Consequences For Society
Due to the rise of social media and increased and constant accessibility to the internet, pro-ana content is becoming more widespread and difficult to avoid.
As seen in the case study of India Edmonds, pro-ana communities are no longer based solely on small, isolated forums. But what’s more is that because of this the pro-ana attitudes, ideas and thinspo are leaking out into mainstream internet youth culture. This is dangerous because it’s not explicitly labelled as pro-ana, is very common and most people don’t realise that the images have a strong effect on their own body image. It is seen as perfectly normal for a teenage girl to have a blog filled with pictures of very thin models and close ups of thigh gaps and collarbones.
Below are a few screenshots of blogs from two of my friends, and the content I often come across on my tumblr dashboard:
Due to normalisation of pro-ana culture, I believe that the number of eating disorders and body image issues among young people on the internet could increase. Young people in our society will become more and more image-conscious, and due to the secrecy that can be achieved on social media it will become easier and easier to hide from oblivious parents. |
| The fashion industry feeds off what people find attractive and desirable, so when companies such as Victoria's Secret know their fans are obsessed with collarbones and thigh gaps, they ensure their models fit the bill. 'Skinny sells'. In doing so however, the fashion industry sets the standard for what society considers attractive and desirable- therefore when people are bombarded with images of a specific body type portrayed as beautiful and glamourous, they begin to believe it is the beauty ideal. As consumers’ ideas about what is beautiful becomes more extreme and unattainable, I believe the fashion industry’s model standards will become more extreme. It is a vicious cycle.
I believe it is the responsibility of the fashion industry to break this cycle by ensuring there is an even, wide range of body types amongst models in their advertising campaigns, without labels such as ‘plus size’. The average woman is 5”4’ and weighs 140 pounds. The average model is 5”11’ and weighs 117 pounds. Most fashion models are thinner than 98% of American women
It is also the responsibility of modeling agencies to ensure that they do not put models with eating disorders forward for jobs, and should not be allowed to pressure them to be under their natural healthy weights.
However, despite the efforts of some models and clothing brands- many of the most well-known fashion companies are not willing to change the way things are: According to Franca Sozzani, the Vogue Italia editor- although the fashion industry might be a cause of the recent increase of eating disorders, it was being unfairly singled out for blame. "How can all this be possibly caused by fashion? And how come that Twiggy, who would be surely considered an anorexic today, did not arise controversy in the Sixties and did not produce a string of anorexia followers?". Sozzani then claimed pro-ana sites were more responsible for encouraging eating disorders, and obesity was the more urgent health problem that food industry isn't also being targeted for worsening.
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