Anorexia

Bibliography: Song, Sora. "Starvation on the Web." Time. 11 July 2005. 19 Feb 2008 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1081370,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-sidebar.

“ Starvation on The Web”

Every parent worries when their child gets on the internet. They worry about the same basic thing, pedophiles. Little do they know, there’s a entire world out there for their child. Existing not of pedophiles, but of Anorexics; luring teens and pre-teens as young as ten the same way as a pedophile. Offering love, affection, and the desire to be wanted, and leaving behind the same guilt ridden faces and stories that will never fade. In “Starvation on the Web” the article exposes the websites that lurk around the internet, with the slogan “pro ana.” Pro ana can be interpreted by most meaning for anorexia. While the message it shares and the debate both lie within the interpretation of the slogan, the effect is the same. The main idea of this article is that of websites that endorse anorexia. This article relates to health by showing how a individuals mental emotional and physical health can by altered by anorexia while showing a new and up coming way anorexia is introduced into the lives of many.

The examination of the website that endorses anorexia Cerulean Butterfly is the starting point of the article. Giving a quote off of the website’s disclaimer "If you don't have an eating disorder, I wonder what the bloody hell you're doing here. If you've come to yell at us, please realize that it's pointless--we're going to ignore your point of view just as you ignore ours." As the article continues it gives background information of the inventor of Cerulean Butterfly, including her brief hospital stay. Where she posted her views on that on her website saying "[I] was surrounded by the skinniest people I had ever seen," she wrote on her site. "Can we say 'envy'?" The article also shares some information as to what the websites contain such as “thinspiration” which are photographs of extremely thin models, and “tips for losing weight” shared by ten year old girls, such as “purging in the shower, helps mask the sound” and tips for hiding the devastating looks of malnutrition such as “using growth nail polish” to keep nails from becoming brittle. Continuation of the article shares information about the 39% of teenagers the visit the websites and the side effects it has on them. A adolescent that visits these sites are fair more likely to spend more time on the internet verse the adolescent that doesn’t will spend more time on homework, as well as the adolescent that does will spend more time in the hospital verse the adolescent who does not. Sora Song, the author of the article talks to the inventor of the website “Cerulean Butterfly” which endorses anorexia, she prefers to be called Lizzy. Lizzy in a three year time frame it has logged more than 85,000 hits. says While Lizzy claims the famous slogan “pro ana” is simply