As the new poster child of eating disorders, actress Lindsay Lohan stars in 'thinspiration' photo galleries for pro-eating disorder, or pro-ED, websites. The starving starlet does not endorse pro-ED groups, but Lohan's social status makes her a standard for beauty. Lohan, among other leading ladies whose starved bodies serve as trophies of perfection, exacerbates our nation's addiction to thin.
Pro-ED subcultures online, more commonly referred to as pro-ana or pro-mia for anorexia and bulimia, condone eating disorders as a 'lifestyle choice.' One site declares, 'This is a place for the elite who, through personal success in their ongoing quest for perfection, demonstrate daily the power and results of applying will, imagination, creativity and effort toward meeting their goals.'
The association between discipline and starvation pervades the pro-ED subculture, creating a contradictory goal to achieve strength through starvation. The increasing prevalence of these groups indicates a pro-ED culture at large in this nation'to achieve the 'perfect' body, one generally must develop an eating disorder.
The socializing force of emaciated starlets in combination with the manipulative force of these websites renders young women with eating disorders virtually hopeless for recovery. Researchers at Stanford University and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. found that 40 percent of patients visited pro-ED websites. Of this group, 61 percent utilized new weight loss tactics discovered on the sites.
The irresponsible creators of these websites ruin lives and may contribute to eating disorder-induced deaths. They have the right to abuse free speech though pro-ED rhetoric, but the blasphemy they promote should at least come with a disclaimer about the deadliness and psychological implications of eating disorders. Censorship by Yahoo has slightly curbed easy access to such sites, but beauty standards originate mainly from the Hollywood Hills, and a change must come from the same location.
On her May 2005 appearance on Saturday Night Live, an obviously undernourished Lohan opened the show by making a mockery of the press' attention to her exponential weight loss. Lohan stood on the stage and denied her disease, laughed away her critics and touted her figure. Mary-Kate Olson gave a similar performance in 2004. Meanwhile, young women with eating disorders watched, starved and felt vindicated by their success and beauty.
Before Lohan publicly shared 'diet secrets' with teenage magazines and denied having an eating disorder, she should have admitted her real secret'she suffers from bulimia nervosa, a potentially deadly psychological disease. She and many other actresses have a social obligation to limit their performances to the silver screen and set the record straight on beauty and health.
Community resources through University Health Services, the Campus Women's Center and A Room of One's Own provide various services to students suffering from body image issues and eating disorders.
The online pro-ED subculture reflects an impassioned version of society's implied expectations of women. Still, pro-ED regimens for weight loss will never grant women true strength, social power, beauty, class or discipline. To defend young women from developing eating disorders, the stars should set a realistic benchmark for beauty and pro-ED groups should quit abusing first amendment rights.
