French courts clamp down on pro-anorexia sites

THE FRENCH National Assembly this week approved a bill that could not only say a firm “non” to sites promoting extreme thinness and eating disorders like Anorexia, but could also give lawmakers the power to prosecute those behind them, making them face hefty fines and years of jail time if convicted.

If the bill were to pass, those who “incite” anorexic thinness, including magazine publishers, pro anorexic boggers and fashion advertisers, could face up to three years in the slammer.

The bill was proposed by a member of Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing party, Valery Boyer, who says she was shocked at the French proliferation of disturbing sites which tell girls that they can only be considered beautiful if they’re unhealthily thin, and that starving oneself is a virtue to be admired.

AFP named and shamed one such site, “Ana ma reine” (Ana my queen), and the INQ checked it out. Appalling pictures of what look more like victims of Nazi concentration camps adorn the site with captions stating “you can never be too thin”, and encouraging girls to look at the pictures as “thin-speration”.

Also shockingly prominent on the site are the 10 commandments of the pro-ana (pro anorexic) movement, which are: 1) If you aren’t thin, you aren’t attractive 2) Being thin is more important than being healthy 3) Buy tight clothes, cut your hair, take diuretic pills, fast, do anything necessary to make yourself even thinner 4) You will not eat without feeling guilty 5) You will not eat caloric food without punishing yourself afterwards 6) you will count your calories and put a stop to any weight gain 7) what the weighing scales say is the most important thing 8) losing weight is good, gaining weight is bad 9) you can never be too thin 10) Being thin and not eating are signs of great willpower and success.

The site also gives girls tips on how to hide the fact that they’re not eating including: “Make your lunch, but don’t eat it. Make the plates dirty and then throw the food away somewhere no one will find it so that people will think you’ve eaten”. It also recommends eating in front of a mirror to see “what a big, fat, pig with no willpower you are”.

According to AFP, Anorexia is thought to currently affect up to 40,000 women in France. Boyer said that the bill would make bloggers and website operators shut down of their own volition, but that if they did not, they would pay the price. "We will now have the means to shut them down," she threatened. By this, Boyer meant that those who refused to comply with the new orders could face jail sentences of up to two years in prison and 30,000 euros ($47,387) in fines. In cases where it could be proved that incitement to starvation led to a person’s death, state prosecutors could be able to pursue a three-year jail sentence and a 45,000 euro fine for those responsible.

But not everyone thinks the idea is a good one. French Psychologists have been arguing that counseling and prevention would be a better course of action than punishment, whilst left wing politicians have lashed out at what they see as the government interfering in private health matters.

Meanwhile, in the UK, John Prescott has admitted that although he’s far from being a French waif, he too has an eating disorder.

The former Deputy Prime Minister said that he used to chug cans of Carnation condensed milk, scoff down big Macs after five course state dinners, eat his way through the entire menu in his favorite Chinese restaurant at one sitting, down whole bottles of vodka at work, and then force himself to throw up.

He has, however, had the decency not to blame the Internet. µ

L’Inqs
AFP

Disgusting French Website promoting Anorexia