Bikini bridge
The bikini bridge was an Internet hoax. It originated in the United States[1] on January 5, 2014, created by users of the "/b/" section on the imageboard 4chan as a parody of popular thinspiration memes.[2] It is defined as "when bikini bottoms are suspended between the two hip bones, causing a space between the bikini and the lower abdomen".[3] According to a posting on the website, users intended to spread content across social media regarding bikini bridges, but then similarly disseminating them "throughout parts of the Internet known to be biased on the subject of weight" to deliberately cause offence.[4]
On January 6, the online publication The Daily Dot reported it as a hoax,[4] as did U.S. television program Today on January 7.[5] Several commentators critiqued the hoax for displaying insensitivity or being "dangerous"[6] for women with an eating disorder.[7][8][9]
The phenomenon has been ranked as an unhealthy body image obsession in the West along with "ab crack" and "thigh gap", which rode a media wave in 2012–2013;[10] and the Chinese trends, the "Collarbone Challenge", and the "A4 Challenge" in 2016 in China.[1]
References
- ^ a b Caitlin Dewey (April 7, 2016), "The counterintuitive reason why Chinese body-shaming memes conquered the Web", The Washington Post
- ^
Beware Of The 'Bikini Bridge', HuffPost Live, ASIN B00TNADSFM – via amazon.com
{{citation}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter|authors=(help) - ^ Erin Cunningham (January 9, 2014), "The Bikini Bridge to Nowhere", The Daily Beast
- ^ a b Fernando Alfonso III (January 6, 2014), "4chan launches social media campaign in support of the 'bikini bridge'", The Daily Dot
- ^ Melissa Dahl (January 7, 2014), Don't fall for the 'bikini bridge' prank the Internet is playing on you, Today
- ^ Caitlin Dewey (January 8, 2014), "The "bikini bridge," 4chan's latest prank, is actually pretty dangerous", The Washington Post "some disreputable Web sites have already christened it the latest beauty craze" "The plot was pretty simple: circulate bikini bridge images on social media, and then create a fake bikini bridge backlash" "4chan’s effortless orchestration of a dangerous trend should worry observers more" than genuine thinspiration (?)
- ^ Lew, Kristi (2014), I Have an Eating Disorder. Now What?, Rosen Publishing Group, p. 35, ISBN 9781477779736
- ^ Caitlin Dewey (September 25, 2014), "Absolutely everything you need to know to understand 4chan, the Internet's own bogeyman", The Washington Post "4chan is responsible for some of the largest hoaxes, cyberbullying incidents and Internet pranks of the past five years" "the trend, though fake, eventually caught on in online eating-disorder communities"
- ^ E! Online January 10, 2014 Bikini bridge: everything you need to know about this horrible and fake new body trend
- ^ "Dieses Foto zeigt fragwürdige Körpertrends: Körpertrends auf Instagram treiben Mädchen und Frauen in die Magersucht." [This photo shows questionable body trends: Body trends on Instagram driving girls and women to anorexia], Die Welt (in German), August 17, 2016