Shove off, thigh gap: There’s a new way to parse the amount and distribution of fat tissue on women’s thighs. The thighbrow (or, in its native dialect, #thighbrow) is the crease that forms on the upper thigh when legs form a 45 to 179 degree angle, depending on the heft of the thigh, with the torso. Strip to your underwear, kneel on the ground, sit on your heels, imagine your quads are eyes, look just south of your hips, and—congrats!—you’ve got thighbrows.
A new name for an old, uncharted body part can put a finer point on practical communication (“you have a piece of lettuce stuck in your left thighbrow”; “hem the dress 7 inches below the thighbrow”) and, so long as it doesn’t shame bodies that don’t measure up to unrealistic criteria (looking at you, thigh gap), it can offer a new lens for appreciating the diverse beauty of the human body and its marvelous array of bulges and folds. Thighbrow, then, is at once a useful addition to the anatomy lexicon, a well-deserved spotlight on an esoteric skin fold, and an adorable word for the everyday activity of thigh fat.
As with every body manipulation trend short of kninkle surgery, the Kardashian-Jenner clan is on top of the thighbrow Instagram genre. But why stop at thighbrows? Here are a few of Slate’s suggestions for the next undersung body parts and phenomena they should endorse.
On the thighs:
#thighliner: upper-leg wrinkles
#smighs: smiling with the eyes of your thighs, which are located under your thighbrows
#thighgaptooth: an extra set of teeth growing out of the thighs, which are gap-toothed, but chic gap-toothed, à la Lara Stone
#thigholdnavy: a space between the thighs that’s slightly cheaper than #thighgap
Elsewhere on the body:
#l00b: a freshly pierced earlobe
#uvulargesse: a well-endowed uvula
#dimplesofserena: when you have dimples of venus, but you’re the other Williams sister so it’s confusing
#pitstop: the little roll of fat that pops out in front where the arm meets the shoulder. (As one perceptive Slate editor pointed out, these already have a name: chicken cutlets.)
#wenisenvy: a tragically undersized wenis
#cellulike: photogenic cellulite that racks up the Instagram hearts
#supercheek: one buttcheek that’s far larger than the other
#standardizedbreast: a chest that fits perfectly into a standard bra size
#tarantulaveins: spider veins covered in leg hair
#kneevage: fake cleavage you can create with close-up photos of your knees
#glacialhair: facial hair that grows so slowly, you forget to pluck it
#shavinggrace: the flat parts of the knee that are less likely to get nicked
#canklesores: the blisters that form where cankles rub up against boots
#knapcrack: the glimpse of butt revealed by a backpack that’s making a skirt ride up
