ABSTRACT
Postfeminism and Health. Sarah Riley, Adrienne Evans, Martine Robson. Chapter 7 . Pro-Ana considers online communities of women who engage with anorexic practices and promote and share these with each other. Exploring the historical antecedents to pro-ana in the pathological feminine, the chapter considers the emergence of pro-ana as a twenty-first century digitally mediated health issue. Pro-ana communities provide an interesting example of what is constructed as unhealthy, allowing an analysis of how boundaries between the ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ are secured in a digital context. Discussing the similarities between apparently unhealthy ‘thinspiration’ and healthy ‘fitspiration’ online representations, this chapter further develops a theme that runs through the book, that part of the power of postfeminist healthism lies in its contradictions. >>
