pro-ana sites

[janiecakes]

there has already been a thread on pro-anorexia or pro-bullimia websites, but i'm not going to go searching back for it.

i didn't know these sites existed until someone on here posted that info, but since then i've been checking them out every so often. these things are seriously disturbing. there are all kinds of people (dieticians, high school students, chefs, pregnant women) trading tips on how to hide their eating disorders from their friends and families, how to trick their doctors, and how to keep on losing weight. since i first started checking out one of these sites, a whole bunch of these girls have started eating cotton balls soaked in yogurt or water to cut hunger pangs.

oprah winfrey did a show a while back about this shit, and a few of the bigger message boards got shut down, but people who were on those sites just started new ones. apparently all these people without eating disorders started flooding the message boards and guestbooks with 'you need help' type messages, and i think it did more harm than good.

so anyway, i'm just wondering what people think about MSN or geocities or whoever hosting these sites. should they be allowed to?

 

[Libradragon]

pro-anorexia what?? that's crazy.

 

[Cheap Ego]

darn i thought it was a site for supporters of Polish girls.

 

[PosTMOd]

Unfortunately, many very sick people exist.

I'm disturbingly fascinated by mental illness that is beyond even its own "normality".

In a sense, some of those message boards that have all sorts of conspiracy theories, and people who believe in all of them, are somewhat similar things-- places for the mentally ill to find people to gain a sense of community, all the while justifying and proving that which they believe in so strongly. The difference: having paranoid delusions doesn't necessarily lead to the same immediate negative consequences as does highly restricted dietary intake.

Free speech leads to all sorts of things: humour, hate, love, and even self-destruction.

 

[skyparty]

you the word "free country" is taken too far sometimes as far as im concerned.

i understand that people with disorders and diseases should be aloud to communicate with one another but there's a line you have to draw.

i can see myself getting into those pro-anorexia sites had i of known of them when i was 13...

they would've "helped me" out greatly i'm sure... but that's not the kinda help i wouldv'e needed.

unfortunately there's not a whole lot that can be done... you can ban and shut down messageboards but they'll just start back up again.

just like such sites as uglypeople.com and fatchicks in hats and other various sites set to laugh at others expenses...

but what can we do? honestly.

i don't think there is much...

narissa

 

[HappyJR]

As much as I don't like sites like that, and I do agree that they are incredibly dangerous, I don't think anyone has the right to shut them down.

After all, if they don't have a right to express their oppinions, then what rights do filthy leftists, or damn drug addicts or even those twisted subway drivers...

If you don't afford free speech to everyone, then how do you know that the next person to have it taken away is not you?

 

[Ditto Much]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by janiecakes:
so anyway, i'm just wondering what people think about MSN or geocities or whoever hosting these sites. should they be allowed to?</font>

To control public discourse on any subject is simply impossible in a free society.

I'm frightened as all living hell of this fact at times. At times when I hear truly racist shit I can't help but hate this fact. If I were hosting one of them on my server I'd delete it and scream at the owner when they call (sometimes you have a business right to lay down your own rules). I have a little less respect for MSN and geo for hosting them, but they host so much more sick shit this is barely exceptional.


Posting anything in response with a contrary viewpoint is generally pointless. Having doctors and people know what these girls are discussing seems important.


So I look down on MSN and Geo, but I support the right to display the message.

Frightening

 

[el presidente Highsteppa]

You name the object/disease/affliction/action/whatever, and odds are there is some sort of fetish or sexual gratification that someone can find from it. Anything. And going hand in hand with the internet, anything goes.

From the Ministry of a realization I came to a long time ago.

Prime Minister Highsteppa

 

[el presidente Highsteppa]

Although, I don't agree with these sites, I would still defend their right to exist, so long as they abide by copyright laws. That might sound insane, but there are people, not just men, that have built a sexual lifestyle on this, and so long as everyone that is part of these sites is consenting adults (therefore the reason behind my statement about the copyright laws - people who are actually suffering from anarexia, I doubt would want their affliction posted all over an internet site, much less be the object of sexual desire to thousands of faceless people, and doctors who are posting patient photographs are violating doctor patient disclosure laws). It's sick to us, I don't personally agree with it, but Freedom of Speech breeds a lot of sick things with it. But it also allows us to be aware of these sick things and the voice to disagree with it.

From the Ministry of I can elaborate further

Prime Minister Highsteppa

 

[janiecakes]

james, i'm not quite sure what you mean.

the sites aren't sexualizing anorexia, they're a bunch of people with eating disorders sharing tips on how to make themselves thinner, and how to hide the ed's from their friends and family.

and a lot of the people on the sites AREN'T adults. there is a 14 year old and a 15 year old on one of the sites i checked out.

 

[janiecakes]

also, it's not doctors posting pictures of their patients, it's mostly pictures of models with ribs showing, and some pictures of clearly anorexic girls.

 

[Ditto Much]

Hey janiecakes could you fire me a couple of links to these message boards. I'm curious enough to lurk but promice I won't post to any of them. I'd like to check out what these people are actually talking about before I get to much of an opinion.

My email address is jeff_maas@yahoo.com. I'd rather you not post the links directly to the message board less people react irresponsibly.


Thanks

(I'll discuss furthur after I do a little reading)

 

[Soundstream]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by skyparty:
... and fatchicks in hats and other various sites set to laugh at others expenses...
</font>

That would be http://www.fatchicksinpartyhats.com .

Cheers ... Ian

 

[janiecakes]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Ditto Much:
I'd rather you not post the links directly to the message board less people react irresponsibly.
</font>

that's why i didn't post the links originally.

check your email.

 

[Ditto Much]

Thanks I'm currently reading through the first one. Again I'd encourage people not to post links or make direct quotes. Its not to be sneaky its to hopefully prevent the backlash that would be expected!!!


This is actually the second time I have flipped through a couple of these boards. The first time was when it was initially posted and now its reading a few of the follow ups. I can't help but get a feeling that I'm reading what used to be commonly traded secrets amongst some women. It appears that many of the items being discussed are also things I have actually seen posted on this board before. Not in discussion of anorexia but in discussions of diet. Many of the things these girls are doing and discussing are similar to things that I have also done.

Again I'm not suggesting that its healthy!

The excuses that they're trading are no different than ones I've used in the last week. "No sorry I'm having dinner with ____ in an hour" I probably said 50 times this summer.

The pills that they're suggesting are sitting in my desk as we speak (plus a couple of others). However I'm a little concerned about they're perspectives on body image and the way that they seem to all be younger. I'm also really uncomfortable with what I believe is the "disease (oh I dislike that word in this context)" in community view as to what is attractive.


That said, ever wonder how guys learn about Steroid cycles?

How about the numerous hard drug discussion groups?

I'm definitely worried about the promotion of this as a lifestyle, and about the concept of beauty that is being promoted.

 

[redeyes]

i thought this thread was going to be Pro-Anna Kornikova!!! damnit

peace

 

[janiecakes]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Ditto Much:
I can't help but get a feeling that I'm reading what used to be commonly traded secrets amongst some women. It appears that many of the items being discussed are also things I have actually seen posted on this board before. Not in discussion of anorexia but in discussions of diet. Many of the things these girls are doing and discussing are similar to things that I have also done.
</font>

sure, some of the tips are things that people who aren't sick use to lose weight, like taping pictures of thin chicks to your fridge or whatever.

but the shit that concerns me are the tips on how to stay below 500 calories a day, or how to hide the fact that you're making yourself vomit after every meal from your parents.

that's not regular dieter behaviour, or 'commonly traded secrets amongst women'.

 

[janiecakes]

there's one girl on there writing 'fat pig' on her body in front of a mirror every time she eats.

i've also noticed that a bunch of the people posting on those message boards talk very casually about cutting themselves regularly.

i don't know, on one hand it's good that there is space to talk about that kind of shit with people who are experiencing similar shit, but it's also perpetuating it.

blah, i don't know.

 

[Ditto Much]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by janiecakes:


that's not regular dieter behaviour, or 'commonly traded secrets amongst women'.</font>

I agree with you %100, just like steroid cycels and how to disguise IV drug use shouldn't be part of standard discussion either. However I have had the pleasure (funny smack addicts and steroid users have many of the same problems) of witnessing these conversations on several occasions.

Additionally I have known a few poeple (mainly women) who have used CrystalMeth for the purpose of weight loss. This one frightened the shit out of me the first time I heard it (taxi ride for yorkdale to christian island with three girls). I couldn't help but want to hug this girl and explain how beautiful she was and that she didn't need to kill herself to achive a model of beauty that I don't even find attractive. But I couldn't think of what to say or how anything I could say wouldn't be spun into an insult.


In some ways I find this far more disturbing then the online recipes for making plastic explosives.


I really don't know what to say.

 

[Ditto Much]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by janiecakes:
there's one girl on there writing 'fat pig' on her body in front of a mirror every time she eats.

blah, i don't know. </font>

simply disturbing, frightening you just want to help them get a stronger image of themselves. Reading about how to keep your hair from basically dieing out from starvation. How to use calcium pills to avoid the bone damage that this lifestyle would cause.

Its frightening but I have this strange understanding from where they're comming.

 

[chipotle]

this is sad, isn't?

 

[Ditto Much]

yeah not much I can say that I haven't already on this one.

 

[Skipper]

I never knew these sites existed.

Not that I've ever had a serious eating disorder, but if I had seen something like this when I was 12, I could have been easily influenced.

With such a strong support group, anything is possible, right?

 

[fightingskurvy]

the name 'pro-ana' is very misleading. i;ve seen a ton of these sites and when before i went into IP I used to post on some of them. there are some really brutal ones that condone trying any means of getting thin (cotton balls, Ipecac syrup etc). but most of teh sites out there are more about harm-reduction...for example, if you are going to restrict your caloric intake by a lot, it's best to take certain vitamin supplements..etc. teh way oprah protrayed them is not fair..there is a range..i mean tehre are some sites that are disgusting and wromg..tips on how to purge, pics of deathly ill ppl...but they are not all like that

xo

 

[deep]

There's a mos def anoerexic woman at my gym, it looks basically like someone has stretched skin over a skeleton and put it on a stairstepper. :| I know everyone's thinking the same thing too. I just don't think anyone knows how to approach her and say "you don't look healthy".

I was discussing this subject with a prof the other day and she elaborated on one way of characterizing the difference between anorexia and bulimia. Bulimia being the method involving a lack of self control, whereas anorexia because characterized by excessive self control.