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Less than a week after Tumblr officially banned pro-anorexia and bulimia blogs, Business Insider's Jim Edwards notes that bulletin board-like social site Pinterest is also home for "thinspiration" — "thinspo" for short.
What's more, "thinspo" photos "pinned" and shared — often featuring scantily clad, sometimes-naked women, many with grotesquely protruding bones — are bypassing Pinterest's no-nudity rule. As such, search for porn on Pinterest, and "you get pictures of shoes, real estate and kitchen gadgets that people have ironically labeled porn because of their acquisitive lust, not their actual lust," Edwards writes.
"Thin" is one of the search terms that turns up revealing photos of malnourished women, typical fare for the "pro-ana" community that's been on the Internet almost as long as porn. True, you can find naughty images that aren't meant to inspire eating disorders via a search for "erotica," "boudoir" or "sexy." Mostly however, these key words turn up photos about as racy as World War I-era French postcards, or the far more sexually charged images used in fashion magazines of today. Meanwhile, a search for "sexy" turned up a headshot of a young Bob Dylan, among other things.
Arguably, it's the images of malnourished women that are more unnerving than these "adult entertainment" images you'll find on Pinterest. Edwards writes:
If you want a disturbing look at how pro-anorexia women view themselves and the world, check out pins tagged "thin" on Pinterest. A large portion of those images are from women who have pointed a cellphone camera at themselves while standing in their underwear in front of the bathroom mirror.
As Edwards writes, Pinterest will need to deal with this "porn problem" if it hopes to attract advertisers. Meanwhile, anyone looking for actual "porn" is better served hitting one of the many Pinterest clones specifically designed for that purpose. Pornterest, for example, and we're totally not making that up.
More on the annoying way we live now:
- Tumblr bans anorexia, bulimia and other self-harm
- So this exists: Kickstarter for porn
- Pinterest helps clever crafter clean house -- and save marriage?
Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitterand/or Facebook. Also, Google+. Because that's how she rolls.
Leave a Comment:
And all of this surprises anyone...why?
To be honest I have always wondered about what I see as Americas disconnect when it comes to eating disorders...We agonize over Anorexia and condemn it loudly and publicly whenever we see stories like this (not that I am supporting it in any way at all) while at the same time we regard obesity which I am reasonably sure affects far more people and is just as guaranteed to destroy your health and shorten your life with sort of a sad acceptance and the "well it's there life" cop-out.
Only in America
You took the words out of my mouth.
My question is, which is worse for you, being thin or being fat? Yes, a lot of these women are very thin, but if you look at most serious distance runners they look only slightly better. The girl in the bathing suit above doesn't look anexoric at all. She looks NORMAL on the thin side. The girl stretching doesn't look anexoric. She looks IN SHAPE. The nude girl does look a bit too thin, but that's my opinion.
I think the american people have gotten so fat that seeing people in shape is a shock and we scream EATING DISORDER! I'm a runner and I can see 1 or 2 of my ribs, yet I eat as much as I can every day. I'm probably healthier than 90% of people reading these stories, yet my BMI says I'm "underweight".
Eating disorders are in the mind. She may "look" normal, but if she can't control her need to control what she puts in her body this is the problem and will very likely kill her over time.
I think all the examples look perfectly healthy. We really are mixed up about our bodies these days. As for pro ana material on the internet - I think we worry about it too much. If it is affecting young girls, that is the problem of the girls and their families. Much easier to restrict Jane's internet access and get her into therapy than it is to try to herd cats on the internet.
Look healthy? You are in total denial. That one picture looks like she came from a Nazi death camp. Look at her back, it's nothing but bone with a little skin over it. It is sickening just to look at.
I can not imagine what it would be like to have sex with that bony horror. One would have to make sure that you didn't get your eyes poked out with a bone.
OMG I love these tiny bony girls. I started asking out girls that look like this a few years ago and i've probably been out with a few hundred of them now. They have these tiny arms and thin legs and I have nailed every single one of them, and really hard too. They are so weak and small that they can't muster the strength to even say no, let alone keep me off of them. It's funny that they hold up so well while I'm doing them considering how fragile they look. And man I can twist them into whatever position I want because they are nothing but skin and bones. Of course not all of them hold up so well with no muscle on them. I've broken at least a half dozen pelvic bones that I know of. And since the other guys out there don't ask them out because they don't like how gross they look - and don't know what they'r missing - I've had lots of virgins too, mmm. Asking out a super skinny girl is like making an appointment with a hooker because I know I'm getting that snooch, but without having to pay for it. Keep dropping those pounds girlies!
-Donovan
Inspirational.
Yep. Nothin' sexier than a broken pelvis mid-thrust. Mmmmmm . . . .
a few joints and a bowl a day . that hamburger will love you till you flush
What's with the puritanical crap? I took a look at "thinspiration", "thinspo" and "thin"on Pinterest and didn't see any more nudity there than on the red carpet during the Oscars or even primetime TV! What I did see was some very, very beautiful bodies. What is porn, anything that looks better than you? Certainly nothing I saw in my hour of enjoyment was even remotely close to pornographic. Is it because they are skinny and beautiful in a way that you are definitely not? What the heck is pornographic about scantily clad, thin or even anorexic women? How you can call that porn is absolutely beyond me. Get a damn dictionary. I have been lucky enough to love and be loved by a few lovely, thin women. They seem to tend to put on a little weight over time when they are loved, happy, and secure which is still okay with me. None of them died because they were thin and all of them have led a happy, fullfilled life (sadly without me in at any longer). Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I adore thin women, always have and always will. Many of these girls look just like many of the girls I went to high school with, but certainly not the typical young girls of today. The slovely typical high schoolers of today are mostly fat and unattractive. I only wish I could embrace a slender, lovely woman and feel her beautiful very slightly padded bones within my grasp tonight. No fatties for me, thank you. I acknowledge that some women starve themselves to be thin, but the women I saw were not at risk of starving, although some were extremely thin. Look up "anorexic porn" if you want to see extreme and potentially endanger skinnies. Many of them are at severe risk, not so for the women I saw on Pinterest.
I'm glad tumblr banned that @!$%#.