Inspired to be Sick
A Content Analysis
www.prettythin.com
By
Katie MacRae
Introduction
In the past few decades, access to the World Wide Web has become increasingly easy. The websites available on the internet have exploded and there are venues for nearly any hobby, lifestyle or obsession. Some of these websites are commonly visited and spark little conversation among outside members; however, some websites have the ability to spark significant controversy. One such website is prettythin.com, a website designed to support the lifestyle and disorder of anorexic individuals. The website says it is not a pro-anorexia (pro-ana) website but rather a support group for individuals with anorexia and a place for anorexic people to feel safe and comfortable.
Research Objective
The purpose of this research is to gain insight into the highly controversial information and views of members and the creator of prettythin.com. By analyzing the website, I will see how the website supports and encourages continued anorexic tenancies. The opinions of the creator and members will help further insight into the support aspect of the website.
Methodology/Ethics/Reflexivity
The methodology used for this research is content analysis. Notes were taken on the photography, members’ forum and discussion boards and various areas of inspiration throughout the website. Letters sent to the website creator were also evaluated and documented.
There are no known ethical issues identified in this research. The members’ area of the website can only be reached by members; however, any person is able to register as a member without paying a fee or identifying with the anorexic subculture. The process of registering for the website took only a few minutes and did not require any misrepresentation. I am not a member of this subculture, nor have I ever suffered from an eating disorder (ED), however, I was able to become a member of this open-to-the-public website.
Results
When the search words pro-ana are typed into the search engine Google, the second website to pop up in the results is prettythin.com. Upon entering prettythin.com, the first thing which catches ones' eyes is a picture in the upper left hand corner of the page. The picture is of a woman's stomach, a very thin stomach and the woman's ribs are very visible. Written within this picture is the name of the website “PrettyThin” and a statement just below, “[a] site about beauty, in our eyes.” Next to this focal picture, there are four pictures of thin girls; two of girls with sunken in faces and two of thin bodies and legs.
The layout of the website is somewhat unorganized. There are lengthy posts down the middle of homepage varying from updated information about the author, urgent messages and links to other areas of the site, personal stories, and poetry. There are also links to the other parts of the websites on the left side of the homepage which remain the same throughout the website. These page links are listed under the headings; home, members area, modification, inspiration, beauty and society. Under each section there is a list of subcategories.
One of these subcategories falling under the home category is the who am I section. This area tells members and visitors of the site about the creator and operator of the website. Curiously, the operator of the site is a thirty year old man named James (aka Zander), who does not, nor has he ever, suffered from an ED. He goes on to say, he took over the website for a friend who created the website, who in fact does have an ED. After personal problems in the creator’s life, she asked James to take over the website.
Interestingly, the operator of the website says the site is not a pro-ana website. However, there is a section which explains the definition of a pro-ana website. According to the website, “Pro-ana was the term used to describe sites that catered to eating disorders (usually anorexia).” The website goes on to say they do not advocate or encourage the disorder and the members are all there for different reasons including; helping others, making friends, finding acceptance or finding inspiration.
The website says it is a website to support individuals who have anorexia. This support includes inspiration to be thin. Inspiration can mean a lot of things; however, on this website it is quite accurately coined “thinspiration,” the motivation for users to be thin. The term thinspiration is not defined anywhere on the website, however, one could conclude it is in the inspiration to be thin and with a variety of pictures the inspiration for everyone appears to be different. No where on the site was an ideal weight listed for anyone or a body mass index (BMI) percentage indicating the perfect weight. The thinspiration and ideal body type are very much in the eyes of the website visitor. There is a lot of inspiration on this website to encourage the women to be thin. There are many pictures on this site of thin individuals, almost all of which are showing a lot of skin and have bones showing under their skin.
Under the inspiration category, there are several categories which are, naturally, meant to inspire the visitor or member. The inspiration used in this category is mostly pictorial. Bitchspo is a portion of the website which is supposed to be a place for members to blow off steam about the issues which are bothering them related to ED or any other area of their life. There are some pictorial representations of this concept as well. One is a black and white picture of a girls lower body, she is wearing biker boots and black and white stripped socks pulled up to her shins, underwear, a black sweater and a stripped scarf. Curiously, she is standing on a bed and she is subtly sticking up her middle finger towards to bed. Another picture is of a girl lying on the floor of what appears to be a dorm room and she is biting on her middle finger. Both of these pictures encompass the purpose of this section which is, “...you screaming into the camera, flicking off all the little things that just don't matter; laughing in the face of all things that suck.”
Another subsection, under inspiration, was the curvepiration part. This section made me think maybe the operator of the website was right when he was saying it was a support for a lifestyle, not a pro-ana website. However, the pictures within this portion were of very thin models as well. The only difference between the pictures in this section and in other parts of the website was the size of the models hips and breasts. All of the models were very thin everywhere else. Some of the models in this section included; Britney Spears, Beyonce Knowles, Dita Von Teese, Shakira, Kim Kardashian and Rihanna. Most of mainstream society would call these women thin or skinny; however, according to the standards of this website they are curvy.
The next section under the inspiration gallery is the fitspiration section. This section is devoted to pictures of athletes. There were upwards of 130 pictures in this section of mostly women in sportswear or participating in exercise activities. The defining characteristic of these pictures was the presence of muscle, very toned muscle. Most of the women had toned abs and arms and were also very thin with ribs and shoulder bones protruding. Under many of the pictures there are comments by other members saying things like “this is what perfection looks like,” “I'd die to look like that,” and “[s]o jealous!” Most comments were encouraging of the individual and still some said things like “I like her abs and arms, but her thighs are too big.” Another subcategory is scenespro which is very similar to the rest except it is pictures of alternative/emo/scene girls. These girls were represented by dark make-up, tortured looks and running make-up from tears, twisted body positions and, overall, more black throughout the pictures.
The next subcategory, thinspiration is the most populated of the inspiration category. Thinspiration features thin people who are an inspiration to PrettyThin's members and viewers. This section has pictures, poems, and comments about thin people within society. There is a large amount of space dedicated to supermodel Kate Moss who is “a fabulous thinspiration, and a model who made heroin chic famous!” Heroin chic is characterized by pale skin, dark circles under the eyes, messy hair and bones showing under the skin. The look is supposed to portray a look of sleeplessness and drug use, however, it is seen as high fashion not sloppy.
The thinspiration section was one of the most unorganized sections on the website. There were pictures, as mentioned before, as well as phrases and poems. In one of the discussion threads, one member wrote, “What I want to be is not the product of thinspiration but to be the thinspiration itself.” Another phrase, posted next to a picture of a girl standing on a scale said, “scales never lie.” Next to this picture and phrase was also a picture of a girl who was so thin it looked as if she might break if anyone touched her. She was standing sideways, not looking at the camera, in her underwear and the viewer could see her shoulder bones, elbows, ribs, hip bones and her head looks as if it is too heavy for her body to support. This was the most emaciated picture I found on this website.
The society section of the website has even more pictures of celebrities and pageant girls. Most of the pictures are of celebrities whom I have seen before; however, all of the pictures are from the thinnest time in the celebrity’s life. Pictures of celebrities who have not been bombarded in the tabloids for their low body weight did not appear on this website. Mary Kate Olsen, Angelina Jolie and Lindsey Lohan are some of the celebrities featured.
The website does not only inspire the anorexic lifestyle, which they sometimes call a disorder, it also gives advice as to how to navigate the lifestyle. Some pages give tips on how to hide the habits, some discussion threads talk about the lies required to go on living as an anorexic and yet some areas talk about how to manage the health risks associated with anorexia.
For claiming not to be pro-ana website, the website offers a lot of ways for anorexic individuals to keep up their habits. Within many of the discussion threads, there is encouragement to continue fasting and extreme dieting. Many members have a 'signature' at the bottom of all their forum responses. This signature appears every time they leave a response on a discussion board. One signature is “live, sleep, breath and eat ana.” and yet another says “show your bones.” One discussion thread shows how other anorexic individuals provide support to other anorexics by sharing their stories. One story is reads:
This whole eat only low calorie veggies and unbreaded chicken/fish is working well. I can always work though the nausea of missing breakfast and lunch (not that I don't like it) because I know that a.) I'm going to be thin and b.) I'll have a small amount of green beans later and that'll shush my stomach up.
This type of story was typical on the website and was usually greeted with warm responses. Six out of the eight responses to this particular story said good job or good luck and the other two responses were also words of encouragement. There are other places within this website which are designed to help support individuals with ED as well. One discussion thread was about the habit of many anorexics to binge at night and the need for a buddy to text when they felt the urge to eat. Also, many members' signature lists their highest weight, lowest weight, current weight and goal weight. While the website may not explicitly condone pro-ana thoughts, they appear in almost every facet of the site.
There are also tricks to help keep their disorder or lifestyle a secret. In the beauty section, there is a list of three things to help keep anorexic individuals looking healthy on the outside. The first tip talks about when a woman loses her menstrual cycle due to her low BMI.
At a certain weight, which is different for everyone, you will lose your period. This is a good thing because it means that you're losing weight... Don't let your mother find out about your lost period because she will most likely take you to the doctor. Never under any circumstances tell a doctor that you've lost your period.
It goes on to give tips about what to say to the doctor if he/she asks about menstruation. The next two steps are about how to keep hair and nails looking good when the anorexia begins to take a toll on the body. This was one of places on the site which minimized the health risks associated with anorexia and there were others as well.
According to Erving Goffman (1963), stigma is an attribute which is “deeply discrediting” and reduces a person from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one” (3). Anorexia is a stigmatized attribute because upon the discovery of the disorder, one would be looked at differently and would be 'discounted.' With stigma comes stigma management, which Goffman (1963) explains as the the process of easing tensional situations with the 'normals' or unstigmatized persons. The process by which anorexic individuals hide their habits and plan ways to keep their habit a secret from their mothers and doctors is stigma management.
Goffman also divides stigmatized persons into two categories: discredited and discreditable. The discredited individuals are individuals with obvious or known stigma and the discreditable individuals stigma is unknown. While some cases of anorexia clearly result in a discredited stigma as the physical appearance of the individuals body is a clear indication of the disorder, many, if not most, cases of anorexia are discreditable. Prettythin.com provides avenues for the discreditable anorexics to keep their stigma as such and carry on conversations with 'normals' while employing stigma management. Most of the website is designed to help encourage, inspire and give tools as to how to lose weight; however, there is an unhappy undertone in many of the discussion threads. Most of the website is designed to help encourage, inspire and give tools as to how to lose weight; however, there is an unhappy undertone in many of the discussion threads.