About

Bambi pose is when someone kneels with their thighs touching their calfs made popular by Instagram models.

Origin

On April 18, 2017, Julie Schott^[2] coined the pose the "bambi pose" in her article published in Elle Magazine. She used a photo of a deer statue to illustrate the comparison (shown below).

Precursor

On February 27th, 2017, Getty Images^[4] photographer Brendan Smialowski photographed Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway unknowingly sitting in "bambi pose" checking her phone while seated on top of her legs on a couch after snapping a photograph of President Trump with leaders of historically black universities (shown below). After the photo began circulating online in late February 2017, many expressed outrage toward Conway for placing her feet on the couch.

Spread

On January 4th, 2017, Kylie Jenner^[6] posted a photo of herself to Instagram using the bambi pose (shown below, left). The image gained 2.3 million likes in two years. On May 20th, Model Bella Hadid^[5] posted a photo in bambi pose to Instagram garning 621,700 likes in two years (shown below, right). On August 23rd, 2017 Popsugar^[3] counted Bella Hadid and Kylie Jenner as the ones who "perfected" the trend.

EOnline^[1] asked Body Language Expert Blanca Cobb to weigh in on the trending pose. She called the pose "provocative […] because the image makes you think of a sexual position, where the woman is on top of her partner, which allows her to have control of the action." She concluded that, "the Bambi Pose is visually alluring and sexually suggestive. And yet, it's dichotomous. It's as empowering as it is objectifying."

Various Examples

External References