Pro‐anorexia websites: An underestimated and uncharted danger!

Grünwald, Martin; Wesemann, Dorette; Rall, Lysann

doi:10.1111/j.1475-3588.2008.00489_2.x

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Not only are people with EDs themselves subject to stigma, the online community as such is also stigmatized as a health threat. Health professionals caution that “pro-ana” venues can act as a trigger for vulnerable individuals and encourage disordered eating behaviors (Giles, 2006; Grunwald, Wesemann, & Rall, 2008; Tierney, 2006). Complaints from ED support groups, parents, and the media have resulted in Internet service providers and blog-hosting services shutting down many pro-anorexia websites and blogs.…”

Section: Stigma and Online Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online Stigma Resistance in the Pro-Ana Community

Yeshua-Katz

2015

Qual Health Res

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Media scholars often use concepts from Goffman's dramaturgical approach to study online communities of stigmatized individuals as "backstages," spaces where members take refuge from social disapproval. In this study, I extend this view through an examination of in-depth interviews with bloggers from the "pro-ana" community, an online community for people with eating disorders. To explore how this community uses an online environment that is both anonymous and public, I fuse Goffman's ideas about identity performance and stigma with more recent theories about boundary maintenance. In-depth interviews with "pro-ana" bloggers reveal that to protect this virtual group and resist stigmas associated both with their illness and with their online presence, they construct their own norms and rules in the online realm, and discipline and eject members deemed to be out-group.

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Section: Stigma and Online Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online Stigma Resistance in the Pro-Ana Community

Yeshua-Katz

2015

Qual Health Res

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“…Like the medical and media analyses, most social science research studies are rooted in the assumption that pro-eating disorder websites are a problem that requires a solution (Bardone-Cone and Cass, 2007; Fox et al, 2005; Grunwald et al, 2008; Harshbarger et al, 2009; Rodgers et al, 2012; Sharpe et al, 2011; Strife and Rickard, 2011). Studies report the negative impacts that visiting pro-ana/mia websites can have on girls, including a higher drive for thinness, worsened perceptions of appearance, more perfectionism (Custers and Van Den Bulk, 2009), weight dissatisfaction (Bardone-Cone and Cass, 2007), and exposure to new skills for weight-loss techniques (Wilson et al, 2006).…”

Section: Review Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

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

Schott

Langan

2015

Media, Culture & Society

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Individuals, particularly women, are fixated on weight loss, driven by the goal of achieving a 'skinny' female physique that is desirable in western/ized cultures. There are online forums where individuals refer to themselves or their eating disorders as 'pro-ana' and 'pro-mia'; their posts on these sites both align with, and challenge, what medical and mental health professionals define as serious mental health problems. In February 2012, the social media website Tumblr announced a policy to censor these online communities and use public service announcements (PSAs) to address 'the problem'. Embracing contemporary ethnographic sensibilities, we present analyses that are attentive to nuanced meanings, and provide a critical feminist, sociological analysis of online comments from those who responded to the censorship and PSA policy. We argue that censorship extends the patriarchal control of women and that PSAs further the vested interests of corporate entities who profit from the marketing of services.

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“…14 The potential harm of those websites cannot as yet be estimated. 15 When comparing the ways in which users of proanorexia and prorecovery sites portray themselves, it was possible to observe considerable differences. 16 Prorecovery users, for example, verbalize positive emotions as well as cognitive phrases that suggest reflection on the illness (''know'', ''cause'') significantly more frequently.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%