Hunger Hurts but Starving Works
A case study of gendered practices in the online pro-eating-disorder community
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2610312 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Krista Whitehead (University of Toronto, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 595-626 |
| Publication date | 2010-08-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Canadian Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0318-6431 • E-ISSN: 1710-1123 |
| Publisher | University of Alberta Libraries (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.29173/cjs7976 |
| OpenAlex | W1701512319 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 22 |
This paper investigates collective identity-work of Pro-eating disorder (Pro-ED) groups on the Internet. Using an adaptation of face-to-face ethnographic methods to investigate online communication (Mann and Stewart 2000), the author analyzes five collective organizing practices in Pro-ED groups that reveal a highly gendered character: 1) promoting surreptitiousness, 2) organizing in and around the realm of domesticity, 3) equating beauty with self-worth, 4) relying on friendship as a chief organizing principle, and 5) using fandom as a method of attracting and maintaining members. In spite of exceptional resistance to their activities, women in the Pro-ED community are able to achieve a collective Pro-ED identity wherein they maintain eating-disordered lifestyles. The case study presented here interrupts popular sociological understandings of collective identity mobilization as having categorically positive consequences for its members
Aesthetics · Beauty · Collective action · Collective identity · Ethnography · Friendship · Media studies · Online community · Political science · Politics · Realm · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Eating Disorders and Behaviors · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Music History and Culture · Psychology · Social Psychology
Self-discontinuity aids intentions to remain in recovery by undermining nostalgia for the benefits of the eating disorder
The Shadow that Hovered Over
Collective identities and formal ideologies in the Irish grassroots pro-asylum seeker movement
Kill the chicken to scare the monkey
Pro-anorexia Communities and Online Interaction
Practicing Gender and Race in Online Activism to Improve Safe Public Space in Sweden
Peak Oil and the Narrative Construction of Unmarked Identities
Rock-A-by Baby
The obsession
Brave New Families
The process of collective identity
Body Work
Unbearable Weight
More than a labour of love
Telling Sexual Stories
Do Racial Minorities Respond in the Same Way to Mainstream Beauty Standards? Social Comparison Processes in Asian, Black, and White Women
The body-as-object versus the body-as-process
The mass marketing of disordered eating and Eating Disorders
Daughters of Suburbia
Pro‐anorexia, weight‐loss drugs and the internet
The second shift
Hot Movements, Cold Cognition
Stepping Out of Line
Starving in cyberspace
Twice Told Tales
Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the Construction of Masculinities
Collective Identity and Social Movements
Celebration and Suppression
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2026 (15) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |