Skinny, Mopey, and Aerodynamic
Apr. 1st, 2006 03:32 pmI ran across the following in a New York Times article about the annual pre–spring break upswing in anorexia:
Am I a bad person if I crack up over that last sentence? Eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are no laughing matter, but...emo music and parasailing.
The group dieting that is relatively ad hoc among friends and sorority sisters takes a more organized form on the Internet, where spring break has become a popular topic on Web sites and message boards maintained by devotees of a controversial underground movement known as "pro-ana," or pro-anorexia, who sometimes identify themselves in public by wearing red bracelets. There are hundreds of pro-ana Web sites promoting and supporting the "anorexic lifestyle," despite aggressive efforts to shut them down by eating-disorder activists. In addition the pro-anas are also present on social network sites like MySpace.com, Xanga and Livejournal.com, where blog rings topics range as widely as emo music and parasailing.
Am I a bad person if I crack up over that last sentence? Eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are no laughing matter, but...emo music and parasailing.