I Love My Leggings (Even If They Make Me Fat)

Leggings are one of the comfiest trends we’ve encountered so far as a culture. Women everywhere are using them to cover up flaws and feel better about themselves overall. But are they ultimately making the outcome worse?

There are two main issues here. Wearing leggings is apparently taking away all of the work that our thighs, butt, and core should be doing , leaving us with a little more flab than we’d like. But the more obvious negative that I see is the fact that they are so damn comfy. When getting dressed in the morning, I see my skinny jeans and then I see my leggings. Both accepted trends nowadays, but the clear winner here is leggings in terms of comfort. Covering up our legs and stretching over our hips, it doesn’t matter if we’re having a “fat day” or a skinny one—leggings will fit no matter what!

Women everywhere seem to be catching on to this beautiful reality. Leggings hide the parts of our lower half we hate and smooth it all out. Sure, if you’ve got a “badonk,” that thing is sticking out of your back, but it looks damn good. Leggings are making us comfortable with ourselves, not shoving our muffin tops into the tight jeans we’re used to.

We eat what we want and still fit into them. But what happens when we’ve worn leggings for a week and those tight jeans are near-impossibly tight now? We get pissy and curse our bodies. It seems like even with my gym-going, my freaking thighs won’t smush into my favorite pair! Instead of working harder to get back into my cute clothes, I’m cursing myself and starving. Now, I am not attempting to blame leggings for all of the negativity surrounding body image and eating disorders, but I’m not totally steering away from the possibility.

In Europe, for example, the clothing is tight and the bodies tend to be tighter. Could the prominence of showing off one’s body more actually be saving them from self hate? According to an unofficial table revealing each country’s prevalence of eating disorders, the US has over 5 million suffering while the UK has only 1 million. Other large countries in Europe barely go over 200,000. Total populations differ and many factors could come into play, but is it possible to say that Europe’s emphasis on tight clothing is making people not want to hurt themselves with disorders, but actually work harder at the gym and watch what they eat? Makes sense.

Sadly, though, this is America. We like to sue fast food joints for our obesity and blame everyone else for our own mistakes. And now we’re blaming leggings for our flabby legs.

America is known by other countries for its laziness. We have high numbers of obesity and even higher numbers of McDonalds. So are leggings really the cause of our demise? Probably not. But they are offering all of us a sense of false hope. They will always fit and always feel good, unlike other bottom-half fashions that just make us feel stuffed.

Shouldn’t we be allowed comfort though? I say yes. It is silly to blame leggings for all of our woes. The only issue I have with them is the potential weight gain that could lead to a negative body image and other possible body-related issues. But if someone wants to rock leggings every day of the week, more power to them. They look cute with just about anything, anyway.

Contact the author here: crazycolleen@morningquickie.com