Thinspo: Good or Bad?

Thinspo, short for thinspiration, has crept up everywhere in the media, from motivational posters to covers of magazines.  Thin-clad women in scanty clothes have attempted to motivate others into getting skinny. Thinspo refers to the images that women post in order to inspire themselves and others into getting thin. These women, however, are always excessively thin and over-sexualized, portraying only a small population of women around the world.

Thinspo may motivate some women to improve their lifestyles, but it also promotes eating disorders and drastic fitness regimes. The movement is dominated by anorexics who praise their thinness and find nothing wrong with the harm they are doing to themselves. They have rallied around thinspo as a kind of support group for those who have no interest in recovery.

Thinspo is available to the public, including the young, adolescent teenagers who are vulnerable to body image issues.  With overly thin women dominating the advertisement industry, childhood insecurity is rising, which can lead to isolationism and mental health instability.  Thinspo is poisoning their minds into thinking that they must be thin to fit in. Girls around the world are starting to diet for all the wrong reasons, saying they want to get thin so “I can see my ribcage” or “so I can weigh under a 100 pounds”.  What they do not understand is that everyone is meant to be a different size and shape and we should embrace it.

With the current frenzy over getting healthy and fit, people are resorting to drastic behaviors in order to become “thin”. Women are convinced that being thin is the norm, when only a slim proportion of people are in fact that thin. Anorexia and bulimia are on the rise, thanks to all the attention on thinspo.  Thinspo is far from healthy and the attention should be on more conventional methods for getting fit like a healthy diet and daily exercise.

Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr have all disabled pages and posts that aggregate photos and quotes that are labeled as “thinspiration”.  Twitter, however, refuses to acknowledge the harm thinspo is creating, claiming that it falls under the freedom of expression. Should thinspo be banned universally? What can we do to make this happen?

References:

http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/05/an-epidemic-basically-a-conflicted-weight-loss-blogger-on-thinspo/275671/

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/thinspo-internet-content-promotes-anorexia-experts/story?id=18622088

http://www.ibtimes.com/thinspiration-debate-over-pro-anorexia-thinspo-pictures-pinterest-tumblr-heats-after-ban-moves