if you are trying to DISCOURAGE bulimia...

I have spent several hours trying to prepare a meaningful blog to promote eating disorder awareness. Specifically, I wanted to find an educational way to expose the pro mia/ana world without exploiting it, and counter-balance thinspiration footage with recovery-encouragement.

What did I learn? PEOPLE ARE FUCKING STUPID. Mess around for a bit on youtube, and it will be abundantly clear that pro mia/ana clips are, by an overwhelming majority, better made and more entertaining than any counter messages. But even worse...pro-recovery and anti-eating disorder clips are either horribly cheesy, poorly made, feature a single person verbally ejaculating for way to long, and most devastating of all, use pictures that completely glorify eating disorders. Honestly, I could not even bring myself to link any clips. Just look at this picture:
How does a sexy woman hunched over a toilet highlight the danger of bulimia? If anything, this eroticizes the victim, especially for those who are easily triggered. If you are trying to reach out to bulimic girls...let's not use some picturesque save-me-I'm-fragile-and-oh-so-good-looking scenario. Why don't you try a picture of eroded, bulimic teeth? I think that is far more convincing. In my quasi-expert opinion, the only people who would use glorifying pictures to discourage eating disorders are people who are trying to recover fully, but can't quite make it. That is to say, those who know how physically and emotionally lethal it is to reverse normal biological functions to numb any and all feeling--but at the same time, still struggle with the mental aspect of the disease and find the act or personal history seductive. If you still love to hate your eating disorder, and still hate to love it...put your thinking cap on before you use images to "save" others. If the counter-thinspiration is going to take on the pro mia/ana subculture, we really need better strategy and cinematography.