Communicating Stigma: The Pro-Ana Paradox

Abstract

This study explores the personal experience of pro-ana bloggers, members of an online community for people with eating disorders. Using Erving Goffman's work on stigma, this study explores the motivations, benefits, and drawbacks of blogging about a stigmatized mental illness, as taken from the bloggers' own perceptive. We conducted 33 interviews with bloggers from seven different countries via phone, Skype, and e-mail. Participants were motivated to blog because they found social support, a way to cope with a stigmatized illness, and means of self-expression. Participants described blogging as a cathartic experience and perceived the social support they received from other members of the pro-ana community as a benefit. The fear that the eating disorder will be revealed if the blog is exposed and the concern that the blog encourages disordered eating were the perceived negative consequences of maintaining such a blog. Thus, blogging about anorexia serves to both alleviate and trigger anxiety about living with this stigmatized illness. Recommendations for future research are made.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Avi Katz, Oren Pizmony-Levy, and Florence Katz for their guidance and suggestions throughout this study.

Notes

¹Pseudonyms are used to protect the participants' identities.

²Despite contacting males and females, only females responded and participated in the study. This is not surprising given that this disease is more common among women (L. K. George, 1989).

³Some participants chose the option of e-mail interviews to protect their anonymity. The researchers “conversed” with each participant over e-mail to make sure that all the questions were answered clearly and completely.