shlee Rose Hartley said online: "I just saw a new trend called 'legging legs' that's circulating the internet. Young people are critiquing their legs in leggings and saying that the perfect legs for leggings is a giant square thigh gap and small legs.
"Here to remind you that all legs are legging legs", she added. But has the damage already been done? Will trends feeding off women's insecurities ever end? Many women flocked to TikTok to share their horror at the videos, reassuring women that "thigh gaps are down to your bone structure", and "less than 1% of the population has a thigh gap." Other women slammed the constant pressure for perfection, saying they were "sick of it."
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It's concerning that now, young, impressionable women will be critiquing their bodies in the same way that we did, staring in the mirror and wondering why their bodies don't fit an almost impossible mould. Only this time, the parameters of perfection are even more impossible, as social media is more accessible than ever.
Many women have reminded others that anyone can wear leggings - regardless of their size (Getty)Another content creator, @bellafernnn, summed it up perfectly: "The majority of us have body image issues and do not appreciate our bodies for what they are, we starve ourselves, and we are getting more sick and not loving ourselves. Do we not understand what we are instilling in the next generation with just having all these trends?"
Leggings legs is just another disturbing trend that surfaced with the sole purpose of pitting women of different body types against each other, giving participators a soapbox to shout about their internalised fatphobia, further marginalising those in curvier and fatter bodies, putting thinner people on a pedestal.
Body confidence influencer Alex Light told me that these body type trends are often targeted at women, and it was only when she was in eating disorder recovery that she realised she needed to change her mindset.
"It takes up a lot of women's time, energy, capacity, and money when they're chasing this 'ideal', so I almost felt compelled to do something because I was angry that I had spent so much of my life trapped on this quest to look 'beautiful' by society's standards," she said.
Alex wants to "push back against beauty standards and refocus so we can put our energy and our capacity into something else, helping to build a more meaningful existence for all of us", rather than focusing on things that are not achievable. And I think that's an ethos we should all get behind.
One woman jibed that there was a "new insecurity on this app [TikTok] every week". Others fumed that 'leggings legs' was "reminiscent of the 2014 Tumblr thigh-gap era", with some pointing out that this trend could be dangerous for those with eating disorders and body dysmorphia.
Thankfully TikTok has acknowledged the danger of this trend as it's reportedly banned all content around 'leggings legs'. Concerningly, a quick five-second search on the app still brings the damaging trend up. The Mirror has reached out to the platform to ask why this content is still accessible.
Psychologist Dr Deborah Gilman agrees trends like this are incredibly dangerous, as she argues they "contribute negatively to affect the mental well-being of those who feel they don't 'fit' the prescribed norm." She warned: "This can result in decreased self-esteem if individuals perceive themselves as falling short."
"The pressure to conform to beauty standards may contribute to anxiety and depression, especially among individuals who feel they do not meet these standards. The constant comparison can foster a sense of inadequacy and contribute to mental health challenges," the expert added.
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As women share their fury over the trend online, the only silver lining in this whole fiasco is that we're collectively calling out toxic body culture as soon as it rears its ugly head. The onus shouldn't be on women to dismantle these terrible trends, but it's promising that the fight is there to weed them out.
Our bodies should be celebrated and loved in every form. But we're so much more than our bodies, and the more we reduce ourselves to this mindset, the further we fall into the trap of overlooking our incredible, tangible achievements in life.
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