#ThighReading Is The New Hashtag Celebrating Body Positivity

A few weeks ago Instagram found itself in very hot and rightfully incensed water when it banned the use of the hashtag #curvy. Women the internet over cried censorship! It was seen by many as a patriarchal move dressed up as a strong dose of paternalism. Instagram maintained the ban was implemented to cut down on the amount of nude photos on the social media site. Bloggers and Instagram users who previously embraced the app and used it to promote body positive messages were not happy. In a concentrated move, #curvee started trending to bring back the beloved hashtag. Thankfully, after days of outrage and activism, Instagram backed down and brought back #curvy.

Now, there’s a new body-loving hashtag on the scene. And it’s so real we want to take it to dinner and embrace it for days. We want to send it expensive tulips from a hothouse. It’s #ThighReading, and it’s celebrating women’s real thighs – stretchmarks, blue veins and hair included. Women are taking pictures of their thighs, posting them on Twitter and Instagram, and being asked to tell their stories. Some women talk about surviving burns, overcoming eating disorders, and how pregnancy changed their bodies. Others are just saying: this is me and has been me since puberty hit.

It’s brilliant seeing these kind of honest selfies and real stories. The spate of celebrities in bikinis photos that dominate newspapers can be helluva tiresome during the summer, so it’s pretty refreshing to see beauty that isn’t honed and toned to the max, but rather in front of most of our eyes.

Here are some examples of #ThighReading.

#ThighReading? Finden wir klasse! Warum Frauen ihre Dehnungsstreifen, Narben und Post-Babyb?uche zeigen. Link in Bio. #regram

A photo posted by glamourgermany (@glamourgermany) on Jul 28, 2015 at 7:27am PDT

I survived 3rd degree burns at birth. My thighs tell my life story and my story makes me who I am today. Someone that is not ashamed of my scars. #thighreading #bodypositivity#faithfilled #beachbodycoachannapolis #icandoallthingsthroughChrist

A photo posted by Suzanne N. Flaherty (@suzieflaherty) on Jul 30, 2015 at 8:29pm PDT

#thighreading #stretchmarks #notashamed

A photo posted by ??? (@rbyngmy) on Jul 29, 2015 at 9:05pm PDT

Went #thighreading today! Found some stretch marks I never knew existed, too. I love all my scars and stretch marks. They tell a story, my story. Which is the most important story, obviously. #girlpower #bodypositive #Iloveme

A photo posted by Alysen Painter (@alyeuph) on Jul 29, 2015 at 4:44pm PDT