Pro-Ana Sites and the Horror of Thinspo

According to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, it is estimated that nearly eight million Americans suffer from an eating disorder. In adolescents, anorexia is the third most common chronic illness. Though these odds are staggering, and though eating disorders carry the highest mortality rate among all mental illnesses, only one in ten people receive treatment for their condition.

Most say eating disorders have been around for years. Those people are correct. However, a recent surge of "pro-anorexia/bulimia" websites has people on edge.

"They tell girls that thin is pretty," Conway High sophomore Devon Conrad said, "It's a sadistic thing, but it's taking over those with eating disorders." She later added that it was "as bad as encouraging suicide."

She wasn't kidding. On one Webs.com page, belonging to "superskinnymini," the first picture on the page is a dangerously thin blonde, smiling and gracefully moving in a very lovely dress. The caption? "Thin, Thinner, Thinnest. Thinspiration." Farther down the page, a disgusting picture of five pounds of fat. "This is what five pounds looks like."

The page contains many pictures of thin women, most of which are scantily clad. This is a new craze known as "Thinspo." Thinspo is a term that can be used many ways. Most often, it describes pictures of exceptionally thin women, which are used by people with eating disorders as motivation for self-induced vomiting and the abuse of laxatives for weight loss (purging.) Thinspo is also used as motivation for simply not eating.

The most gruesome picture on the page is a back view of an extremely thin girl, with pro-anorexia slogans posted on it, such as "A pleasure to the lips adds pounds to the hips," "Thin has a taste all its own," and "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels."

After another web search, this time specifically for Thinspo, a LiveJournal, belonging to "my-ana-secret" turned up. This page is worse than the last. This one is kept by an anorexic girl in high school, who talks poorly of "Wannarexics," girls who want to lose weight but "do not have the willpower to be anorexic." One entry contains hundreds of the same motivational phrases seen on the other page.

Those who are trying to pull away from Thinspo are still faced with temptation. In Lady GaGa's song "Fashion," she says, "I live to be model thin. Dress me, I'm your mannequin." Lyrics like these aren't unusual, just like the airbrushed photos in magazines, though most companies pursue anorexic models to begin with.

While most are attempting to make it clear that eating disorders are a put-0ff, some are passive and "accepting of the inevitable."

"My girlfriend's bulimic," freshman Dustin Warnock said, "I accept it. I can't change it. I invited her over for Thanksgiving and helped her escape from the food. She purges often, I know, but I don't bother trying to change her habits. She'll grow out of it."

Statistics don't make this seem likely. With the high mortality rate, paired with the high cost for the few who do receive treatment, recovery doesn't seem likely. Still, something-fishy.org offers hope for many, if those suffering are willing to accept it. Conrad is an example of someone not looking for help.

"There's no point in trying to change me," Conrad commented, "I've tried to get help, and it was no use. So I'm not bothering to save myself. I have it, I'll live with it. If it kills me, I'll die pretty. Pretty, and thin."