April 10, 2000

11:28 AM

I've seen some disturbing stuff on the web before, but for some reason a pro-anorexia site featuring low cal recipies and a scary guestbook gives me the creeps like no other site ever has. I wish it were fake, and all the people in the guestbook saying "great site!" were joking as well, but I know it's the sad truth for a lot of people.
posted by mathowie (9 comments total)

As someone from the other extreme (morbidly obese), I'm trying to see some good in this site. I've learned that being made miserable about one's body can make it that much harder to care enough to change it. I may find this site creepier than most, but I've been given enough of a hard time in my life about my weight that I feel at least some sympathy for these kids.
posted by harmful at 11:48 AM on April 10, 2000

this is not as bad as a site I saw about a year ago--thankfully I've forgotten the URL. at least this purports to be done by a woman *with* anorexia. it does beautifully point out how very thin many of our models and actresses have become, though....

the one I saw last year seemed to be done by men, and the women literally looked like those horrible images of people in concentration camps. the nessage was basically: "anorexia is attractive, and when you look like this you'll be sexy." complete with pictures of self-starved girls and photos of bulemic women vomiting. one graphic showed an anorexic woman's legs and said "when your this (points to skin and bones thigh) is the same size as this (points to skin and bones calf) your legs are perfect." believe me, the images of women on *this* page look downright normal in comparison.

it haunted me for weeks afterward. I don't know whether the images disturbed me more or the idea that somewhere a man was feeding this disease in this way. I came away feeling that it was the most woman-hating site I'd ever seen.

rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 11:50 AM on April 10, 2000

Yea I understand about the weight thing being a problem, but this site is just scary, like horror movie scary.
posted by r-boogie at 11:51 AM on April 10, 2000

There are a number of pro-eating disorders sites out there, and they break my heart. Defiance and justification are really basic manifestations of the disease, but there is a big difference between knowing that, and actually seeing it on the web like this.

What makes me sick are the anorexic porn fetishists. I had to take a photo off of my site because one of them linked it on his site - I would never have known if my host hadn't noticed the huge increase in hits to the picture.
posted by sperare at 12:33 PM on April 10, 2000

What is perhaps even creepier is that this site is a member of an anorexia web-ring.

I guess there is no subject so bizarre that no-one will form a web-ring for it.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:36 PM on April 10, 2000

This site appeared on cruel.com a few days ago. I went there, checked it out. One thing I have to give her, the content is good, information concise, and the links are quality links that relate to the site. In fact, I found a dieting resource I'd never found before. All in all, if this is her bag, she did a good job.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 12:50 PM on April 10, 2000

Uh, she did a terrible job, in that she is making it seem like this is a lifestyle worth fighting for. Which is scary. As a pediatrician (almost -- less than two months until residency), this site scares the hell out of me... I am terrified about the notion that adolescent girls will bring printouts of this into my office and defend their 5'6" 90 pound frames.

Ugh.
posted by delfuego at 2:00 PM on April 10, 2000

I agree that this site is as dangerous in some ways as any "Here's how to make a pipe bomb" site. "Me...When I was fat"?!?! Whether the site is well made or not, the subject matter is one that supports a demented view of self-image.
posted by Awol at 2:24 PM on April 10, 2000

What struck me about the site was how much the author's feelings of persecution for being too thin reminded me of my own experiences of getting grief for being too fat. I was simply surprised to see how similar the experiences could be from opposite ends of the spectrum. On the other hand, I don't think I ever attempted to justify my self-destructive habits the way she does. My feelings about this site are a mix of sympathy, pity, and horror.
posted by harmful at 8:59 AM on April 11, 2000