Pro-ana, a Culture Remediated in Cyberspacei

N eating disorder exposed in cyberspace is a tale of two cultures. One culture embodies a beauty myth, a fatal obsession with food and psychological distress (Wolf, 2002, pp. 9– 19); the other encompasses a boundless digital space, an electronic frontier that lures with its promise of a new world, abundant freedom, and transcendence of a limited physical space. Both cultural worlds have embedded in them the power of seduction. A woman suffering from an eating disorder is taken by the deluge of commercial images equating self-worth with flawless skin, a size 5, and radiant hair; she is taken again when her obsession with attaining this image turns into an eternal cycle of starvation, bingeing, purging, and shame. A myth of beauty overwhelms her; she becomes addicted to repairing her physical inadequacies. Another addiction, all too similar to this kind, is at work in the absorbing electronic spaces of the Internet. Cyberspace is an infamous lure, attracting people for hours, even days at a time, inducing addictions and creating, as it were, cyberholics (Barnes, 2001, pp. 188–200). As a “cool” medium, cyberspace demands involvement, participation, and immersion. Much like the ubiquitous beauty myth, digital environments have the driving power to envelop, engross, and instill certain behavior patterns. The cultures tell similar stories of seduction. It is when these two cultures converge that a new tale begins. The convergence of a community of eating disorders and electronic cyber places has brought forth a new world; it is called pro-ana (short for pro-anorexic) or pro-mia (short for pro-bulimic), depending on the Web site. Members of this culture meet in digital places to encourage and support one another, not in the healing and abatement of anorexia and bulimia, but rather in retaining practices of starvation, self-deprivation, self-deprecation and, in some cases, self-mutilation. “Pro-ana sites are emphatically not for those who are in recovery, regard themselves as victims, or even regard