Is The Pro-Ana Movement A Religious Cult?

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Sometimes, even the facts we take for granted prove to be wrong. Cult experts, cult-monitoring groups, ex-cultists and even perhaps many cult leaders themselves have long maintained faith in two ‘facts’. 1// Cults are religious. 2/. Cults have a charismatic, founder-leader at the helm. The Moonies have Rev. Sung Myung Moon. TM has the Maharishi.. Most textbook definitions of a cult will involve these hard held convictions. Leadership and religion are central to their purpose and existence. Until now that is. The growth of Pro-Ana cults (there are several, not necessarily connected or affiliated to one another) shatters the myth. For one thing, Pro-Ana sects are not concerned directly with religion, (though they may draw reference to gods and religious style practices and rituals)), they are concerned with extreme dieting. Pro-Ana is short for Pro-Anorexia. Pro Ana’ists say it is OK to be anorexic, and try to positively encourage members to maintain their weight loss inducing activity despite the hopes and wishes and pleading of most people around the individuals concerned. The other extraordinary factor in this is the lack of a charismatic founder-leader. Pro-Ana groups have grown from relatively anonymous Internet resources. It is perhaps even inevitable. It might be therefore wrong to think of pro-Ana as a cult at all, though it carries many of the benchmarks of such a movement. Even if you are not affected personally, imagine you are an anorexia sufferer. Your situation is becoming apparent to yourself and the people around you.. People can see you losing too much weight, though you think you need to lose more – much more. You look pale, and sickly. People confide this in you and there is pressure on you to go and see your doctor. The pressure to eat more is intense. Your plate may have more on it than the rest of the family when your meals are served at home. Your most obvious sources of escape from the pressure are solitary retreat or searching on the Internet for others who might suffer the same discomforts. Sure enough, Internet chat rooms can draw sufferers together, to compare notes, and recommend ways to get round problems together. The problems seen are not how to get back into eating, but how to maintain the limited food consumption activity, better ways to make it look like you’ve eaten when you haven’t, the best places to hide unconsumed food, hide the odour of vomit from induced retching, etc. At last, people who know what it’s really like, or so it looks. A few people have then seen such discussion going on, correlated the results, and developed a grass roots series of similar advice sites. Initially the aim has been to set the record straight, to give anorexics a space to show and know that others are in the same situations they face, etc. Steadily however, the balance has tilted the wrong way and the sites openly promote anorexia as a way of life – advise on how not to be anorexic is effectively blocked from such sites. Anorexics have unwittingly created themselves a virtual cult – the Ana becomes a real entity in their mind, an idealized figure (in every sense of the word) In some groups an Ana is actually personified – an anthropomorphised fiction. The growth of Pro-Ana was flourishing for a time relatively unknown to many parents of sufferers, just as early Christians were flooding into Rome itself under the later Caesars, who only acted too late. It was exposure on the Oprah Winfrey chat show that told many parents that their children were getting help in staying thin or as it has become known in Pro Ana circles THINSPIRATION, from an electric guru in their laptops. The backlash against Pro Ana has been one of understandable fear, loathing and anger. Computer service providers have banned many Pro Ana sites. Others still flourish, (I found some with considerable ease) but many operate underground. If there are leaders and co-ordinators they are keeping a very low profile. One factor is clear, many anorexics and sympathisers are calling themselves pro-Ana in the way that anti-abortionists will call themselves pro-lifers. They are not card-carrying members of an organization, but supporters of a general growing ideology. Without providing links to any of them, I can say that many Pro-Ana sites share certain common factors, idolatry of the supermodel, love of diet tips and exercise regimes. Some claim to be tongue in cheek and carry disclaimers advising users to seek medical attention for medical eating disorders. That their readers are likely to be people with such disorders and that their tips might be taken seriously is fairly obvious. Some advocate use of laxatives and the taking of ice water baths to tighten stomach muscles. One problem I saw even at a glance is the sheer number of conflicting crash diets is promoting and linked in to the sites. The danger is that the users will try one for a while, get frustrated and impatient on seeing a lack of instant results and switch to the next and the next. The diets are not described as much as advertised as guaranteed to work. One is even a chocolate heavy diet. Many are almost certainly untested. One site I saw states that cocaine can help you lose weight, though they do, to their credit, warn of the illegality of its use too. The sites are cheerfully irresponsible. Pro Ana moves anorexia into something its followers, mostly, but not exclusively girls, choose consciously to adapt to as a lifestyle. Up to now many anorexia sufferers have not consciously chosen to push themselves to the brink of malnutrition. They have just not felt like eating, or bloated after a meal and felt the desire to vomit to ease the discomfort. They have looked in a mirror and wished they looked different. Now the Pro Ana creed is telling girls to experiment with anorexia, as if it was a bus you can get on or off at will when you reach the desired bus stop. Trouble is, there often isn’t another bus stop and the bus has no brakes and the driver isn’t driving. The sites could actually induce anorexic tendencies in girls not previously affected by the disorder before they looked at the sites. Banning the Pro Ana sites would be pointless. There are too many and they have freedom of speech. The problem is that they drown out the opposition’s speech and any opinion or evidence for why they are wrong. Pro Ana is in part a backlash to claims that Anorexia is a mental disorder. Tell a suspected sufferer that she is mentally ill and you add considerably to her distress. The sufferer needs assurance that she isn’t crazy. Pro-Ana tries to offer that comfort by seeing anorexia as a rational chosen course of behaviour. The sufferer feels sane and also carries on not eating as often as possible. With hundreds of other Pro Ana site users the sufferer tells herself she is not crazy. A few anti-Ana activists, concerned parents and people more crudely rudely and un-subtly demanding that the girls on Pro-Ana shut up and eat are often cut off and permanently blocked from the site forums leaving Pro-Anas in a very elitist cliquish rose tinted environment where any sense of balancing counter-view is purged away to protect them. Parents of sufferers should tread carefully when they learn a daughter or friend is using such a site. Their best approach is to study the sites closely (without adding comments to what is read) before making any decisions on how to address their daughters on the problems of anorexia. Photos on pro-Ana blog sites can be frightfully extreme – from supermodels to images of girls with ribs protruding through thin carcasses. There are also many images of fat, overweight and obese people presented to intentionally induce revulsion. The anorexic is likely to be driven deeper into fear of food for worries about ending up like one of the big people in such images. The language of Pro-Ana groups online has cultic overtones in being very pseudo-spiritual. The body is a temple, the thin-ness of a girl representing Aphrodite. Angels are frequently referenced on the sites. But Pro-Ana is not a cult like The Moonies are a cult. It has grown from the desires of sufferers themselves, through multiple chat rooms and Internet forums. The language and catch phrases adopted are from the more popular and articulate of the web pages. No one single-handedly wrote the rulebook or Bible of Pro-Anaism, it has evolved from the interaction of sufferers gathered together in a shared darkness. It’s a bit like the evolution of prison slang or Polari. In many ways, the Pro-Ana sect is something independent and radical, as it has been allowed to flourish unchecked – it is an escapist movement. Anorexia and Bulimia (which gives its name to Pro-Ana like Pro-Mia groups) sufferers have sought meaning, explanation and comparisons for what they suffer. They have looked up online who is thin, who is beautiful, the various diets, and people who have got by for being thin. They have avoided the negatives – the references to the death of singer Karen Carpenter, the demands that they must gain weight and eat properly. Mainly of course, they have sought assurances that they are not mentally ill – the stigma of that frightens sufferers more than anything else. The research is laudable, but sadly biased and one sided. It has ceased to be realistic. Pro-Ana offers a deluge of assurances, fresh diets, and testimonials from fellow sufferers, and a safe zone where the nay Sayers don’t get in. They have a philosophy without an opposing school of thought because they have soundproofed out not only the spammers and trolls but also all reasonable argument for why their way of life might not be for the best. Pro-Lifers are aware of the opposition, the pro-woman’s right to choose abortionists (who I support), and vice versa. Pro-Ana has grown strongly from chat room discussions where everyone shared the same view. A sufferer, having argued with family, having been presented with a large meal and not being able to avoid eating it all, perhaps still groggy from throwing up said meal into the toilet, goes to her room. No one else is there. She cries and then, drying her eyes,, she talks to friends online – the new friends, the ones who just did the same thing at their house. They exchange thoughts, assure each other they are not alone. They feel empowered by this. Their reasoning is exciting for them, but no one is marking their essay on it – no one can point out the mistakes. They keep their discovery discreet – one for the girls – one for Pro Ana. Someone looks in on the websites and tries adding comments about seeing doctors, about the strange new diet being unlikely to succeed. The girls find that distracting. They block his ID. They carry on telling one another they are OK. By the time someone got through closely and said something contrary to the school’s thinking, it was too late – The ideas were enforced and imprinted. The movement was too big, and to some extent, members have their fingers in their ears so they can block out what you try to say to them. Pro Ana is afraid of the harsher truths of life. What should you do if you discover your daughter (or son) is getting inspiration for their dietary and exercise lifestyle from Pro Ana websites? The first thing is not to panic, rush at them like a bull in a china shop or tell them they are crazy, insane or mad. Accept that the situation is going to take time to deal with. One long chat or blazing argument won’t put matters right. The situation could take months or years to sort out. The main thing is to get information. Look at the Pro-Ana sites yourself; ideally look at the ones your daughter sees. Look also at all aspects of Anorexia, bulimia and eating disorders. Seek medical advice for your daughter, but don’t rush her to the doctor or into psychiatry unless the doctors themselves insist on it. Get lots of photos and films of well-bodied women who are larger in size but still considered exceptionally beautiful. Some alternative modelling groups take on girls of all body shapes and sizes. See if there is one near you that does, though be sure they are well run too, as a few fail to protect models from predatory camera users who only want the models to do nude work or worse. Many modelling groups under the alternative banner do well supervised themed shoots where models can stay dressed throughout. Encourage better education on what eating disorders are and how they affect people’s lives. Explore with your daughter why appearances can be deceptive. Too many people judge instantly by appearances, but some people are not who they seem to be. The super-model turns out to be a vacuous airhead. The mild mannered good neighbour with a cheery good morning proves to be a serial killer. The chap who sold himself so well to an employer in the interview, beating fifteen other applicants to the post, proves to be rubbish at the job and gets fired within weeks of starting. The cult of fame is misleading. I’ve met several of my heroes and though some are wonderful, a few have proved to be appalling individuals. Anorexics seem to judge by appearances when they need to see through to the underlying truths. Life is more complex than the simplistic Pro-Ana school of thought leads them to believe. It’s like being at a school without teachers where they still manage to teach you that 2 plus 2 equals 5. If no inspectors put this right, then many will leave the school believing it. The thing to do, and by no means an easy thing, is to show the pro-Ana supporter that there is another side to the story – one that they need to understand to get by in life. Pro-Ana is worse than a cult, in that a cult has someone in charge. If someone gets hurt, the gurus can be blamed. Pro-Ana is a rudderless utopian ship, sailing round unchecked and just willing to sail off when anyone looks like they might board her with another point of view. She becomes unpredictable and when someone gets hurt, there really is no one to blame. The best defence against pro-Ana is to show the alternatives available so that our daughters jump ship and get themselves onto a better boat with lifeboats, steerage and a decent captain. Arthur Chappell