Victoria's Secret model Candice Swanepoel recently uploaded a photo of herself — or rather her stomach — looking a bit, shall we say, concave? Yeah, she looked like a melon that had just had its innards scraped out. Apparently this is a much desired look, with celebs like Miley Cyrus, Heidi Klum, Kelly Osbourne and LeAnn Rimes showing off their "concave" bellies. I guess it's not enough now to just have a flat belly, or a belly with washboard abs, anymore. Oh no! Now you've got to look like your belly has been hanging out in Ethiopia for the past few months.
I really don't know how people get concave bellies, but here's some guesses:
– Not eating. That's a big one.
– Genetics. I imagine like outie belly buttons, some people just naturally incline towards the concave look.
– Photographing yourself from the right angle. Usually the concave belly shots are taken from above, looking down on to the belly.
– Sucking it in. Duh.
There's actually a Tumblr site dedicated to getting the concave look, where young women say things like, "It's never going to happen for me, I swear. I’ll always be skinny, but not as skinny as I want to be. I’m never gonna get that concave stomach."
Oh, terrible, terrible! She's never gonna look like a Holocaust victim! Look, I know about the whole body dysmorphia thing, and I realize people who think this way have emotional issues, and it's not really about the stomach, and they don't see themselves as they really are. I get it.
But are celebrities taking pics of their concave bellies helping things? Maybe celebs like Miley and Candice eat healthy and just happen to have these concave stomachs, but they should avoid glamorizing it with photos. Perhaps they don't realize this concave obsession is going on? (I didn't realize until I started researching it.)
Seriously, everyone. What's next? Women striving for those convex malnourished bellies you see on children in Africa? Stop the madness! Have a (veggie) burger!
Do you like the concave belly?
