More websites are promoting anorexia and extreme thinness as a legitimate lifestyle choice for young women and teens. The websites feature "thinspiration" photos of females so emaciated they seem to be missing not only fat and muscle, but all human tissue except bones, according to an article in The New York Times on May 25, 2008. Although more boys are becoming anorexic, the overwhelming majority who suffer from this life-threatening disorder are girls.

The websites celebrate boniness as a thing of beauty achieved only through sacrifice and self-denial, reporter Virginia Heffernan writes. The captions on the portraits, some of them truly horrifying, tout the starving bodies as objects of admiration. For example, one girl wrote, "Skeleton, you are my friend. I will sacrifice all I have in life. Bones are beautiful." Another says, "Time spent wasting is not wasted time." A poetic teen writes, "I want to be so thin, light, airy that I don't leave a shadow. I can dance between the raindrops."

"Pro-ana" or pro-anorexia websites become communities where girls who are starving themselves share advice and encouragement about the best ways to avoid eating. Participants post and update their "CWs, HWs, and BWs" with their pictures. CW is current weight, HW is high weight, and BW is best weight. An anorexic's entire outlook and mood can depend on whether she is BW or HW.

The "thinspo" and "pro-ana" sites often have a defiant tone. Experts say these young women are striking a revolutionary pose against society and their families, firmly upholding their right to destroy themselves. Self-destructive females like Sylvia Plath and Virginia Wolfe become role models. One buzzword is "fierce." The goal is to be as thin and fierce as a pouting, strutting runway model.

Labels: encouragement, pro-ana, self-destruction