- Friday, 10 July 2009
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Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought - Sir William Osler
Pro-starvation site lays it on thin
YESTERDAY THE INQ covered a story about highly disturbing pro anorexia sites in France being told by the French government to either shut up shop voluntarily or face new legislation in which their creators and promoters could be fined and even jailed for up to three years.
We checked out one of these “pro-ana” sites and discovered shocking content, and even more horrific pictures. Today, however, the same site, despite not having removed any of the psychologically twisted material, has changed its home page into a whiney “no one understands me, why can’t you all leave me alone” rant, featuring new polls which clearly tell the French government what the site’s author thinks of them.
“Are you Pro-Ana?” reads the title of a huge new poll which now appears on the site. The options given by the site's author, which give some indication of her state of mind since yesterday are:
1) Yes, and I weigh the recommended weight (35 kg for girls measuring 1m55, 38 kg for 1m60, 41 kg for 1m65, 44 kg for 1m70, 47 kg for 1m75, and 50 kg for 1m80)
2) Yes, but I weigh more than 5kg over the recommended weight
3) No and I’m a dirty anti-ana bitch, who does nothing but stuff her face all day, and even though I look like a big fat pig, I’m still on this site to piss the world off.
4) What does Pro-Ana mean?
The presumably skeletal ranter then desperately raves “Even though they tell me that I’m the one who is sick, a group of fatties have been circulating petitions against me to close my blog down, jealous fat asses!”.
She then goes on to whinge about the fact that it’s “insane” how many people don’t understand girls who want to live an anorexic lifestyle and see it as a capricious act carried out by a spoilt, rich, little girl (which she definitely sounds like, but sadly maybe not rich enough to afford good psychiatric treatment). In a pathetic admission, the girl writes “I’m not dieting to be thin! I’m dieting because I’m terrified that someone will think I’m fat” adding “no one will ever call me fat!”
She then goes on to berate people who she says see pro-ana girls as “little idiots who watch too much fashion tv” and says that she in no way gives any damaging tips to minors, writing “the only tip I can think of giving you is change blog [if it disturbs you]”.
Meanwhile, despite her self pitying, pathetically immature “defence”, the author fails to remove tips that could very well put minors’ (as well as older girls’) health at serious risk. One such tip on how girls can fool those around them about how much weight they’re losing, is to hoard Euro coins, pile them into a condom, tie a knot at the end and insert them just before being weighed to tip the scales.
It may not be the French government’s place to police the Internet for these sort of sick sites, run by clearly deranged teens, but it might just be in their interests to invest some money in better counselling services and better Web information to combat, what quite obviously, is a very dangerous obsession indeed. µ
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That's just disgusting. It looks like a Auschwitz.
It is sad but she will be dead or hospitalized soon. Just like with all the other sites that spew hate speech or other propaganda and child porn we need better legislation to remove and prosecute the authors of such internet sites. 

There needs to be a balance between free speech, the right to privacy and dealing with sites that promote violence or suicide(by starvation or otherwise).
... is that these people are troubled enough already to be causing their bodies trauma and by applying more pressure and mis/non-understanding from people like those who wrote this article and in government and pretty much the world at large will only make their cases worse.

The reason why these sites work (and it's not recruiting people to become anorexic because that just doesn't really happen it's like saying that people can be made to be gay - which, in a less understanding age, has been said) is that they provide a support network for the anorexic people that they genuinely don't get in their lives. 
It's the equivalent of the Alocoholics Anonymous combined with internet forums so it becomes a bit like a club.

Unfortunately, the psychiatrists who are supposed to help generally don't because they don't understand each person who goes to see them about this problem (their specific problems that cause the disorder) and the methods that have been described to me by anorexic people i've known that the psychiatrists/psychologists use really make me laugh.

The way to help these people is to accept their problems and address these. Then the anorexia will lessen in their minds - if not stop for the mean time. It will never go away because their ability to control their life through food (or lack of it) is an established thought process and will be waiting for them with open arms whenever life is tough.... just like any coping mechanism.

Again, unfortunately, people outside this circle of knowledge see the evil as the anorexia but that disorder is just a symptom - not the problem.
So I take it that these girls have take womens intuition to the next level. I imagine a lot of people will end up starving thanks to the surge in food prices.
Come on guys, link this site, the rantings are so messed up it sounds like a laugh! 

How much you want to bet that all these girls are single?!
There are few people who I actually reserve bile-filled hatred and pro-ana types are one of them. My cousin killed herself because of attitudes like theirs. They're sick, they need psychological help.
The URL for the french bog you guys provided yesterday seems no longer available. My french is no good but I think it says: "this used decided to delete his account and therefore this bog is unavailable" or something to that effect.

Maybe the poor, sickly girl commited suicide for the good of mankind. Or maybe she just went to have a snack and started to work on having a proper life again.

raskolnikov
@James

omg, way to disrupt a perfectly good mobbing with a windy and well-written argument!

I think we should not only ban and close these sites down: in order for us to rid our society of these sociopathic webadmins we have to round them up and force feed them hot dogs until their tummies explode. Publically, of course.
Yes It was deleted. Thank you TheInq to shed light on this kind of sickos.

Nonetheless, I hope this won't stop there. She deserved to be punished.
Maybe not for the tastes of most of us. But is the French government also going to step in and shut all the pro-Fat/Bigger is Beautiful/More-cushion-for-the-pushin'/Crush my knees and back, under 600lbs (kilo conversion, please) of weight websites? While they're at it, maybe they should risk the lawsuits and shut down some pro-Scientology sites. Oh, don't forget people who's favorite color is fuschia. They're the worst...

In my opinion, people have a right to express whatever they want. They can suffer all the public ridicule that they want. But it shouldn't be the place of our governments to decide what we can and cannot see. We should have the freedom and assume the responsibility of the paths we choose. The girl is right; Point your browser elsewhere, if you don't like it.

People have been trained to accept the big brother/big nanny role of their governments. They don't realize that it's the society (the people) that are the litmus test for sites like this. If little Suzy sees this, she'll bounce it off her friends. Most likely, her friends will tell her it's nuts. If not, if she and they have a natural propensity for self-starvation, the parents should take note and intervene. If not, community members should become aware and voice opposition to the family for its lack of guidance. If not then, the society has a larger problem than self-starvation. The society will likely not prosper or even possibly survive many generations. 

It begs a few questions about starving nations. Why are they starving? How long have they been this way? How did they make it this long? Why do the people not relocate to more hospitable locations? Government barriers, perhaps?

And neither archive.org or google.com have backups of it. There is another article on the issue at France 24:

http://www.france24.com/en/20080416-french-mps-approve-law-crackdown-pro-ana-websites-france-health&navi=FRANCE

I meet Claudia Christian once. On TV she is a very attractive woman. In person, well she looked like she was days away from death by starvation. Extreme thinness is more dangerous than being overweight, due to the damage starvation causes to your body.

I'm not sure that the French legislation will help, but one can hope.

Excellent comment by Integr8d! The only thing I would like to add is to the part where little Suzy bounces this off her friends. The internet is full of her "friends" that will agree that this is cool. Even if they're a minority they're actually the only people actively discussing the subject, so she will find more encouragement to starve herself than not to. If she has a healthy social life, it's unlikely she will even consider starving herself.

All the more reason for teaching people to think for themselves and giving them the information to make educated choices. The interest groups on the net always have and always will promote their own thinking and their own "facts" - it's up to the reader to decide it's merits.
Think this pro-ana business is messed up?

Ever heard of this nutter?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmuheen