| Summary: | Eating 'disorders' and body image disturbances are increasingly prevalent among girls
and women in Western industrialized societies and globally. This thesis explores
cyberspace as a potential 'safer' space where girls and women who are struggling with
anorexia or other eating 'disorders' can potentially find sanctuary from the surveillance
and regulatory mechanisms of control in the public sphere or 'realspace.' In contrast to
dominant biomedical and psychiatric discourses of anorexia that often portray women
with eating disorders as 'irrational' and 'in denial' of their behavior, this study takes
seriously the voices of these women and looks to their narratives for alternative
presentations of anorexia and other eating disorders. It attempts to locate women's
cyberspace expressions of anorexia in the context of a society that often pathologizes,
medicalizes and attempts to silence their voices.
The thesis examines the narratives of women who create and visit 'pro-anorexia'
or 'pro-ana' websites to see if dominant cultural scripts about women's bodies and
subjectivities are reproduced, negotiated and/or resisted. It investigates women's
expressions and interpretations of their own experiences of anorexia and other eating
disorders. It reviews data collected from pro-anorexia websites from September 2001 to
February 2003 and considers the backlash they generate. It explores the rationale of girls
and women who inhabit these new social spaces, and their resilience in spite of backlash.
Narratives found on pro-anorexia websites may illustrate alternative discourses of
anorexia and eating disorders that have implications for biomedical theories as well as
clinical practices.
|
|---|
