PrettyThin

 Pro-ana was the term used to describe sites that catered to eating disorders (usually anorexia). The first wave movement started back in 2001 as a means for other anorexics to connect with each other so as not to suffer in silence. It gained popularity rapidly, and with the help of media spotlights rose to remarkable increase in visitors to the sites. This rise was both good and bad. Good in that it brought light to the whole movement and the anorexic rights issue, and others who wanted to reach out for help with no where to turn was now able to seek out others. Bad in that a sudden wave of people wanted to get anorexia, and thought that being on the forums would give them the "ana diet." Over time the media has blown this term way out of proportion and making it out to be such rediculous ideals as "cults" and that the owners were "recruiting" others into an anorexic lifestyle. The very notion that the internet will give you an eating disorder is lewd to begin with. It's not a computer virus that will infect you too. However, through all of these blatent lies about the movement, some were lead to believe in what the media preached about it and began believing in it themselves ... including anorexics. Several sites started popping up as "hard core" and were the very thing pro-ana was not. Not all hardcore sites are bad however, but the majority are not real ones. Many first wave sites never lasted long, and there are very few left that are done in the true first wave style. And of the ones out there today, they are all mere copycats of the first wave sites (in content and material).

This content is from Ms. Stephens-North works at Harvard University
http://cambridgecommon.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/rejecting-the-?enigma-of-anorexia-nervosa?-justice-and-the-pain-of-the-anorexic-woman/

The article was created on 1/01/2008 and published online 02/26/2008