I want to make something clear about my mission here. I am not looking down upon freedom of expression. I am not looking down upon those with eating disorders. I am not looking down upon those who are seeking support and understanding.
What I look down upon is the people who use these sites to lure in vulnerable eds for the sole fact of not feeling alone. I am disgusted when I read these pages and see people feeding off of each others misery and encouraging it. It makes me sick to see how these individuals thrive off of putting each other down and passing it off as “support”. Rather than seek people to help them feel better about themselves, they stew in each others negative thoughts and allow their own to become more intense and deeply engrained. This is sick. This is murderous. This is heart-breaking.
It makes me so sad to think of those suffering from an eating disorder who are so lost in their depression that they actually find comfort in these sites. It fucking infuriates me to think of the way these sites lure in those with low self-esteem just so that those who are using them can feel more in control. Do you realize there are young children reading these sites? Do you know you are making a terrible and murderous disease seem like an option…no, not even an option, like a norm?! Do you understand you are attracting lonely and unhappy kids, FUCKING 14-YEAR-OLD KIDS, so that you can feel like what you are putting yourself through is okay?!
Does anyone understand what I am saying? In an online article in Associated Content called “Behind Pro-Anorexia Sites” a questionnaire was given to get the opinions of pro-ana sites from those who read them. A majority of the answers were given by girls between the ages between 14 and 18. Here is a 16-year-olds response to the question “why are you using these websites”: “I’m doing it because I WANT TO be thinner. For myself. To love myself more.” Her current weight is 103 pounds and her goal weight, with the help of pro-ana sites, is 90 or below. She is 16-years-old. She should not have the support of hundreds to drop below 90 pounds.
Another participant in the questionnaire explained how though she is not really anorexic, she is “choosing” to become sick. She uses pro-ana sites to “feel less alone”. She has a goal weight of 75 pounds. She is 14-years-old.
In “A Recovering Anorexics Viewpoint on Pro-Ana Websites” in Associated Content, Jenna Hansen responds to the previous questionnaire. She explains how those who run the sites “purposely post every type of trigger imaginable to keep people sick.” She also explains how “they especially target their tactics towards impressionable teenagers and actually encourage low self esteem.”
Hansen became wrapped in the sites when she was deep in her struggle with anorexia. The websites gave her a place to feed off of other's negativity. She writes:
“I thought about killing myself sometimes. I wondered if anyone would even care if I was gone. I dreaded people finding my fat body dead. I would go online and read about people with similar thoughts. Their thoughts would only serve to encourage my own.”
I do not have a problem with a single person wanting to be thin. Fine, if you have a problem and refuse to seek help, that is not a crime in my mind, but rather an issue that you must face yourself. You are only hurting yourself. But these websites are hurting others. You are not simply inflicting pain and torture on your own body and mind, but you are convincing others that they must do the same. This is fucking murder and it is absolutely unacceptable
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