We thought that the overt voyeurism and conversation about the over-glamourised ‘thigh gap’ might be coming to an end. Oh, how wrong we were.
Under the hashtag #DefineBeauty, fashion photographer Guy Aroch has created a controversial new video that focuses on models’ thigh gaps moving through SoHo and Central Park.
According to Nowness, Aroch ‘wanted to “diffuse” the controversial topic’ by contrasting the intrusive close-ups of the thigh gap with audio overlays of children speaking about other more innocent gaps such as ‘something you have to jump across’, ‘gaps in your teeth’ or the ‘space between two people’. Guy Aroch asked passers-by to describe what ‘magic gap’ meant to them without explaining anything about the project.
The juxtaposition does make the ‘thigh gap’ fixation seem slightly ludicrous but, by calling it ‘magic’, it also suggests it’s something mystical and bewitching.
It’s an interesting take on the ‘thigh gap’ obsession, but by adding warmifying 1970s-sunset camera filters and flattering silouhette, it reminds us that it is still something to be desired. Which is hardly healthy.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.