January 7, 2014

Bikini bridge...

... the new thigh gap.

IN THE COMMENTS:  madAsHell likens these photos to "looking down a woman's blouse," and I see 3 issues: 1. These photos are selfies, the idle Instagram efforts of women with iPhones lying on beaches, so who's doing the looking? It's a "look at what I'm looking at" invitation. 2. As a beach pic incorporating the photographer's view down her own body, it falls in the same category as hot dog legs, 3. The "bikini bridge" is supposed to be "thinspiration," so watch out for the hot dogs.

ALSO: That link for "hot dog legs" goes to Know Your Meme which also, I see, traces the origin and journey into virality of "bikini bridge":
On February 26th, 2009, a Tumblr blog titled “Bikini Bridge” was launched, highlighting photographs of bikini bottoms stretched across women’s hip bones... On April 24th, 2009, Urban Dictionary user mormdav submitted an entry for the phrase “bikini bridge”.... On October 12th, 2010, the /r/bikinibridge subreddit was launched...

On January 5th, 2014, 4chan members launched “Operation Bikini Bridge,” in which bikini bridge photos were spread to promote the pose as “the next big thing”... On the same day, BuzzFeed highlighted a dozen of bikini bridge photos... On January 6th, the women’s fitness blog Blogilates published an article about the hashtag... The next day, The Daily Mail published an article...
My post is a link to that Daily Mail article, which refers to the 4chan involvement, as Will said in the comments shortly after I posted:
4chan is trolling the internet. It says so right in the article. Is Althouse participating knowingly?
Honestly, no. I hadn't read that far into the article. I was just browsing around in The Daily Mail. But it's not as if 4chan started a hoax. "Bikini Bridge" has been a thing in the world of thinspiration since 2009. If 4chan's involvement means we should avoid participating and their boosting a topic causes us to see it for the first time, then we'd be empowering them to eliminate the topic from discussion.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course it only works if the girl is hairless. Yet another reason why, despite the way fashions change all the time, the Hideous Pedophilic Bald Eagle is around to stay. God damn it.

Peter

rhhardin said...

Bikini bridge is not a sexy point for guys.

Maybe excepting fashion designers.

Thigh gap was iffy already.

Work on a smile.

Anonymous said...

BTW, this is not meant for men. Or to arouse men. Or to in anyway refer to sex or sexual intercourse.

If you stare too long, RAPE! RAPE! RAPE!

I am not a slut.

Dr Hubert Jackson said...

Pedophilic? It's fine to disagree but no real point in trying to cast motivations at those who prefer it different.

I've been married 15 years to the same woman, I can say with great confidence I'm not a pedophile.


Michael K said...

Anorexia, here we come !

dbp said...

The best bikini bridge is one where the tummy comes just up to it, forming a kind of twin span suspension bridge look.

Revenant said...

Pedophilic? It's fine to disagree but no real point in trying to cast motivations at those who prefer it different

Personally I'm amused that this guy thinks "normal" men are aroused by pubic hair.

Will said...

4chan is trolling the internet. It says so right in the article. Is Althouse participating knowingly?

RecChief said...

I don't know, it didn't look like the girls in the pictures were particularly close to anorexia. might be just me

Anonymous said...

Personally I'm amused that this guy thinks "normal" men are aroused by pubic hair.

Nothing is finer than a thick, rich, luxuriant bush, overflowing with magnificent concentrated aromas and flavors. Bon appetit!

Peter

madAsHell said...

Bikini bridge is not a sexy point for guys.

Really?? It's no different than looking down a woman's blouse.

...at least, that's what people tell me.

Sam L. said...

OOH! OOOH! No, don't care.

The Godfather said...

Mystery, girls, mystery. That's what draws the guys. Uncover it all, you lose the mystery. How much less than all can you uncover and still have mystery? Given that guys have fairly good imaginations . . . . Well, you figure it out.

Freeman Hunt said...

This does not require a great deal of thinness, so all the too thin alarms are silly.

mccullough said...

More erotic than the thigh gap

Skeptical Voter said...

Althouse the intellectual level of this blog (Seinfeld in a small town, and "bikini bridges") has gone to hell in a handbasket in the last day or two.

Smilin' Jack said...

ironrailsironweights said...
Of course it only works if the girl is hairless. Yet another reason why, despite the way fashions change all the time, the Hideous Pedophilic Bald Eagle is around to stay. God damn it.

rhhardin said...
Bikini bridge is not a sexy point for guys.

Maybe excepting fashion designers.

Thigh gap was iffy already.

Work on a smile.


This is just another post in support in support of gay marriage. She's trolling for comments like yours, showing that some guys really need to get gay married.

CStanley said...

Two thoughts:

1. One commonality with thigh gap is that both features are partly dependent on bone structure. For some women, having these features doesn't require excessive thinness, while for others it does.

2. It strikes me that the people concerned about body's image problems in young women may be getting as obsessive AT&T criticizing these trends, as are the young women who follow the trends. It doesn't seem like a healthy way to address the issue. Put the focus on positive concepts of self worth that could and should substitute for the hyperfocus on thin bodies,

Smilin' Jack said...

If 4chan's involvement means we should avoid participating and their boosting a topic causes us to see it for the first time, then we'd be empowering them to eliminate the topic from discussion.

Yes, let's show 4chan who's boss around here. Post lots of photos of bikini bridges.

Sigivald said...

"Bikini Bridge" has been a thing in the world of thinspiration since 2009.

It's been a thing - if not by that name - in people's minds as long as photographs of women [or, hell, men, I guess] in bikinis have existed.

"Thinspiration" is fortunately not a topic I have any ability to comment on.

It's optically interesting if nothing else - and there's usually not nothing else in the mind of the observer, though what there is depends on the observer's gender, and size and sexuality preferences.

But the aesthetic/optical effect is there no matter what.