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Article
Pro-Anorexia Communities and Online Interaction: Bringing the Pro-Ana Body Online
Body and Society (2012)
  • Natalie C. Boero, San Jose State University
  • CJ Pascoe
Abstract

This article details the making of community and bodies in online environments, specifically the online pro-anorexia community. Building community among members of these groups is particularly fraught because tensions over claims to authenticity permeate these groups. Because these are embodied practices and online spaces are presumably disembodied, participants constantly grapple with authenticity, largely through the threat of the ‘wannarexic’. Participants manage these tensions through engaging in group rituals and deploying individual tools that attempt to make the body evident online. This article documents the way in which tensions around authenticity and embodied practices are managed through treatment of the wannarexic.

Disciplines
Publication Date
2012
Publisher Statement
SJSU users: use the following link to login and access the article via SJSU databases.
Citation Information
Natalie C. Boero and CJ Pascoe. "Pro-Anorexia Communities and Online Interaction: Bringing the Pro-Ana Body Online" Body and Society Vol. 18 Iss. 2 (2012)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/natalie_boero/28/