I want that “Thigh Gap”

between my legs

WHAT DROVE US TO THIS STUDY:

Few days back there were many news citing Social media

is feeding girls towards the dangerous thigh-gap

obsession. Is Social Media really fuelling girls’ towards

the dangerous thigh-gap obsession? If so, how are people

using social media to encourage others to get obsessed

was the primitive motive of this study. Interestingly, when

we had searched for #thighgap, #thinspiration, #thinspo,

(Inspiration to become Thin) on Tumblr. It redirected us to

a free help line run by the NEDA. This made us to know

how big the issue was on social media

When searched for #thighgap,

#thinspiration and #thinspo,

(Inspiration to become Thin) on

Tumblr, it redirects to this page

“If you can stand straight with your knees

together and see a space between your

upper thighs, you have what thousands of

teen girls are willing to starve themselves

for. The “Thigh Gap”.

Reference: www.startribune.com

WHAT DID WE FOUND :

• Based on the engagement per post on Thigh gap, it was observed that posts on thigh gap

were drawing attention from people on social media

• 45% of those who talked about thigh gap showed interest towards having a thigh gap

while 30% of them were not interested/bothered at all

• Being skinny is beautiful, Celebrity Impact, Peer Impact and to have the sexiest look were

the key reasons why girls were interested in thigh gap

• Luring young women to eating disorders, No thigh gap, no problem, Feed the body what it

needs and stay active with a healthy lifestyle and maintaining a fit and curvy is better than

sickly skinny with a thigh gap were the reasons cited by girls who are not interested in Thigh

Gap

IS SOCIAL MEDIA REALLY FUELLING GIRLS’ TOWARDS THE DANGEROUS “THIGH GAP”

OBSESSION?

787

715

146

144

122

Workout

Thighgap

Exercise

Health

Fitness

Workout Thighgap Exercise Health Fitness

When the top 25 most popular posts on the five categories shown below are considered, the average

Notes* per post on Work Out and Thigh Gap was very high indicating how posts on Workout and

Thigh Gap received more attention compared to others

Thigh gap had much higher notes per post when

normalized compared to work out. A single post on

work out had around 13574 notes, which helped

workout to have a higher average notes per post

compared to thigh gap

*Notes are all of the reblogs, likes, replies, and answers that a post has received on Tumblr.

HOW ARE PEOPLE USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO GET OBSESSED? Most of the hashtags around Thigh Gap were around inspiration to become thin and fit

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

#thinspo

#thinspiration

#fitspo

#motivation

#hipbones

#finspo

#fitspiration

#skinnyisbeautiful

#larryforever

#skinny

Count of most frequently used hashtag mentions in the thigh gap data set of 3032 mentions

The following are the Hashtags that young girls associated with Thigh Gap. Most of these hashtags

were used in combination with motivation to become thin and fit. Most of these posts got good

engagement from people

6 Sample Analysis of conversations from people who talked about Thigh Gap

Interested

Percentage of people who

showed interest towards

having a thigh gap among

who talked about Thigh gap

Pranks

Percentage of people who

played pranks around the

Thigh gap

Not Interested

Percentage of people who

are not interested in having

a thigh gap among who

talked about Thigh gap

44.6%

25.1%

Young Girls who have

thigh gap were sharing

their photos on Tumblr

using the hashtags like

#thighgap,

#thinspiration,

#thinspo, #skinny,

#motivation, #fitspo

etc.

Others who see this

images found to like,

share and were

showing interest

towards having a Thigh

Gap

ARE PEOPLE REALLY SHOWING INTEREST IN HAVING A THIGH GAP?

30.3%

WHAT ARE THE REASONS CITED FOR/AGAINST HAVING A THIGH GAP?

• To have the sexiest look

• Skinny is beautiful

• Celebrity impact: Their role models have a Thigh gap and so their thigh gap is their idol

• Peer Impact: Motivation from peers who have put down the weight

• No more friction burn when walking long distance in shorts

KEY REASONS CITED BY GIRLS INTERESTED IN THIGH GAP 1

• Luring young women to eating disorders

• 1945 Miss America finalists, none of these women have thigh gaps. Not-a-one, stating

the fact No thigh gap, no problem:

• Attaining Thigh Gap can be a self harm to ones diet

• Feed the body what it needs and stay active, with a healthy lifestyle. Beauty is not

having a 6 pack or a thigh gap

• Maintaining a fit and curvy is better than sickly skinny with a thigh gap

KEY REASONS CITED BY GIRLS WHO ARE NOT INTERESTED IN THIGH GAP 2

SAMPLE CONVERSATIONS AROUND PEOPLE SHOWING INTEREST IN THIGH GAP

https://twitter.com/Starvingcinders/status/490204383226134528

SAMPLE CONVERSATIONS AROUND PEOPLE SHOWING INTEREST IN THIGH GAP

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=661676413886283&set=p.661676413886283&type=1&permPage=1

PEOPLE WHO SAID THIGH GAP IS NOT SO IMPORTANT

PRANKS AROUND THIGH GAP

http://instagram.com/p/ql05obTeqQ/

WHICH REGIONS ARE TALKING THE MOST ON THIGH GAP? People from United states were more interested in talking about Thigh gap; There are significant number

of mentions from India, however at the overall level it constitutes only to 1%

42.3%

8.1% 8.1%

3.6%

37.9%

United States Canada United Kingdom Netherlands Others

WHO ARE MOST INTERESTED IN TALKING ABOUT THIGH GAP? Teenagers who are around 13-20 age range shown interest in talking about Thigh Gap

Methodology

Simplify360’s proprietary listening tool is used for collecting the data and counting the

number of mentions for each company.

A total of 3 thousand social media conversations analyzed in July.

Geography considered: Global

Period of analysis: July 15 to July 21, 2014

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