What is the deal with these anorexic websites?
When thinking about what kind of Internet thing I wanted to blog about, I remembered hearing from my friends about pro-anorexia websites, where girls could blog about their eating disorders and encourage others to lose weight, and even become anorexic. Originally upon hearing this, I was horrified that people could even form an idea for this. I then found this article, “Can pro-anorexia websites help heal eating disorders?” and the title caught my eye.
This article gave me a new perspective on the pro-anorexia websites. These websites are not merely tools to help push girls into developing eating disorders, but they are actually places where girls who suffer from mental illnesses such as anorexia can come together for support. From a study in the article, only 9% of girls sampled categorizd anorexia as a good, benefitting life choice. Most girls viewed it as a mental illness or coping mechanism. Clearly most of these girls are not brainwashed as I originally thought, but they can think lucidly and clearly see their situations. Most interestingly, I found, that many of the pictures of extremely thin women on the websites, “thinspirations,” actually come from mainstreen fashion magazines and websites, and thus reflect the nature of our media, not the anorexia websites. These websites, also, are not run by professionals, but are just a place for people to blog and post as they wish. I think if these websites did not exist, people could would just congregate and discuss things on their own, which could be an even worse thing, if they are not recorded for reference. Maybe these websites aren’t really as bad as they sound. There could be much worse alternatives.
Here is the link to the article if anyone is interested – http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/28/health/time-anorexia-websites/index.html
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