Thin it to win it

Up until a few months ago, I was blissfully unaware about the concept of "thinspiration". I had a haunting inclination that friends who had suffered from eating disorders in the past had access to corners of the internet where they interacted with others suffering from anorexia or bulimia. In reality though, I've been oblivious to the horrifying world of pro-anorexia websites and blogs that aim to engrain in young women and even men for that matter, a mentality that thin is in and eating is cheating. 


I'm infuriated. It's heartbreaking, it's despicable and it's terrifying. How can those recovering from eating disorders do so when the temptation to relapse into self-depravation of food is a mere mouse-click away? How aware are our governments that these websites are infiltrating pro-anorexia propaganda throughout cyberspace? 


There needs to be legislation passed to ensure the removal and banning of thinspo sites, all across the globe.


I typed the phrase "thinspiration" into google and in 0.14 seconds, 1,590,000 results appeared before me. 


"Real thinspiration - fat girls guide"
"Pro-thinspiration - pro ana tips to lose weight the right way"
"Thinspo: let me be empty and weightless and maybe i'll find some peace tonight"


These are 3 links out of millions available to readers anywhere around the world when they hit search.


(The text, images and quotes posted on these online publications are shocking, however I don't feel it necessary to post them here and further the scale of pro-ana influence).


I scrolled through a number of these websites and I honestly felt sick to my stomach. The faces behind these thinspo blogs are leading young women in particular down a path of death. These girls are literally dying to be thin. Although the mental health of the administrators running these websites may be hindered by eating disorders such as anorexia, their influence on young women around the world is going to be detrimental and should not be excused.


Countries such as France and the USA are now seeing to pass legislation that will ban the horror of pro-anorexia websites, something which has been supported endlessly by Italian Vogue. In an age where the media is often blamed for bombarding us with a falsehood of physical perfection, which to an extent it does, perhaps we forget that there is a whole other world, the interweb, where any human being, in any place, in any state of mind, is free to impose their view on anyone who is there to listen.


Of course eating disorders pre-date the birth of the internet and whether thinspiration exists or not, it's an illness that is going to plague young women especially until the end of time. However, if the scale of influence of reduced and the risk of relapse lessened, the push of pro-ana poison is one less evil which will cease to exist at the touch of a key. 

Franca Sozzani: editor of Vogue Italia supporting ban on thinspo