Wednesday, April 16, 2008

on eating disorders

I found out about this phenomenon very recently, and it's pretty scary - women and girls whose goal is to become anorexic or to maintain their anorexia have formed online communities.

Apparently in France they pay closer attention to these issues than I, because they are trying to make these sites illegal.

The article raises some good points about whether getting the law on the side of health really helps. If women are "told" via media outlets, societal expectations, catalogues, etc. to be very thin, then not having chatrooms to talk about anorexia doesn't seem like it will solve the problem.

Though of course I am not going to come out against any law designed to save women's lives (or men's, I guess - I can't imagine male models don't experience pressure to diet), this seems like a classic band-aid remedy to a larger culture of thin-worship worldwide. (Duh.)

Update: Courtney at Feministing doesn't like this idea much.

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