Orgs Fighting the Pro-Ana Nation
I recently came across this website titled: Pro-Ana Nation. It’s basically the mecca hub for the entire Pro-Ana movement. Vows to Ana and Mia (Mia is the Bulimic counterpart), diets, tips, tricks and thinspiration are all available and easily navigated. For example, a Pro-Ana tip, if you are hungry paint your nails. By the time your nails are dry the cravings should have past, or if you have hunger pains, curl up into fetal position and take a nap. Pro-Ana Nation has even complied a list with more than one hundred tips to choose from.
This pro-ana lifestyle is what organizations like the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) are working against. Many, especially on college campuses, have heard of some type of Body Awareness Week, which are usually sponsored by NEDA. One of the advertisments from last year's campaign can be viewed using the following link "Get Real About Eating Disorders".
These awareness weeks hope to create awareness in local communities, but one week can not possibly compare to fifty-two, web sites like Pro-Ana Nation are accessible 24/7. But just because these websites may be disturbing to some, it is completely legal and definitely recieves complete protection for publication under the First Amendment.
So organizations like the National Eating Disorders Association have stated its position on the pro-ana issue are actively implementing plans to counteract these influencial sites. Although the exact numbers of people who access Pro-Ana websites for personal use unknown, the national statistics definitely refelect cause for concern.
According to the NEDA website, more than 11 million Americans are diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia, and approximately 25 million more are struggling with a binge eating disorder. These implemented anti-ana plans are strategic communication methods to bring awareness to these millions of Americans as well as thier friends and family.
This pro-ana lifestyle is what organizations like the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) are working against. Many, especially on college campuses, have heard of some type of Body Awareness Week, which are usually sponsored by NEDA. One of the advertisments from last year's campaign can be viewed using the following link "Get Real About Eating Disorders".
These awareness weeks hope to create awareness in local communities, but one week can not possibly compare to fifty-two, web sites like Pro-Ana Nation are accessible 24/7. But just because these websites may be disturbing to some, it is completely legal and definitely recieves complete protection for publication under the First Amendment.
So organizations like the National Eating Disorders Association have stated its position on the pro-ana issue are actively implementing plans to counteract these influencial sites. Although the exact numbers of people who access Pro-Ana websites for personal use unknown, the national statistics definitely refelect cause for concern.
According to the NEDA website, more than 11 million Americans are diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia, and approximately 25 million more are struggling with a binge eating disorder. These implemented anti-ana plans are strategic communication methods to bring awareness to these millions of Americans as well as thier friends and family.
posted by I'm a Pink Sparkle Cemented in Your Driveway at 8:57:00 PM
1 Comments:
After seeing your blog I did a Google Web search for Pro-Ana sites. I was hard-pressed to find an actual site, however, I found a disturbing number of personal blogs. These spaces featured tips to fight hunger that I, as a former sufferer of anorexia, found to be frightfully familiar and scarily effective. Pictures of models with thier bones protruding from thier sullen, ashy skin were glamorized to goddess-like extremes. Poems and "Vows" to Ana and Mia were equally disturbing and possessed imagery that, quite frankly, made me want to enhale a double fudge brownie - a far cry from my days of starvation. I find it outrageous that these sites are allowed to operate in such a public and easily-accessed forum. The Internet is a tool for free speech, but where should we draw the line? When it is being misused to exploit the weaknesses of young women and men who impose enormous amounts of pressure on themselves to be "celebrity perfect" how can the First Amendment ignore the predatory nature of such information? Those who are "in recovery" are urged away from sites with weak disclaimers and indignant words that declare dedication to a lifestyle of starvation, but it is those who are still struggling to free themselves from the hold of this disease that need to be protected from those who embrace it. I am thankful for the opportunity the blogosphere offers for open conversation on the subject of eating disorders, among other things, but I feel that pandora's box has been opened...and the ugliness has just begun to spill out.
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