As a woman, I feel that I have been conditioned to hate myself, or at least never be satisfied with my

outward appearance.

It seems as though no matter what I do, my hair is never blonde enough and my waist is never small

enough. I will never be Barbie and society makes me feel flawed because of that.

Everywhere I look there are images of people that are prettier, skinnier or just plain happier than me and

that sucks. Everything sucks.

An example of such is the downpour of leg photos that are being posted everywhere on the Internet.

I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but a summer fad, or possibly ‘obsession’ is a better word for it, was

thigh gaps. Thigh gaps are the gap in between the thighs of a tremendously skinny person.

Let me tell you why this obsession is dumb. First off, some women, regardless of how much they weigh

or how skinny they are, will never have a thigh gap.

Some people are just bottom heavy. Personally, I would rather have a nice booty than a thigh gap, but

that’s just me.

Secondly, I fear that young women who do not have a thigh gap feel inadequate to those who do.

Sometimes young women resort to unhealthy methods to achieve a thigh gap, not because they want to, but

because they feel like they need to.

There is a lot of pressure from society to be beautiful, especially for women in college. Everyone wants to

be the main focus in a cute hipster photo on the Internet.

I do not think the Internet is doing anyone’s self-esteem any favors.

No matter what, there is always going to be a selfie that gets more Facebook ‘likes’ than yours.

This is not to say that thigh gaps are a bad thing. If you have a thigh gap, good for you. I hope you two

are happy together.

However, if you make people feel bad for not having a thigh gap, immediately stop and re-evaluate your

life choices.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be healthy, or even thin.

But, when it gets to the point where a silly feature that is unrealistic for many women is ideal, then health

no longer becomes important.

At some point, the world has forgotten that people look different and come in all shapes and sizes. And

because of this, it has more or less ruined the world.

Western society needs to stop being a jerk and judging everyone on what they look like and should focus

on what is actually important about a person— how they act.

Paige Jurgensen / Columnist

Paige Jurgensen can be reached at [email protected].