Pro-anorexia Communities and Online Interaction: Bringing the Pro-ana Body Online

Abstract

This article details the making of community and bodies in online environments, specifically the online pro-anorexia community. Building community among members of these groups is particularly fraught because tensions over claims to authenticity permeate these groups. Because these are embodied practices and online spaces are presumably disembodied, participants constantly grapple with authenticity, largely through the threat of the 'wannarexic'. Participants manage these tensions through engaging in group rituals and deploying individual tools that attempt to make the body evident online. This article documents the way in which tensions around authenticity and embodied practices are managed through treatment of the wannarexic.

Thinspiration vs. thicksperation: Comparing pro-anorexic and fat acceptance image posts on a photo-sharing site

“…The purpose of these online discussions is to promote the maintenance of the group's eating disorders and to encourage members to continue in their quest for weight loss. This community has received widespread attention from media outlets and scholars who convey concern about the dangerous and unhealthy content that they share on the Internet (Boero & Pascoe, 2012;Peng, 2008).…”

‘Today I Speak’: Exploring How Victim-Survivors Use Reddit

“…Other studies measure the role of anonymity, empathy and psychological impacts of online support communities, all indicating that higher participation in online communities led to better health outcomes and the facilitation of social support (Coulson, Buchanan and Aubeeluck 2007;Coursaris and Liu 2009;Coulson 2008, 2013). Contrastingly, pro-anorexia online communities have been criticised amongst researchers for encouraging eating disorders by offering community and friendship to vulnerable participants (Boero and Pascoe 2012). Haas et al (2011) refer to these communities as online negative enabling support groups, which encourage harmful behaviours in their members.…”

Pro-anorexia/bulimia censorship and public service announcements: the price of controlling women

“…These include: bulletin boards, static websites, blog web pages, groups on social network sites, email groups, and instant messaging communities (Boero and Pascoe, 2012). Sharpe et al (2011) provide a succinct summary of the types of content found on pro-eating disorder websites:…”