Should pro-anorexia and pro-bulima sites be shut down?

**CatInASuit** · 18 Sep 2009 04:14 AM

A call has come from ther Royal College of Psychiatrists for action against sites which promote eating disorders.

It believes that such sites should be marked as harmful and is trying to raise awareness about the issue.

More on the story here

So, how should these sites be handled? Is anorexia and bulima a valid lifestyles choices or a mental illness?

Should these sites be shut down as they promote and support a lifestyle which is damaging to health or should they be forced to include health warnings about the dangers that such lifestyles entail?

How much of this lifestyle is enforced by outside social pressure from peers from various sources?

**OtakuLoki** · 18 Sep 2009 06:02 AM

Would there be even a debate if these sites were advocating, say, binge-eating? I don't think that there'd be nearly as much debate on the issue. IMNSHO there is an attitude with some that if it promotes slim bodies anything is okay.

More seriously, I think that while the damage such sites may do is likely real, the benefits of trying to shut down such sites are going to be too marginal to be worth spending limited public funding or time on them. First off, coming up with a workable legal definition for what a pro-ana or pro-mia site might be is going to be a stone-cold bitch. Just look at the idiocy involved with the assault gun ban here in the US. Second, the article claims that the proposal is simply to add official gov't warnings to sites that are determined to be pro-ana or pro-mia. I don't know a single person who has been deterred in their personal choices by the various warnings on tobacco or alcohol products. After a certain point information seems to me to be at saturation level: those who will listen to it have; and those who won't listen, can't be reached by any governmental effort.

Note, this is for the purpose of prevention. Treatment reactions are different - but even there it can be hugely hard to get people to admit that their habits are the source of their cascading problems.

With current attention on body images that are often unhealthy I'm not sure that any amount of warning will eliminate, nor even reduce to any significant degree, people using what seem to be insane methods to achieve those goals.

**Cluricaun** · 18 Sep 2009 07:37 AM

First the poop sex video sites, then we'll worry about everything else. In the realms of the internet, eating disorders don't even rank in the top 50 of the most disturbing and unhealthy things you can get information on.

**What Exit?** · 18 Sep 2009 08:01 AM

Absolutely no legit reason to shut down such sites. You and I might think they're crazy, but seriously not our business and not the Government's business.

**OneCentStamp** · 18 Sep 2009 08:22 AM

Originally posted by What Exit?

Absolutely no legit reason to shut down such sites. You and I might think they're crazy, but seriously not our business and not the Government's business.

I agree. As long as there are websites out there where you can learn how to make ecstasy in your basement, or convert your semi-auto to full automatic, this doesn't even ping my radar.

**Inner Stickler** · 18 Sep 2009 08:36 AM

For every pro-ana site that starts, I will make a BBW porn site!

But seriously, it's probably a bit tacky to shut down the site based on the content. Maybe make them include a warning about the dangers of anorexia and bulimia like they do on cigarettes?

**Zuul** · 18 Sep 2009 12:54 PM

No warnings, no shutting them down, nothing. If people want to share information on stupid, unhealthy things, let them. This isn't even one that's dangerous to other people. If someone wants to sit around, glorifying eating disorders, it's not my place to interfere. Nor is it the place of anyone who isn't directly involved in that person's life.

Shutting down a website or putting up a warning label isn't going to prevent or treat eating disorders. It's simply another idiotic attempt to protect people from themselves.

**Exy** · 19 Sep 2009 03:26 PM

Originally posted by OtakuLoki

Would there be even a debate if these sites were advocating, say, binge-eating? I don't think that there'd be nearly as much debate on the issue. IMNSHO there is an attitude with some that if it promotes slim bodies anything is okay.

Wait, what? There's all sorts of bad ideas on the internet. There's people advocating everything from pedophilia to drug use to terrorism. I think the fact that people are seriously advocating that these "pro-ana" websites be shut down just reflects the nutty obsession people have with anorexia. I don't want to minimize the suffering of people who do have anorexia, but statistically the kiddies are in a lot more danger from car accidents than they are from starving themselves. Not to mention the rise in the prevalence of things like type II diabetes, which used to be vanishingly rare in teenagers but isn't any longer.

My general impression is that pro-ana websites are basically inhabited by angsty kiddos fantasizing about being anorectic rather than people actually suffering from anorexia. So, even in the imaginary alternate universe where government health warnings really make a difference, I doubt this would get at many of the people who need it.

**Zuul** · 19 Sep 2009 04:37 PM

Originally posted by Exy

My general impression is that pro-ana websites are basically inhabited by angsty kiddos fantasizing about being anorectic rather than people actually suffering from anorexia. So, even in the imaginary alternate universe where government health warnings really make a difference, I doubt this would get at many of the people who need it.

This has been my impression as well. The people heavily involved in the pro-ana "community" that I've known have all been overweight. Did they have some unhealthy eating practices? No doubt. But they sure as fuck weren't starving themselves. They'd write lengthy LiveJournal entries talking about how they had gone an entire day with only eating lettuce or some crap and then I'd see this picture of a 5'2", 165lbs girl. If I paid attention over the course of weeks, months, or even years, I'd see that weight never even fluctuate in any particularly meaningful way.

:dub:

The people I've known who really were anorexic hid it. First you'd notice how thin they were, but they'd evade questions about it and act as though you were insane for thinking they were thin. You'd have to watch them carefully and pay attention to see what they were doing. And the majority of them didn't even know they had an eating disorder. They were just "fat" and had to control what they were eating through a series of ridiculous rules that got more and more strict until they ate nothing but raw vegetables (because fruit have too much sugar). To take the step towards being "pro-ana" would mean that they recognized they had an eating disorder in the first place.

**Xan** · 19 Sep 2009 05:28 PM

Originally posted by Zuul

No warnings, no shutting them down, nothing. If people want to share information on stupid, unhealthy things, let them. This isn't even one that's dangerous to other people. If someone wants to sit around, glorifying eating disorders, it's not my place to interfere. Nor is it the place of anyone who isn't directly involved in that person's life.

Shutting down a website or putting up a warning label isn't going to prevent or treat eating disorders. It's simply another idiotic attempt to protect people from themselves.

This is what I think too. Doesn't affect me and it's not my problem.

**Exy** · 19 Sep 2009 06:10 PM

Fruit DOES have a lot of sugar you guys.

A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.

Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.

**Zuul** · 19 Sep 2009 06:56 PM

Originally posted by Exy

Fruit DOES have a lot of sugar you guys.

A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.

Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.

Thanks for the thinspiration!

**Exy** · 19 Sep 2009 07:23 PM

Originally posted by Zuul

Thanks for the thinspiration!

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