It
is a full-time job keeping up with the news today. 24/7 outlets maintain a
constant chatter. What is going on around my neighborhood, my state, the
nation, and around the world makes for a never-ending text, video and audio
stream.
Since
it is impossible to keep up, I do not try. I scan headlines and get a vague
idea of what is happening in my world.
Sometimes
I overlook important developments.
A
recent trend I initially missed impacts most young women, some middle-aged
women, and doubtless only amuses older women.
I
missed the latest craze in framing a slim silhouette, a significant body element
to check off one’s body image worksheet.
I
wrote previously about the thigh gap here, the body image trend of the year for
2013. For those unaware of this figure feature desired by young females, it is
an open space between the thighs formed when standing with feet together.
The
latest litmus test of the thinspiration body is a term I recently heard for the
first time – bikini bridge. It just may be the 2014 body trend of the year.
And
remember – you probably heard it here first!
The
Urban Dictionary defines the term as follows:
When a girl
in a bikini lies down and her hip bones protrude well past their flat stomach
causing their bikini bottom to stretch across and gap is formed for a beautiful
view of their vaginal front also referred to as hood.
The
expression is new, according to my limited research, and actually began as an
Internet hoax. I have no idea whether or not this is true, but it seems plausible
that this kind of nonsense spreads like wildfire nowadays and people believe
without question.
I
raised boys, so did not deal with little girls and issues of their changing bodies,
skinniness, constant dieting, and body image. But I had plenty of problems dealing
with these issues personally since puberty and continuing until the present
day. I bet most women deal with these issues sometime during their lives.
The
ultra-thin model Twiggy displayed the body du jour during my formative teen
years. An assortment of tall, thin, mostly blonde models followed. The feminist
movement raged about the negative messages models and skinny celebrities
presented to young girls, but over the years and decades not much changed.
The
chances of attaining such perfection are slim (pun intended) to none for the overwhelming
majority of women.
Standards
may not be more difficult to achieve today, but I think the language of
perfection is more detailed – thigh gap and bikini bridge being two examples of
body image terms unheard of years ago.
The
ideal woman’s figure, according to mass media commentary constantly pounded
into our brains, embraces skeletal shoulders, small but defined, high busts, a
tiny waist, no stomach, narrow hips, no butt, and slim thighs.
Past
and present I carry a more zaftig, hourglass figure. No amount of zumba,
Pilates, yoga or any combination of diet and exercise will transform me into a
slim Jane. At one time we – women of a certain age - wanted to be Jane
Fonda-wannabes – tight body, slim, tiny waist, poufy hair, not an ounce of fat
hanging anywhere.
Then
we grew wise and realized no amount of Jane’s exercise tapes, diets, or
anything else was going to transform us into something we were not.
A
few teenagers and twenty-somethings are genetically blessed with a thinsational
shape. Models and celebrities constantly work at maintaining their body
beautiful, as do a few fitness freaks.
The
rest of us muddle through life with the body we were born with.
Maybe
one day things will change. It would be nice if, in a few years when my
granddaughters are teenagers, they are not obsessed with thigh gaps and bikini
bridges. Perhaps today’s kids will take a closer look at the young,
fresh-faced, smiling, buff Olympians. I doubt any of them sport a thigh gap. Or
bikini bridge. And I doubt they care.
The
fact that I missed the initial introduction of the bikini bridge concept means
I must increase my efforts to keep up with the latest body image trends.
I
do not want to miss whatever the next fad may be.
Maybe
a lengthy, narrow neck? Sleek cheeks?
Or
a wasted waist? Concave stomach? How about curvaceous calves?
I
can’t wait…