The Thinspo Movement: Pro-Ana Revisited

Thinspiration (a clever combination of “thin” and “inspiration”) is a new internet phenomenon. Thousands of women and young girls pore over their computers every day following their favorite thinspiration, or “thinspo,” bloggers for the latest advice on how to get skinny. Many of these websites and blogs claim not to promote anorexia (a.k.a “pro-ana”), however, the evidence suggest otherwise.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health and National Eating Disorders Association, Anorexia Nervosa is characterized by:

• Extreme thinness (emaciation)
• A relentless pursuit of thinness and an unwillingness to maintain a normal or healthy weight
• Intense fear of gaining weight
• Distorted body image, a self-esteem that is heavily influenced by perceptions of body weight and shape, or a denial of the seriousness of low body weight
• Lack of menstruation among girls and women
• Extremely restricted eating

Many of the young women photographed on thinspo sites, though skinny, do not appear to be severely underweight, do not promote starving one’s self, nor do they advocate throwing up… outright. Here are a few “inspirational quotes” from thinspiration-pictures.blogspot.com:

• Remeasure, reweight, try harder.
• Fat lasts longer than flavor.
• I'd rather skinny dip than chunky dip.
• You will regret that cookie but you will not regret running that mile!

And from whyeat.net:

• Don't eat. If you want to see food, look in the mirror at your thighs.
• I'm not starving myself… I'm perfecting my emptiness.
• An imperfect body reflects an imperfect person.
• If it tastes good, it's trying to kill you.
• Bones define who we really are, let them show.
• Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.

Now take a look at a few thin tips from the pro-ana site Under Pressure:

• Eat ice or gum when hungry. This will make your body think it had food without the calories.
• Do areobics until you want to faint.
• Eat spicy foods. They will raise your metabolism.
• Drink ice cold water. Your body will burn calories just getting the water to normal temperature to digest. Also it is great for your complexion.
• If you start to feel hungry do sit ups or punch yourself in the stomach. You will not feel hungry anymore.

And from the "thinspiration" site Fading Into Perfection:

• Chew eat [sic] bite of food thoroughly and then take a sip of water between bites. You will feel full quicker and will not eat as much.
• Say you are going to eat at afriends house and instead go for a walk. you will be burning calories instead of taking them in.
• Drink one glass every hour. It will make you feel full.
• Drink 3 cups of green tea daily. It will help boost your metabolism, plus its anti-oxidants [sic] make youe skin look great.
• Eat in front of a mirror naked, See how much you want to eat then!

According to helpguide.org, there are clear lines in the sand as to what separates anorexia from dieting.

Furthermore, the site categorizes anorexics as individuals who, among other things, feel powerful when abstaining from food, compulsively exercise and/or diet, and who base their self worth on weight and body size. Consider these quotes from two different thinspo bloggers (for discreet purposes the names and blogs of both women have been withheld):

"Most days I feel like what I'm doing could be way too much…I know that if I stay on a very dangerous path, that it could kill me within a year easily, if not sooner. But at the same time, I feel like if I set a goal, I have to reach it. I'm pretty torn about it most days, but I've never really felt bad enough that I wanted to stop."

“I think 'pro ana' and 'thinspiration' are two different things….Thinspiration is just photos of girls that I used to motivate myself to lose weight. People need to realise I'm 60 kilos [approx 132 lbs], I once weighed 108 kilos [approx 238 lbs]. I had high blood pressure, sleep apnea, depression, was always lethargic and was at risk of getting type 2 diabetes and polycystic ovaries. I made this site for girls who were like me that needed something to motivate them to lose weight. At 108 kilos I never felt like who I was in the mirror. I thought I was curvy and looked like any other 'healthy girl'. Looking at girls who are super skinny girl [sic] in fashionable clothes was the only thing that motivated me. If I didn't have them I could still be on the pathway to an early death.”

Of these two women, the first blogger, who stands at 5'10", had a starting weight of 151 lbs. Her current weight is 127 lbs and ultimate goal weight 115. According to the USDA, her goal weight is that of someone 4’10”. The woman’s starting weight was in fact a perfectly healthy weight for her height. The second blogger is 5’9”. Her starting weight was 238 lbs; her current weight is 132 lbs. In this case, she moved from a state teetering on morbid obesity to a healthy weight for her height.

These two different women are a metaphor for the thinspiration movement. The two women are the difference between the (somewhat) healthy extremes we humans sometimes feel the need to do in order to succeed, and the first step into a black hole. Thinspiration sites are in damning ways like the pro-ana websites of yesteryear that bloomed and faded with the “Heroin Chic” fashion craze. But whether or not thinspiration is here to stay or destined to fade is not as important as the big question: how many people it is going to take along the way?