Pro-ana
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Pro-ana, short for "pro-anorexia," is a movement and ideal that supports anorexia as a lifestyle choice. The equivalent for the related disorder, bulimia, is known as pro-mia, though pro-bul[l] might be more appropriate.
Pro-ana advice[edit]
Pro-ana slogans and rhetoric have often caused miniature storms amongst modern mainstream media outlets, who are starting to realise after a few decades that it's wrong to make people want to resemble cocktail sticks. T-shirts reading "Eat Less" and "Nothing Tastes As Good As Skinny Feels" (as endorsed by professional inexplicable entity Perez Hilton) were pulled following a public backlash.[1] At times, claims and "tips" from pro-ana sites can descend into seeming parody, such as advice that "[a]t a certain weight ... you will lose your period. This is a good thing because it means that you’re losing weight." Other advice is downright scary, such as tips on how to hide anorexia from your doctor.[2]
This is incredibly, dangerously wrong. Eating disorders already feature warped exaggerations of cultural attitudes to diet and body image, and instead of challenging these, pro-ana accepts them as true. It reinforces eating disordered beliefs about food being the enemy, fat being evil, and starvation/thinness being somehow "worth it" despite all of the harmful consequences. Pro-ana proponents often cross over with breatharianism advocates in their levels of denial. This type of denial and delusion can be a symptom of a pre-existing eating disorder, so the pro-ana community is very appealing to people who are still in the midst of that.
Put simply, eating disorders are serious mental illnesses, not lifestyle choices. Pro-ana is a denial mechanism for people who are scared of that fact.
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
- Being pro-anorexia is as sensible as being pro-pnuemonia (YouTube)
- An actual pro-anorexia blog. (Please don't click on that link if you're struggling with an eating disorder)
References[edit]
- ↑ Jezebel.com — Urban Outfitters Pulls "Eat Less" Shirt
- ↑ PrettyThin.com Ana Beauty Tips at the Wayback Machine (archived December 13, 2011)