Jezebel: death camp chic

ELLE Reveals Men Actually Think Anorexia Is Sexy

Moe — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:30:52 EST

You know that whole thing about how being superskinny is an ideal originated by the fashion industry and perpetuated by female competitiveness and like, totally NOT AT ALL what men are interested in etc. etc.? Well that's bullshit, says a story in the March Elle by Amanda Fortini, a 5'6 woman who dropped to 100 pounds a few years back. "Many men, I quickly learned, really do like frighteningly lean women, whatever they may claim to the controversy. As an average, medium-size young woman, I was unremarkable, innocuous. As a skinny slip of a thing, I was something of a sensation. In restaurants and at parties, men flirted at me extravagantly." Men in media and literary circles hit on her frequently and audaciously, (one of them with the awesome line, "You remind me of a heroine from a Joan Didion novel." (You know, "all bones and big eyes.") "As a male friend once put it to me, semifacetiously," she writes, 'A little anorexia is hot.'" But would they have thought it was hot if they knew what was swimming inside her guts??

That's right, it wasn't anorexia! Turns out she had a whole bunch of Entamoeba Histolytica , tropical parasitic protozoa she'd contracted in Belize, digesting her food for her! Ewwwww!

Anyway on a side note, she describes herself as someone who worked in "fashion magazines," but when you Google her it seems like she was also once on staff at the New York Review Of Books — which is sort of the annoying part: literati dudes actually dig waify anorexic types, in my experience, more than bankers. Because they are little and not very manly and it's not as brazen as digging girls with weaves and implants and also it's cool to hate on fat people. God I hate New York!

Oh No! Teen Vogue Starvation-Positive Message Boards Down Day Before Thanksgiving!

Moe — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:00:00 EST

Earlier today, we noticed the anorex-positive Teen Vogue message boards were mysteriously disabled, so Jessica called up the company to see what the problem was. "Technical difficulties," she was told, and commenters, praise Christ, have commenced weighing in — see what we did there?? — on such questions as "Are My Thighs Huge?" (Answer: NO.) But that was a close call... and what timing, guys! It's Thanksgiving! Where would your audience turn for thinspiration if not to your trusty website? Oh right.

Your magazine:
Hey, check out that chick modeling resort wear on page 202 of the December/January issue! You can totally play the "arm? or leg?" game with her limbs! And just so you know, the coat is Chloe and they don't give you the price, but you can get the Missoni bikini bottoms for the low low price of "about $390." Whatevs, at least you won't be spending money eating!

Teen Vogue Message Boards: "I Gained Alot Of Weight Over The Summer. Its Disgusting."

Moe — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:00:06 EST

It has long saddened me that I was never granted entrance to VIP threads of RingsWorld, the New York Times of pro-ana message boards, but you know what they say: "information wants to be free," and no one ever said "except for the 'thinspiring' tales and laxative how-tos of a demented subculture of teenage girls who are actually warped enough to try and attain the standards of beauty perpetuated by magazines like Teen Vogue." And would you believe it? It seems message boards on the website of Teen Vogue are well on their way to displacing RingsWorld's as the leading online community of the anorex-positive! Like on Monday, user vaVA_Vume posted:

lets get skinny!

Posted: Nov 13, 2007 9:23 PM

today i hade lemon zinger tea with one packet splenda 0 cal and water and took my meds...then during the day i just kept taking sips of hot tea to fil me up.... so far ive had o calories total!!! whooohooo...

To which poster BUH-bye added:

height:
5'7
weight:
120
I gained alot of weight over the summer. its disgusting.
I want to be 98

and also

I also love the feeling of hunger. I feel so clean and light and empty.

Etc. etc. etc. Oh, and there is so much more — ha ha, so much more striving to be so much less! — where that came from, but I am lazy and I have the feeling we've posted on Teen Vogue and anorexia before, but I wanted to give them a shout out here. It's really nice that the magazine has taken it upon itself to provide this forum this for the poor girls too fat to make it into the regular pro-ana forums. It's like, so aspirational of them.

Anorexic Model Admits Some People Find Her Unpretty, But Anorexics Totes Disagree!

Moe — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:30:25 EDT

The Milan Fashion Week billboard anorexic speaks! And oh my god she is so brave:

"I've hidden myself and covered myself for too long. Now I want to show myself fearlessly, even though I know my body arouses repugnance."

That's her in Italian Vanity Fair. Presumably this means the model, Isabelle Caro, is not to be confused with the anorexic model also surnamed Caro whose deathcampy "erotic" naked photos are thinspiring legions of young pro-anas as we speak?

She looks great! At the naked picture where she grabs her leg you can see that there is practically no fat on her thighs and butt! I'M JEALOUS!!!

Because we couldn't get access to the official pro-ana Isabelle Caro thread (we're wayyyyy too fat for that!) we're going to assume they're different rexy 'Caro's, but that the reaction, in the ana community, would be about the same, because anorexia is not about being attractive but conveying superiority and control via outward appearances, which is why it gets along so well in the world of fashion.

Anorexic Actress Provokes Row With Naked Actors [Times of London]