Arts light reading
This NYTimes article about anorexia spring break challenges is as fascinating as it is scary and repulsive:
On Xanga groups of pro-ana members who link their blogs by a common interest in extreme weight loss sometimes participate in a perverse distortion of Weight Watchers. Instead of accumulating points for food eaten, points are granted for restraint: a point for every day survived under 500 calories; 6 points for every day under 100 calories; 2 points for each diet pill taken; a point for every photo of a skinny celebrity on a home page, known as “thinspiration” or “thinspo.” The points are gained during group challenges aimed at losing weight before spring break. Other challenges have focused on prom season, the holidays and summer.
I’ve had two close anorexic friends since high school; both have identified as vegans (which, I think, makes abstaining from food more socially acceptable in their minds). Thank god neither one of them has ever thought to challenge the other to a vegan-off.
(Hat tips and carrot sticks to Natalie.)
These girls are ideal candidates for the Peace Corps, or any protest involving fasting. Ghandi is rolling in Nirvana.