This is unacceptable.

[fuyu]

So, hey, guys, apparently pro-anorexia communities are really warm fuzzy support groups that help girls suffering from the condition recover and be healthy again! So Sayeth LJ.

Much more beneficial and wholesome than those horrible filthy smut pictures that got drawn of ambiguously-aged fictional characters that weren't hurting anyone, don't you agree?

I'm completely disgusted. People are actually HARMED and DIE from anorexia. Pro-ana communities AFFIRM the dysphoria that leads to the deaths. They do assure suffering girls that they're not alone - but in the most unhealthy way possible.

"No," they say, "you're not alone, there's so many of us. It's not really a disease, you know, it's just a lifestyle. It's okay that we all starve ourselves, and that the odds are better than even that most of us won't be here in a year, two years, three years, because of this lifestyle. It's okay. Just come here, where it's warm and safe, and nobody will tell you to do the scary but necessary thing and seek help and fight this. It's not something to be fought, just embrace the lifestyle..."

This. Is. Inexcusable.

Signed the open letter. I'm a little late to the party, but...

Comments

[qara-isuke.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing this. I'm going to pass it along.

It....really, truly bothers me when I see that kinda thing. My brother confessed last year that he'd had an Eating Disorder in high school, which is the reason he's now having to spend several thousand dollars to get his teeth replaced.

At the age of 27.

[fuyu]

Of course. When I saw it, I had to.

Oh, I'm sorry. That's terrible. :( I'm glad that's past tense, though. Better his teeth than his life.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

It's not illegal to want to be thin!

Y hallo thar, gross misunderstanding of eating disorders.

I can understand why LJ would say "what they're doing is not illegal, even if it is harmful to themselves as others, and thus we can't get rid of the comms," but some of the comments they made were so ridiculous I find it hard to be offended. Between the wanting to be thin quote and "the communities promote healing," I actually had to laugh. How can they say that with a straight face?

[fuyu]

Yeah, I can't even see how... just, no. "It's okay to starve yourself to be thin!" =/= promoting healing.

I do wonder if just WHAM! suspending the community would help, as then you'd have an awful lot of anorexics feeling lost and scared and alone and not in control, which would probably NOT be a good thing. If they could direct some official attention to cracking down, though, putting external pressure on the communities to focus on recovery and studiously delete posts regarding how to continue starving, that would be fantastic. It would require more effort, but it would do so much more good.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

I do wonder if just WHAM! suspending the community would help, as then you'd have an awful lot of anorexics feeling lost and scared and alone and not in control, which would probably NOT be a good thing.

It wouldn't-- it would send them more deeper into their disease because you've take away what little safety net they had (I know it sounds weird). The real anorexics, anyway. Most of those comms are full of wannarexics. The thing with anorexia is you can't force people to become better. They have to want to become better. Since anorexia is largely about control (not about being thin), taking away their groups and their controls just makes things worse.

[trenchkamen.livejournal.com]

Oh holy hell...

If LJ got protests from some conservative watchdog group and not some pedo-pr0n peddling fans, maybe they'd listen.

[fuyu]

If LJ got protests from their advertisers then they'd listen. As I undertand it the pr0n got iced because the complaints were upsetting the advertisers.