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Thinspiration

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Thinspiration
Thinspiration Thinspiration is the inspiration for a person with an eating disorder to continue starving themselves in order to reach their goals of being skinny. There are an immense amount of websites and blogs purely dedicated to the concept of “Thinspo.” A group of scholars did research on this new trend, revealing startling statistics in their article “e-Ana and e-Mia: A Content Analysis of Pro-Eating Disorder Web Sites.” After examining a few different “Thinspo” blogs and websites, they came to various conclusions of the damaging effects Thinspiration has on women. Kate Harding, author of “How Do You Fuck a Fat Woman?” from Yes Means Yes! discusses what it is like to be on the opposite spectrum of the scale. She shares what it feels like to be told that being large is not normal and how that affected her life. On the contrary, blogs on the popular website Tumblr.com have been dedicated to giving inspiration to women to become this thin image. They show graphic pictures and tips to help women and girls not deviate from this social construct that says normal is skinny. Vlogger Laci Green, 22-year old Berkeley grad, shows her opinion on this new trend that is sweeping across the internet in a few of her videos. Her young age helps her audience relate to most of her video topics and form a connection to someone who might understand what it is like to live in today’s society. Jean Kilbourne’s documentary Killing Us Softly 4 takes a look at the way media sends the image to young women about what the ideal body should look like. This image that is portrayed in the media has been growing constantly to include women that seem to be skinnier and skinnier as time goes on. Thinness is no longer about the desire to be skinny, but has evolved into a need to be as emaciated as possible. The social, and more specifically, the cultural, contexts that are screaming in this issue need to be heard by not only women, but society in general. With the use of thinspo-inspired


Cited: Friedman, Jaclyn, and Jessica Valenti. Yes means yes!: visions of female sexual power & a world without rape. Berkeley, Calif.: Seal Press, 2008. Print. Kilbourne, Jean, and Sut Jhally. Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising 's Image of Women. Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation, 2010. "Pro-Ana Q&A." Pro-Ana Q&A. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2012. <http://proana-thinspiration.tumblr.com/>. Rebecka Peebles, et al. "E-Ana And E-Mia: A Content Analysis Of Pro-Eating Disorder Web Sites." American Journal Of Public Health 100.8 (2010): 1526-1534. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 May 2012. "THINSPIRATION- YouTube ." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik19cU1UKb4&feature=g-user-u>.
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