Encouraging Anorexia

[bellybutton]

It's a serious problem with teenage girls in modern society, yet the media isn't helping, I found out recently. :nana:

Where I live, there are many different types of magazines published each week for girls my age. One such magazine is KISS, a typical girly magazine about fashion,celebrities and the like. Many of my friends buy it each week and read it over and over until the next issue. I don't usually buy it myself, I have better things to spend my money on!

However, this weeks issue had one particularly interesting article. The gist of the page was how it's all important to be skinny and fat is out. They have a website which you can log into using the code in the magazine. On this website, you enter the things you have consumed that day. The computer then tells you if you have been good or if you have eaten more than you should have. You pick a celebrity who is obviously dieting and they become your "thinspiration" for a better figure.

The aim of the website is to make girls skinnier apparently, not healthier. It gets worse, You have two "friends", Anna (anorexia) and Mia (bulimia). They help you when you think of food. The website is encouraging girls to lose weight, when anorexia and bulimia can be more dangerous than obesity.

Many of my friends visit the website regularly, I think it's sick and wrong but they don't think so. Opinions please.. :nana:

[carpefula]

Do we have linkage?

Personally, i think that it's as much the girls fault as it is the magazines. If they had half a brain (like you obviously do) they would see it for what it really is.

Girls who think being thin is everything are just subject to peer and media pressure. I hold people that buckle under these kinds of pressure in very low esteem. I know it might sound a bit harsh, but i think people need to be responsible for their own actions and stop blaming it all on "pressures of society."

Great thread though.

[Paradigm^]

I'd like to see more on this, too.

[HairyLee]

This is awful, ive noticed that aswell, adverts for the times newspaper on the TV show model Jodie Kidd basically saying cosmetic sergeroury is acceptable, which I think is very wrong. A link would be interesting though.

[Paradigm^]

Cosmetic surgery and anorexia are poles apart.

[Geek Grrrl]

It's a serious problem with teenage girls in modern society, yet the media isn't helping, I found out recently
not just girls but guys too!!

anyhow..is the website a section on the magazines main website, or just some random page site that the magazine has mentioned in the aritcle? you could always try reporting it to the internet police, though do they shut down pro ana/mia websites?meh..would probably pop back up in anther week for so anyhow

maybe try educating your friends about anorexia and bullemia, and help them see what the site really is - a horrible pro site :nana:

[Hitpoint]

Theres an internet police?

[Geek Grrrl]

well, im not sure if theyre actually called that, but theres people that go around shutting down websites, such as pro-suicide ones and such - its been mentioned in the papers alot lately because of a girl who killed herself after logging onto pro suicide websites, and another 2 people who killed themselves together after logging onto another pro suicide site

[ZekeyLizard]

No offense.

But I have absolutely NO respect for people who beleive everything they read. Particularly if it's off of a fashion "magazine" or some sort of celebrity brownosing website.

If you're friends are truly beleiving this crap, then it might be time for you to beat them a bit in the face with the "what the hell are you doing you morons its a fucking magazine, its not real life, thin people arent healthy grow some bloody common sense and enjoy life instead of caring about what you look like all the time" stick.

[Sloth]

I would agree with Zekey... but that is just not how the world work.... it’s agonizing, I know, but that is how it is...
All you can do is let people know what they are actually advocating… don’t forget to say “allegedly” every time you make the accusation.

In other news... I just extended my subscription to Cigar Aficionado!

[Snave]

I have to agree with Zekey, people who are gullable to believe and do by everything they read in magazines deserve everything they get to be honest. Girls (and im generalsing here because it is mainly girls that do this) that starve themselves are often either bullied or pressurised into doing this and when they loose some weight they do it more and more and get themselves to think they are fat. I think, although its pretty disheartening its also pretty pothetic for a grown person to get themselves into such a state.

But thats just me.

[RobW]

Encouraging people to be a stick is fucking shit.

I don't understand why people would want to be like one of their heroes, who's up to the music business (Going unhhh, ohhh yeeaaahh at the start of a "song" and pretty much talking through the rest of it).
Do they strive to be like their heroes who were probably discovered doing a no-talent job but bearing a pretty smile that would be great for making music with? Some however have low confidence and don't think they deserve it etc etc which isnt as bad, but still stupid.
It's just all the thousands of girly mags out their with their latest on their skinny hero with breasts the size of Jupiter on the front saying "omgexploitme" and the lasses reading them just have to be like them as their sense of originality had long gone.

Encouraging it makes baby Jesus cry and throw his celestial rattle at your aura causing bad karma :(

[T3-X]

Although anorexia is a problem, encouraging weight loss is very important to today's society. In the US, 60% of Americans are overweight, and 33.3% are obese. Canada isn't far behind in those numbers, at 40% overweight, but our government has already taken steps to encourage healthiness, through our government operated CBC, to mandatory gym classes in school. The US, unfortunately, has no such actions taken, even though good diets have been proven to increase energy, efficiency, mood, blah blah blah. The thing is, the over skinny girls on TV just encourage a circle of unhappiness in overweight girls, in which they overeat, get more fat, get depressed about being fat, and overeat again.


This leads me to a good point

Should Pop-culture be attempted to show girls at a healthy, realistic weight as the attractiveness peak? Is this even possible?

[GungHo]

The music videos, commercials and influences of today makes me wish I was born 50 years ago.
Things have just gotten worse over time, and the symptoms are already showing on the children raised on this. And there's no signs of stopping. I fear for the future, the younger generation really deserves better than being corrupted with this.
Blames are shifting and the general psychic health is plummeting. I'm scared as hell.

[bionic sheep]

Seriously. I refuse to believe even for a second that website exists without proper proof.

The only people fucking stupid enough to think that it'd be a good idea wouldn't have the imagination to make it in the first place.

[Magpie]

I find it really odd to hear that there are people that didn't know about pro-ana websites.

I've always thought of it as an internet rite of passage, you see tubgirl or goatse, you read slash about your favourite children's tv character, you see someone talk about the elven holocaust and mean it. and you find pro-ana or mia sites.

A lot of the kids who are involved in these sites don't even care too much about their weight. Fucking insane as it sounds the whole thing is about control to them. They feel like the whole world and their lives change and they have no control over anything but what they decide to put in their body (or not as the case may be.)

As a former anorexic I find things like this truly horrifying as I remember how hard it was to "get healthy" when I genuinely wanted to, without websites and organisations that existed purely to keep me being mentally broken.

bellybutton if your friends are so concerned about weight loss try and have them to talk to a doctor. If they actually do need to lose weight he or she can recommend a non self-destructive way and can hopefully talk them out of damaging behaviour.

[dudewithbreasts]

Thats terrible. My sister was anorexic. She nearly died. If people die because of this, I hope Kiss gets its ass sued off. :weebl:

[Al]

Encouraging people to be a stick is fucking shit.
beat them a bit in the face with the "what the hell are you doing you morons its a fucking magazine, its not real life, thin people arent healthy grow some bloody common sense and enjoy life instead of caring about what you look like all the time" stick.
You should encourage one of them to be a stick so you can beat the others with it :)

[bionic sheep]

I'm physically repulsed in a way stronger than a million lemonpartys could possibly make me.

At least lemon party can only make you sick once. :(

[maw3193]

Don't make clear your intent, though, because it will hurt the stick more than the other people.

The healthy body image is very much in, according to the government, which is encouraging a healthy body image.

Unfortunately, due to freedom of speech magazines are still allowed to broadcast whatever unhealthy body images they want, you heard it, the downside to freedom of speech.

I don't believe in totalitarian state for the sake of it, but it allows good governments to stop bad media, to be clear.

A girl in my IT class complains and thinks she is too fat, far from it. Such is the state of society, today.
Urgh, I just want to skip to the future to where all this crap has finished.

[bellybutton]

You should encourage one of them to be a stick so you can beat the others with it :)

Yes I have one friend who is a stick, but she would snap if I hit the others with her, an she is my friend and that would be mean. :nana:

[penisoidal]

It's interesting to think of all the girls you know who eat very little on purpose, and ask how many of them are attractive/have boyfriends. And Zekey is right, your an idiot if you believe what some pathetic kids magazine says. I hate people who have negative IQ's.

[wocket]

http://www.cop.es/colegiados/S-02633/anorexia.jpg

^Yes, somebody please tell me how THAT is attractive. Please. (linked because...just...ew.)

Why on earth would people want to look like that? :( Curves are nice, people. Girls are supposed to have a bit of squish.

[argh]

http://www.cop.es/colegiados/S-02633/anorexia.jpg

^Yes, somebody please tell me how THAT is attractive. Please. (linked because...just...ew.)

Why on earth would people want to look like that? :( Curves are nice, people. Girls are supposed to have a bit of squish.

Anorexics/bulimics can't see themselves as being that thin, they see themselves as being fat even when they're downright tiny. They'll become fixated on anything they find wrong about themselves, or they're going throguh things in their lives that they can't control and the only thing they feel like they can is their weight.

Promoting thinking like this is sick as hell, and anyone doing it should be shot.

[bellybutton]

I agree :(

[Emillilly]

I was reading in Sneak magazine about them but they were warning young girls like myself about them. I find it sick how people can make these sites. I don't like seeing my friends getting thinner and i don't like seeing celebrities getting thinner. It makes me upset how their job is making them like that. It makes me even more upset that people who see them as an idol will think that is how they should look. Young people can be affected so easily that is why they give in to peer-pressure. I found it hard enough to help my friend who was having problems eating, how could i compete if i found out they were listening to Ana/Mia?

[Tratos]

Anorexics/bulimics really do worry me - it really annoys me when you see nice looking people in the media who hop on the skinny band wagon.

It really is wrong :( besides curves are much nicer ;)

[dejosc]

meh i think girls that are thin look nasty like one girl in my year who was Anorexic, meh. i cant really respect them though to do it you just gotta be not the brightest spark, i mean just say oo food and all is well. then again i cant talk being 5 foot 7 and weighing in at 7 stone but meh i still eat, just not very much, ill probably get minused for this post wont i. oh well shit happens or so they say.

[penisoidal]

I dont eat loads, but I don't think I'm fat or starve myself. Theres a difference between not being fat and not having a body at all.

[poliobear]

i have t oagree with pretty much everyone. whoever made that website (if it exists) should be shot with a 12 gage. why don't those (not your friends, i mean) girls just excercise? okay, maybe it's a mental problem aswell as a physical problem, but to a person like me it seems they should just eat healthily and excercise. not starve themselves. oh well, i can't really make any other point seeing as all you others have made all the excellent points already.

[argh]

Over-exercising can be another part of it.....

[poliobear]

thank you for pointing that out:) i meant excersizing and eating healthily instead of starving yourself.

may be flawed logic

[leprecon]

OMFG anorexia and bolemia and losing weight unhealthily is bad
the media is promoting this image

your sig
-----------------------------------------
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/7338/belly1ff.jpg
/irony
if you were a true supporter of your cause your sig would be more like
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v435/leprecon/bellybutton2.jpg

Not that i support this type of behavior but every sort of media with thin people in it will make people want to be more thin than they are
Imo its unstopable, but i agree that promoting unhealthy diets should be gotten rid of

(arent i unsexy)

[Snoon]

I think there were wristbands started by people like those who made the websites. One of those Olsen twins (I don't know their name, google it) was seen wearing one. Its like elastic and whenever these people are hungry, they snap it against their wrists to punish themselves. Something to with associating pain with food.

[eleanor]

A lot (but not all) of the posts in this thread are adding nothing to the discussion because they're pointing out the obvious and repeating the same platitudes. Please, if all you're going to say is something about how horrible eating disorders are, remember that it's all been said ten times before and think before you post - try and make it original.

[Geek Grrrl]

your sig
-----------------------------------------
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/7338/belly1ff.jpg
/irony
if you were a true supporter of your cause your sig would be more like
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v435/leprecon/bellybutton2.jpg


i was thinking the same thing

[bellybutton]

Well is my new sig better?? :)

[Mr stabby]

I think there were wristbands started by people like those who made the websites. One of those Olsen twins (I don't know their name, google it) was seen wearing one. Its like elastic and whenever these people are hungry, they snap it against their wrists to punish themselves. Something to with associating pain with food.

qfWTF?

I know a few anorexic people, and they are nice people, but they get bulied into it, and the fact they sick up everything theyve eaten when they go binge drinking doesnt help.

[leprecon]

Well is my new sig better?? :)
LOL
didnt expect that

[Geek Grrrl]

I think you should use this...

because my paint skills are teh sex

back on topic - I do believe that healthy with a little bit of round is the best way to look

[Snoon]

well said.
podge is sexy, och aye.

[argh]

Am I the only one who didn't have a problem with bellybutton's sig? The girl's slim, but her bones aren't sticking out or anything. To me, it just looks like a lot of belly dancers bellies.

[Nuclear Spoon]

What Zekey said.

Bellybutton, are you actually going to show us this site?

[Geek Grrrl]

Am I the only one who didn't have a problem with bellybutton's sig? The girl's slim, but her bones aren't sticking out or anything. To me, it just looks like a lot of belly dancers bellies.

I didnt have a problem with it, tis a very nice tummy, I just thought it seemed abit hypocritical - bellybutton, sorry to talk about you like your not here :p

[wocket]

Scarily enough, yesterday I found myself doing some dangerous things....Like, chastising myself for eating "too much". When I sat down and thought about it, I had only eaten 500 calories that entire day...And I had to force myself to eat a salad after that.

[Angel@heart]

That IS more than sick and disgusting, It's cruel. Many people are concious about their weight and have people rubbing it in there faces that there are perfect people out there with perfect bodies. But the thing is thy arn't perfect. It doesn't matter how much you weigh or what you look like, it's about who you are inside and how you treat others and yourself.
I feel sorry for people stuck in the trap of anorexia and bulemia, they need people to help them realise that the are beautiful inside. I think it's really wrong that this site is encouraging people to become ill. Because in a nutshell that's what it's doing!
Grrr
*Shakes fist at bullys*
p.s i think people who have a bit of "meat" on them look far sexier than stick women!! :weebl:

[Io.]

It's funny how easily people here can make disparaging remarks about "stick" like figures being totally unattractive; would people feel as comfortable openly claiming such things about larger women??

Or is that socially unacceptable, while it's fine to say that people with a smaller build are *ugly*?

Maybe it's just me, but some of the things said here seem almost as insensitive as you might find in a pro ana/mia website. Which are, as has already been deduced, frankly disgusting.

This article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/259226.stm) seems to suggest that the existence of these websites has a very limited effect on developing eating disorders. But from the first poster's experience, and no doubt others', they are still a very real concern.

[_pinky_]

http://www.donloper.com/images/anorexia.jpg

yay!

[bellybutton]

Lol pinky~
Oh people linkage hopefully next week can't ask my friend she's in Andora for the mid term :(

[Chassisbot]

qfWTF?

I know a few anorexic people, and they are nice people, but they get bulied into it, and the fact they sick up everything theyve eaten when they go binge drinking doesnt help.

That's bulimia.

[Midget]

Most celebritys aren't even that skinny really and the ones that are just look disgusting, for example kate moss, gwyneth paltrow, nicole kidman etc...

Luckily I have great metabolism so I don't need to worry about weight at all, so all you diet fanatics can go fuck yourselves. :D

by the way, anorexia and bulimia are different things as mr bot pointed out. (http://drdrew.com/office/faq.asp?id=1144)

[wocket]

It's funny how easily people here can make disparaging remarks about "stick" like figures being totally unattractive; would people feel as comfortable openly claiming such things about larger women??

Or is that socially unacceptable, while it's fine to say that people with a smaller build are *ugly*?

No, it's not socially unacceptable. Curvy women are deliciously attractive. FAT women, however, are not. Like slim girls can be attractive, but stick skinny girls....not.

[bellybutton]

Anorexia is when you just don't eat at all to try lose weight,
Bulimia is when tou eat but make yourself puke after eating :(

[killsteel]

Like I've said so many times before, you can sit about complaining until hell freezes over, but the problem remains unless you take action. If your friends are being affected by this bullshit propaganda, they're your friends and you should be honour-bound to help them, in any way that you can. Be honest with them. Tell them that they're not fat, they're unhealthily skinny, and that if they continue they'll just become even less healthy. If they don't listen, keep trying until they do. Give them facts, and proof, and if they don't accept that, then, well, you'll have to consider how much you care about them, and whether they're really worth all the trouble to save their sorry ass...

The point is, problems do not resolve with inaction, they merely spread. If you don't like something, change it. If you don't change it, you don't care enough, so shut up and stop complaining.

[Emillilly]

Good words Killsteel!! It's not as easy as it seems though. Taking them to someone who knows what they are on about will really help. I took my friend to the school nurse. She had stoped eating wanting to lose loads of weight in just a few months. She'd started becoming obsessed with calorie counting. (some people like me jus like 2 read what calories are in what but it don't stop me eating whatever it is) Anyway, she hadnt got too far in the 'diet' and hadn't lost too much weight so i took her to the nurse to see what we could do. the nurse gave information on foods she could eat while stilll losing weight. this worked for about a month but since then i've gone to the canteen with her, i've even dragged her some days. once in there she will buy something and eat it. Whether it is just for me, i don't know but i'm helping her and i do know that. It fills me with happiness when i go to the shop with her and she will buy a chocolate bar or something. she is still obsessed with her weight but as long as she isn't going to harm herself while losing it and she does it while still eating healthily, i'll always support her. Nobody deserves to go through the trauma of not eating anything, until they are unhealthily inderweight, and then have to build up their appetites. It is so hard to do that. Never give up if your friend is showing signs of developing an eating disorder, they really really are worth it and one day they will thank you for it.

[Evilmoo]

It's a serious problem with teenage girls in modern society, yet the media isn't helping, I found out recently. :nana:

Where I live, there are many different types of magazines published each week for girls my age. One such magazine is KISS, a typical girly magazine about fashion,celebrities and the like. Many of my friends buy it each week and read it over and over until the next issue. I don't usually buy it myself, I have better things to spend my money on!

However, this weeks issue had one particularly interesting article. The gist of the page was how it's all important to be skinny and fat is out. They have a website which you can log into using the code in the magazine. On this website, you enter the things you have consumed that day. The computer then tells you if you have been good or if you have eaten more than you should have. You pick a celebrity who is obviously dieting and they become your "thinspiration" for a better figure.

The aim of the website is to make girls skinnier apparently, not healthier. It gets worse, You have two "friends", Anna (anorexia) and Mia (bulimia). They help you when you think of food. The website is encouraging girls to lose weight, when anorexia and bulimia can be more dangerous than obesity.

Many of my friends visit the website regularly, I think it's sick and wrong but they don't think so. Opinions please.. :nana:

It's disgusting. I read about it in 'Sugar' magazine and they were saying how sick it was. They use incredibly thin celebrities like Nicole Ritchie e.c.t and tell them to be like that. They don't want you to be healthy, they want you to be thin and encourage you to eat nothing. And worst of all, they convince you anorexia isn't a problem, just a choice of lifestyle. It's absolutely sickening and I hope the people who created those sites rot in hell. I don't know why the hell they wanted to create the sites, perhaps they realised how much teenage girls feel pressurised by society to be thin and get sick entertainment by preying on these insecurities. As long as we eat healthy and excercise a reasonable amount, then our bodies are perfectly fine.

These websites really need to be shut down and they should lock up the site runners and throw away the key.