Tumblr's Thinspo Ban Could Actually, Horribly, Make Pro-Ana Sites More Accessible

Although back in March blog and image hosting services Tumblr and Pinterest did their best to dump Raid on the insidious pro-ana, pro-mia “thinspiration” community, individual domains like Skinny Gossip—run by an anonymous woman who “has done some modeling” and “now works in the fashion and entertainment industries”—remain intact for former Tumblr/Pinterest pro-ana reader migration. Posts and categories (to which I am not linking for a number of reasons, among them the insanely high read they provoke on my discomfort/sadness scale) include “Fat Pride Burns My Hide,” a takedown of a body-image awareness spread featuring plus-size models, and “Starving Tip Of the Day.”

An item on the website’s FAQ reads, “Is this a pro-ana site?” The response:

No. This is a pro-skinny site. People who have illnesses of any kind shouldn’t be here – they should be seeking professional help and working to get well.

Yup. Logic.

Judging by its content, sites like these (and, unfortunately, this isn’t the only one of its kind) are less “thinspirational” as, say, a Pinterest board would have been pre-ban; while those were heavy on no-name high-fashion images, these are more like versions of a mainstream gossip-snark site, with about 80% of its content focused on slamming celebrity women for perceived weight gain or poor diet choices rather than highlighting women of a “acceptable” weight to be praised.

So what does this mean, aside from the threat that the users with nowhere to go post-ban will transition to domain sites instead? Link-bait. A simple Google search of “kate upton” or “lindsay lohan” could open Pandora’s box for someone who just wanted to look at Lohan’s Marilyn Monroe-inspired photo shoot or Upton’s Carl’s Jr. ads from a few months ago (both of which are featured on the site with precisely the commentary you’d expect, if not more vicious.)

Upton, who has been referred to as “the most Googled woman in the world” and appears on the list of top Trends each time she has posed for a magazine cover in the last six months (and sometimes just when she dances awkwardly for Terry Richardson) is called “thick and vulgar” and “a cannibal” by the site for consuming a burger in the photo shoot.

‘She looks thick and vulgar’: Pro-anorexia website brands Kate Upton a ‘cannibal’ following Carl’s Jr. burger commercial’ [Daily Mail]