Plus-Size Thigh Gaps, Thanks Photoshop

We have all probably benefited from the use of some form of digital editing — a flyaway hair airbrushed out of a senior photo, a flattering filter applied to an Instagram photo. But the photo editors over at Old Navy, much like photo editors the world over, seem to have crossed the responsible Photoshopping line in a major way. As Tumblr blogger Roxy from WTF Plus pointed out this week, the online photos of Old Navy's plus-size jeans appear to have thigh gaps blatantly photoshopped into them.

If you've been living under some rock where unrealistic body standards don't apply (and if you could point me in the direction of that rock, I'd appreciate it) a thigh gap is just what it sounds like — a space that exists between your thighs so that they don't touch each other. This is, for some reason beyond me, a feature that is sought out by many body-conscious females, because society has deemed it sexy or desirable. Roxy points out that this anatomical achievement isn't acquirable for all humans, as we all don't have the same body type, bone structure, or thigh size. Sure, some plus-size women may naturally be built this way, but these images appear to be the result of a photoshop hack job.

I'm pretty sure my mother, who is completely Photoshop illiterate, could have done a better job at editing these photos. But regardless of the lack of skill, this alleged photoshopping shouldn't have been done in the first place. Didn't Old Navy learn from Target's bathing suit photoshop disaster? We need to start thinking before we edit.

But, according to Jezebel, a representative from Old Navy has come forward and said these thigh gaps are there because of how the jeans were pinned on the mannequins.

"At Old Navy we strive to show our customers the most accurate representation of how product fits the body. This includes pinning garments on body forms to show how they will actually appear. While we do remove these pins in post-production, we do not use any photo-altering techniques to deliberately distort the actual look or fit of our product."

I don't know if I'm buying it, Old Navy.

Images: WTF Plus/Tumblr