Thursday, March 5, 2009

Feeling 'Thinspired'?

During my first year of university at the University of Victoria, I lived in residence. Every Tuesday night the girls who lived in my dorm and I would get all of our favorite junky food - pizza, chocolate milk, sour patch kids, and my personal fave, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - settle into the commons room with our pillows, in sweatpants, and watch America's Next Top Model. As we watched we would laugh, snicker and snack. The whole point of this activity was to revel in our caloric intake while these girls jumped through the hoops of modeling, hungering through the day, pouting their lips, positioning their bony hips and hollowing their tummies.

I have taken to the same tactic when exploring the Pro-Ana sites. A bowl of popcorn and a diet coke arm me as I sit and look through pages of blogs, pictures and poetry. I feel like I need this food, kind of like we girls did while watching AMTM, to remind me that food is good, that it is great actually! This practice I have taken on has led me to realize that I am sensitive to this issue, and thus need to deal with it certain ways. That said, I would like to discuss a feature of these sites that is common across the board: THINSPIRATION.

What is 'thinspiration'? As the name suggests, it is thin-inspriation. This component of the sites is a photo gallery. These galleries feature either photos of the girls themselves and celebrities. Particularly popular for their thinness is Mary Kate Olsen, Nichole Richie, Lindsay Lohan, Hillary Duff, Kira Knightly. 

Apparently you don't even need to visit these sites to get thinspired - just type in the word at youtube and there are so many videos made by Ana-Mia girls. 

If you're feeling sensitive, I suggest the candy armor tactic before checking these sites out:
www.prettythin.com/morethinspiration.htm
http://quodmenutritmedestruit.bravehost.com/realthinsps2.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9KSf1DbG8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGjJ20vWX7o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?c=jLqsGWOSYDk&feature=related



Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 5, 2009 at 3:08 PM

    This is pretty heavy, but I'm sure you already know that. Interesting story about your First year. I am very curious to see the outcome of your paper. I didn't need candy in hand, but after first reading this post then browsing those photos I was thinking how delicious dinner will be and can't wait to go out and get pie with some friends tonight.
    As a curvy gal myself, hell, as any woman in Western culture I get body-image issues. But I simply don't see the appeal of jutting bones and growling stomaches. Have you made any progress in the "whys" of these communities?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Golden PastryMarch 11, 2009 at 12:09 PM

    I love watching ANTM and i like the fact that Tyra accepts all sizes and does not discriminate. i've only miss one season since the show first started.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)