Soft Machines: 'Ana' and the Internet

Pearse Stokes cyberanthropology.wordpress.net

Soft Machines: 'Ana' and the Internet

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Preface

The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.

-Bill Gates

The Internet has become an integral part of America's economic, political, and social life.

-Bill Clinton

Peirre Omidyar says 'Finally, for the first time in human history, technology is enabling

people to really maintain those rich connections with much larger numbers of people than

ever before.' Andrew Brown calls it 'a complete substitute for life', and Eric Schmidt tells us

that 'The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand'.

Given these three perspectives on the internet, that it is a complete substitute for life, it is a

means of rich communication and is not yet understood (and misunderstood), sociological

enquiry as to what is happening out there, in the internet, is crucial.

This paper is concerned with where people live out their lives and how they make their

selves, given the overwhelming change new technologies have had on how we live. The

internet is ubiquitous, the people have a permanent on-line presence, are constantly

connected, and live out much of their lives on-line. The internet is not longer one thing, it is

a multitude of performances, interfaces, modes of production and communication (to list

just a few). It is ingrained in our society, economy, politics and our selves. More than that

is transcends typically conceived boundaries of society, economy, politics and especially

our selves. Traditional geographies need to be reconsidered. However, social research,

sociology and anthropology had responded to the web early on with less than robust

conceptions of the internet. These disciplines had attempted to graft traditional research

methods, (ethnography) onto new interactive media. Furthermore, no new methodologies

had developed in parallel to the developing internet.

This paper developed out of a personal project investigating the relationship between the

internet and the phenomena of suicide and anorexia. This endeavour proved impossible

without a robust methodological framework for internet social research.

This paper represents the development of a conceptual framework for social research given

the epochal shifts in society that have come about since the arrival of the internet.

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Contents

1. Introduction 4

2. Literature 6

Ethnographies relating to virtual, on-line, internet or cyber phenomena 6

Locating The Site; Virtual becomes Mixed and Realities become

Dimensions 9

A consideration for Multiplicity 16

Literature on Multi-sitedness 17

3. Case Study: Pro-Ana 18

Literature relating to Anorexia and previous Pro-Ana research 18

4. Method and methodology 21

5: Pro-Ana outlined 26

When thin isn't enough 26

Bones are Beautiful 30

Getting to know Ana 33

You are what you eat; Wannarexics 37

6. Conclusion 39

Bibliography 41

Appendix i: Joanne's Letter to Ana 44

Appendix ii: Perfection according to 'Ana' 46

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1. Introduction

It accentuates what you would do anyway. If you want to be a loner, you can be more

alone. If you want to connect, it makes it easier to connect.

-Esther Dyson (TIME 2005)

About one in 200 American women suffers from anorexia; two or three in 100 suffer from

bulimia. Arguably, these disorders have the highest fatality rates of any mental illness,

through suicide as well as the obvious health problems. But because they are not

threatening to the passer-by, as psychotic disorders are, or likely to render people

unemployable or criminal, as alcoholism and addiction are, and perhaps also because they

are disorders that primarily afflict girls and women, they are not a proportionately

imperative social priority.

- Mim Udovitch (New York Times 2002)

Software is an intangible aspect of computing, as opposed to the metal skeletons and plastic

peripherals of hardware. It is the ghost in the machine. While simple distinctions can be

made in the description of these computer elements, a complex variety of technologies exist

across them. These technologies that transcend the computer are facilitated by performative

and biological human users. How people use these machines comprises a type of software,

a user interface specific, or particular, to the individual, a hardware made of flesh and bone.

The performance of the person is a software technology and the body of the person is a

hardware technology. This interface makes the human and computer a cybernetic system, a

soft machine. It calls into question the boundaries of the world wide web, the computer and

the human.

For social research, understanding how the most monumental shift in human behaviour

since the advent of the printing press impacts on how the self is defined, where the self is

located, and specifically how the self is created, is fundamentally important.

This paper contributes to the discipline by illuminating one small aspect of this puzzle; how

can social researchers conceive of a world where boundaries of the self have shifted so

dramatically in the wake of the technology revolution and web 2.0?

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This paper begins with a discussion of existing conceptions of the web and how social

researchers may engage them, specifically the research methodological mainstay; virtual

ethnography. A discussion of the preconceived notions of 'virtual', 'real', 'cyber', etc

follows. Initial field research revealed that these terms were inaccurate and irrelevant.

Some further literature is introduced from the field of multi-sited ethnography, particularly

the work of Appadurai, and a brief outline of Badoui's philosophy on multiplicities of

being. These approaches inform the proposed new conception, presented in this paper, of

where the boundaries of self, media and technology have shifted to. This is supported by a

case-study which represents the remainder of the document. The case study is an

ethnographic and semiological analysis of the pro-anorexia movement.

Using the Pro-Anorexia movement as an exaggerated case study, this paper aims to locate

the site1 of the pro-anorexia movement and, using that, identify where the self is located

today. In locating the site of the pro-ana movement, it is first necessary to investigate the

literature on virtual ethnography, think about cyber and virtual spaces and to locate the

various actors important in a very abstract demographic. The intention of this research is to

reveal aspects of wider internet life through an exploration of the mechanisms and

apparatuses illuminated by studying the Pro-ana movement.

1 'Site' in this paper refers to the research site, not a website, etc.

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2. Literature

And bring me a hard copy of the Internet so I can do some serious surfing.

-Scott Adams

Information on the Internet is subject to the same rules and regulations as conversation at

a bar.

-George Lundberg

In an attempt to identify a robust conception of 'where' the field site of internet research

may take place, two main areas of literature informed this project; Ethnographies relating to

virtual, on-line, internet or cyber phenomena, and Literature on multi-sited ethnography

and multiplicities of being.

Ethnographies relating to virtual, on-line, internet or cyber phenomena

Since the mid-nineties ethnographers have been researching 'the internet' through primarily

'virtual ethnographic', 'netnographic' or 'webnographic' methods (Reid 1995, Baym

1995,Correll 1995, Jones 1995, Hine 1998, Miller & Slater 2000) which all amount to the

same thing and create the primary method of internet social research used to this day. That

is to say, for fifteen years participant observation, 'deep hanging out' (boyd 2007) through

the terminal of the computer screen has constituted ethnographic research relating to the

internet. However, 'the internet' has changed drastically over that period so new methods

must be developed in response. In fact, transplanting ethnography, as a method of

researching discrete ethnicities or cultures onto the internet and expecting it to produce

valid research projects is problematic and ignores the development of multi-sited

ethnography that had emerged earlier.

Markham approaches the 'internet' from a netnographic2 perspective, venturing on-line to

collect information about the 'real' experiences that respondents have had relating to the

internet. She develops friendships and chats for hours in one specific chat room or virtual

community. Hine, illuminates the problems of such research styles;

'The first is that the use of the term virtual is metaphoric and stands in for the uncertainty in

relation to time, location and presence which is evoked by the reliance on computer-

2 'The term netnography [...] refers to the textual output of Internet-related field work.' (Kozinets 1997:472)

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mediated communication for large sections of the ethnography. This is unsited rather than

multi-sited ethnography. The second sense of virtual is one which is provided by my (pre-

cyberspace) dictionary. Virtual, in its preinformation technology sense, conjurs up a vision

of something which is almost, which will do for practical purposes even if it is not strictly

the real thing. I use this sense of virtual to play on the anxieties which this kind of

ethnography can produce.' (Hine 1998:6)

Having criticised the understanding of virtual spaces and research sites Hine turns her

attention to field work conducted 'off-line' relating to 'on-line'. 'However, we are left

unclear as to the ways in which on-line interactions impact on and are interpreted within

on-line life. We might ask questions such as: how do people use things they have read or

said on-line in their off-line lives; how do they come to use the technology in particular

ways; how do family relations, work contexts or media representations of the Internet affect

their uses of the technology? To answer these, study of on-line contexts alone is probably

insufficient.' (Hine 1998:2)

Miller and Slater approach the internet as a symbolic tool that mediates communication in

the same way that a letter allows us to communicated virtually (without being there). An

'ethnographic' approach is taken and they get their feet wet walking around Trinidad filling

out questionnaires on people's doorsteps. 'The status of the Internet as a way of

communicating, as an object within people's lives and as a site for community-like

formations is achieved and sustained in the ways in which it is used, interpreted and

reinterpreted.' (Hine 1998:5) How the internet is used, by a specific group, is what Miller

and Slater are concerned with. However, this is not participant observation, indeed it is hard

to see how, without engaging with at least some 'virtual ethnography' anyone could get a

grip on how users engaged with, or in, the symbolic worlds found on-line. However, Slater

and Miller, without necessarily setting out to do so, identify that 'the internet' is not one

thing to all people, but that certain groups (Trinidadians in this case) have unique 'internets'

and specific usage patterns. While this example is concerned with real life, quantifiable,

demographically deducible patterns, the same logic can be applied to more 'virtual'

research.

Neither approach (the virtual ethnographic or the off-line questionnaire) are robust methods

of researching the net. Ultimately, the web is a different place now than it was when the

books of Slater & Miller and Markham were written. The web takes up more time, allows

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for greater degrees of affective transfer (aural, oral, visual, textual, graphical), is more user-

centric, and has greater penetration into everyday lives to the point of being called

ubiquitous. While people are developing more elaborate avatars3 and selves on-line, more

of their off-line experience is dependent on the web.

Miller and Slater are not explicit in accounting for it but their model does consider 'an'

internet, or at least a specific, verifiable and reliable, empirical examination of a specific

group's experience of life on-line. Their ethnography is explicit in locating a site, which is a

difficult task as far as the web is concerned. This is refreshing as most researchers, and

people in general, consider 'the' internet. Markham chooses respondents, from far less

tangible locations and while she does develop biographies of her respondents the reliability,

and replicability of her study is far less robust. A method that grafts the two perspectives

together is what is needed.

In 'Why Youth (Heart) Social Networking Sites' danah boyd (lower case letters at her

request) outlines her methodology as 'The arguments made in this chapter are based on

ethnographic data collected during my two-year study of United States-based youth

engagement with MySpace. In employing the term ethnography, I am primarily referencing

the practices of 'participant observation' and 'deep hanging out' alongside qualitative

interviews. I have moved between on-line and off-line spaces, systematically observing,

documenting, and talking to young people about their practices and attitudes.' (boyd 2007:)

This method of involvement and enquiry across 'on-line and off-line spaces' informs this

research.

How may we look at the 'internet' when considering it as a sociological agent? 'Students of

anthropology, cultural studies and sociology have grappled with ways of thinking about and

describing de-centred subjectivities and the geographical complexities that arise when

intimacy no longer necessarily implies proximity.' (Law 2004:3) The literature relating to

globalisation will illuminate how we can conceive of this multi-sited research site.

This 'site' we are concerned with is at once a place (locations on-line, habitations from

which users enter a virtual location; a bedroom, an office desk, a mobile phone) a time (we

inhabit these spaces at specific times – a time-dependent inhabitation of a culture, before

bed, while waiting for a train, between classes and increasingly at specific times we plan to

sit and refresh and refresh and refresh our profiles), a media and medium, and a reality (or, 3 An avatar is a computer user's on-line representation of self or an alter ego

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as discussed later; a dimension of reality).

Hine illuminates Marcus' work as it applies to internet research;

'Marcus (1995) identifies a trend for ethnographies to encompass multiple sites in a bid to

follow complex objects through a series of cultural contexts. Rather than locating the 'world

system' as the context in which ethnographies are set, Marcus suggests that multi-sited

ethnographies enable the ethnographer to overcome reliance on context and to escape the

idea of 'a global' which forms a context for 'the local'. He highlights ethnographies which

are motivated by following people, things, metaphors, stories and conflicts as examples of

approaches which breach the dependence of ethnography on a particular bounded place.'

(Hine 1998:6)

Rather than multi-sited ethnography freeing this research from context it is precisely this

'multi-sitedness' that allows us to contextualise the field site of the Pro-Ana movement as it

flows across 'virtual' and 'real' plains of 'reality'.

Locating The Site; Virtual becomes Mixed and Realities become Dimensions

Perhaps the greatest challenge for those researching 'the internet' are the issues around

locating the site. Locating the site, making it somehow tangible, deciding on boundaries of

inclusion and exclusion, performing methods that are ethical but also lucrative, while

facing the almost impossible task of making it all valid, make internet research very

difficult.

This chapter looks to locate The Site. It does so not by making a geographic analogy (cyber

space), nor by producing a false dichotomy (the virtual and the real), rather this chapter

works through those conceptions of 'the internet' and arrives at a definition of where this

research is taking place. 'By 1991, cyberspace and 'virtual reality' existed as much as

figments of a (sub)cultural imagination as they did as 'real' phenomena. A group of (often

overlapping) popular cultural discourses has preceded the medium's introduction by

framing, contextualising and predicting the development of cyberspace systems and their

virtual experiences. These have served to fix cyberspace in the popular imagination in

particular configurations.' (Hayward & Wollen 1993)

Upon entering the field, with a reflexive approach these fixed popular configurations of

cyberspace were found to be inaccurate and lacking. In The Two Paths of Virtual Reality,

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John Suler attempts to explain the essence of Virtual reality (VR).

'So 'virtual reality' is a reality that has the effect of actual reality but not its authentic form.

It's a kind of simulation or substitute, but one with potency and validity. It gets close to the

real thing. In its effect on people, it's practically the real thing. The term, unfortunately, can

be a bit misleading. It implies that VR is an attempt to recreate the world as we consciously

experience it with our eyes, ears, skin, body. This, indeed, is one of the two paths of VR.

But there's another path. VR also strives to create new environments that are more

imaginary - fantasy realms that feel 'real' in unique ways but do not directly correspond to

the world as we usually perceive it. Let's take a look at these two paths of virtual reality and

see where, in the future, they may take us.' (Suler 2004)

Dividing Virtual Reality into two types Suler goes on to explain that the first type is

concerned with being as 'true-to-life' as possible, although I'm not convinced that the aims

of the technology necessarily dictate that nature or essence of the reality.

'The amplification of physical vigor and the minimizing of discomfort is more fantasy than

reality. It doesn't live up to the definition of 'virtual.' People who WANT the exertion, the

thumping heart, the sweat, the feel of the branches in their grip, will be disappointed. It ain't

nuthin like the real thing, baby.' (Suler 2004) The second type of VR according to Suler is

'Imaginary' VR.

'They do not have to recreate the actual world. Instead, they can construct imaginary

environments, fantasy realms where the usual laws of reality are stretched, altered, or

negated. You appear in any form you wish: animal, vegetable, or mineral. You shape-shift

between persona as you please.' (Suler 2004) Suler's perspective is psychoanalytical rather

than an attempt to understand these realities in terms of society or culture. These realities

are neither stable or passive the way Suler sees them but rather are active creation-re-

creations of a reality produced by its own users-producers.

In any event, what is crucial to this work from Suler's quote above is the shape-shifting

persona - since reality pecolates between these spaces (virtual and otherwise) - persona are

now more pliable, more changeable, more shiftable and this effects developing adolescent

identities that exist across 'virtual' and 'real' plains of reality as we will see later.

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Magnus says, '[I]t is in part only a terminological dispute as to whether the label [Virtual

reality] should be applied to technology that impersonates reality or technology that creates

new reality' (Magnus 2000). This is an important terminological dispute nonetheless, and

we need space for technologies that do both.

'J.G' the pen-name, or Avatar of The Eyeslit-Crypt's chief editor, unpacks Slavoj Zizek's

conceptions of The Site as a interface where much of what takes place is out of our control.

'The experience of engaging in cyberspace, of living through this interface, presents one

with challenging experiences as to the virtuality of the self and to the virtuality of reality.

That is, the ability to create (or have created for you), maintain (be maintained) and,

ultimately lose control of one’s internet identity and the greeting of the disconnected other

fosters what Slavoj Zizek calls 'the hysterical experience' of cyberspace.'(J.G. 2008)

Certainly this conception approaches an approximation of what research has indicated.

'What was so shocking about virtual space was not that before there was a ‘real’ reality and

now there is only a virtual reality, but through the experience of VR we have somehow

retroactively become aware how there never was ‘real reality.' For Zizek, our experience of

'reality' is always caught up in our phantasmatic perceptions of reality. That is, we are

constantly seeing things as we interpretably experience them to be, how they are talked

about and how we phantastically relate to them in terms of what they mean to us. We do

not see the other in all of his or her traumatic (and horrifying) intensity, but in our

fantasizing as to who we see them to be (perhaps in relation to ‘the big Other’). As he says,

'I think a certain dimension of virtuality is co-substantial with the symbolic order or the

order of language as such.' That is to say, the idea of 'virtual reality' is nothing new, that in

fact, our experience via language or via symbols are already immersing us in the virtual.'

(J.G. 2008)

Crucially, this idea of 'nothing new' can be said about the cyber.

Norbert Wiener's book, Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the

Machine. (Wiener 1965) introduces the term 'Cybernetics'. It is the science or study of

control or regulation mechanisms in human/machine systems, the interface between human

and technological artefacts.

If we take the cyborg to represent the meshing of human with technological, then

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technologies, however rudimentary (the bicycle, the ball point pen, the bow and arrow)

perfectly and elegantly make us cyborgs. We must conclude; that language, as a

technology, as that key component of being a human being, places us all inside the cyber,

regardless of how wired in we are, how far off line or however long ago we existed. These

symbolic worlds where humanity exists reduces, or produces us to cyber.

Virtual Reality however it was defined or understood was locatable, at least broadly as

'inside' computers or 'across' networks4. As canvases in the virtual world started coming

from the real world more and more (with the advent of digital cameras, scanners, etc) a

mixed reality was represented on the screen.

For some years5 now researchers, media analysts, social theorists, etc have been looking at

Mixed Realities. Wikipedia says 'Mixed reality (encompassing both augmented reality and

augmented virtuality) refers to the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new

environments and visualisations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in

real time'6. University College London provides the following diagram by way of

explanation;

http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/r.freeman/images/model.jpg

That is to say, a real object is captured into virtual reality and mixed with an object created

within virtual reality as is illustrated below.

4 Is it any different to the virtual world of literature? - a reality that has so saturated the physical reality that we no longer separate the two?

5 Milgram, P and Kishino, F 1994 A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays in IEICE Transactions on Information Systems, Vol E77-D, No.12 December 1994

http://vered.rose.utoronto.ca/people/paul_dir/IEICE94/ieice.html6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_reality

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http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/r.freeman/images/room.jpg

The work on mixed realities goes from physics (Gintautas and Hübler 2007) to Art7, but in

terms of social research applications, the work is limited. In fact, while Mixed Reality as a

concept actually worked for a brief period of time, for the purposes of this research (and I

would argue for all social internet research going forward) we need to develop a more

comprehensive model that reflects the vast changes that have emerged over the last few

years.

What are these changes specifically?

– Capture and distribute devices become, and make the world wide web, ubiquitous

Mobile phones with built in digital capture capabilities (camera, video, sound) are

always on, always connected to the web making the web ubiquitous, it is everywhere

all of the time, and at the same time, users selves are always available online, either

contactable through phone, email, messaging or as online

representations/profiles/personae.

– User/producers drive the web forward with new grammars of production

Users become the producers and the distributors. Consumption and Production become

one and the same8

7 The Mixed Realities - An International Networked Art Exhibition and Symposium which took place in Huret & Spector Gallery (Boston), Turbulence.org, and Ars Virtua in Second Life.

8 http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

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– User/producers develop new grammars of understanding and new logical boundaries

The web, no longer wired to a place or contained within a device shifts locale. Mobile

phones,9 social networking profiles and avatars become a part of the self and in the

process the web becomes an integral part of the self. Moreover, the logics that once

applied to a virtual reality and a physical reality become merged.

So for the purposes of social research, rather than look at the site as a virtual/real space, or

even a cyber space (not cyberspace but the place occupied between user and used

technology). This research looks at the site as being a multidimensional space. The

symbolic world is constrained by users perception the same way across all these

dimensions, be they mediated by electronic networks, postage services, telephones, books,

media or even face to face. Language in its multitude of forms engages in a play across

these dimensions. Language shapes itself around technology, around the printing press, the

telegram and the world wide web, and each time has reshaped itself accordingly. What is

crucial is that as we reshape language ... language as the cornerstone of human-ness, its

grammar, lexicon, langue and parole, reshapes us.

To relate this to some kind of existing methodology I turn to Appadurai's Social Imaginary,

and the methodology of conceptualising, and pursuing the site as a collective of 'scapes'.

(Appadurai 1996) Many of the challenges realised in the 90s for social researchers

(concerned with globalization) can be compared to those as we encounter a new form of

globalisation through ubiquitous media/technology/selves. It all seems to spin out of

control, become intangible. Skin colour, language, geographical locations, political

affiliations, etc are no longer how we define a site or researched group.

Ultimately, this research rejects the traditional conception of a 'virtual' or a 'real' and instead

proposes a conception of the internet as just one dimension of peoples' realities. Not all

people use the technology the same way, engage the same areas of the web or even

conceive of it the same way. People even adopt different 'selves' according to different

sites, times, places of access (at home alone or in school), methods of access (different on a

mobile phone than on the PC), or most importantly, mood. Respondents reported finding

themselves surprised at how a different element of themselves seemed to emerge.

9 'If you took away my phone you would take away a part of me'. (Comment from a 15 year old girl interviewed in 'Childnet’s research. Quoted in Children & Mobile Phones: An Agenda for Action' Childnet International July 2004)

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The idea of approaching the 'web' as a dimension of reality came about from the ongoing

ethnographic study of the Pro-Ana and Pro-Suicide communities that revolve around

central internet presences, and a consultation of the literature. Conceiving of the 'web' as a

dimension of reality rather than as a separate space frees us from the traditional false

dichotomies found in social science, beginning with anthropology's 'the other' through the

not always accurate dichotomy of 'the researched' and 'the researcher' to the absolutely false

binary opposition of 'virtual' and 'real'.

The internet is not a distinct entity, outside or in there to be gazed upon by researchers.

Obviously our very presence indicates this, but the fact that 'hard copy' artefacts (like this

paper), and sick bodies exist because of behaviour 'in there' should tell us that we need to

look at the internet in a different, holistic way. For this reason, the Pro-Ana community is

selected as a case study – it is the 'virtual' made 'physical' – but respondents make no such

distinction, Pro-Ana, like other phenomena considered 'online phenomena' is no longer

located 'in there' but actually spans the technology, the media and the self.

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A consideration for Multiplicity

While Badiou confines his project purely to philosophy (Sedofsky 1994) we can consider

sets within how we conceive of the internet. That is to say, we conceive of a singular (the

way traditionally we conceive of 'being') and just like Badiou suggests we at least wash our

thoughts with an idea of multiplicity, allow a plurality to 'being' (Badiou 2007). I suggest

we do the same and at least wash our concept of the internet with an idea of mulitplicity.

People do not navigate the internet but rather a specific internet. Therefore, 'the internet' in

terms of research must be limited to 'an internet'. Respondents have specific lists of sites

they inhabit. Web 2.0 orders the referential network we access in such a way that we are

constantly guided along narrow confines.

(Badiou, 2006)

Online, respondents are a collection of different Avatars, in some instances they are

'Anorexic', other times they are 'doing homework', 'busy', 'in love', 'grounded', 'Parents

deleted ma bebo, AGGHHH :(:(:(:(' etc. There are many discrete internets, mutually

exclusive (or at least very distant) from each other. This allows (and obliges) us to locate a

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site, a group of respondents, and an aspect of (internet) life. It also allows us to realise the

weight that should be ascribed to statements, what Foucault calls; énoncé, a basic unit of

discourse. In Archaeology of Knowledge, the énoncé is the meaning that gives meaning to

speech acts, utterances, talk and internet posts or instant messages. This represents truth

online – truth is a value, a sliding scale (arguably everywhere, but specifically on-line),

users navigate the truth value of énoncé through a referential epistemology. As such, by

analysis of the ways of being online, we can identify how true a statement may be. This

places internet research in the same place as off-line research, a value judgement made by

the informed researcher.

Literature on Multi-sitedness

At some point in the 1980's sociologists and anthropologists realised that geographical

(even ethnic) boundaries had become secondary conceptions of where they conduct

research, to imaginaries of cultural flows. The world had become globalised and a new

conception of where culture and society was located had to be developed.

To view the internet in terms of virtual and real is to continue the tradition of false binary

oppositions that locate the site, as the 'other'. 'The new global cultural economy has to be

understood as a complex, overlapping, disjunctive order, which cannot any longer be

understood in terms of existing center-periphery models' (Appadurai 1996). Appadurai goes

on to develop a conception that allows focused research. 'I propose that an elementary

framework for exploring such disjunctures is to look at the relationship between five

dimensions of global cultural flow which can be termed: (a) ethnoscapes; (b) mediascapes;

(c) technoscapes; (d) finanscapes; and (e) ideoscapes' (Appadurai 1996). This model is

problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, Appadurai's five pre-defined scapes assumes

that they are relevant across all cultures. Second, Appadurai points out 'I use terms with the

common suffix scape to indicate first of all that these are not objectively given relations

which look the same from every angle of vision, but rather that they are deeply perspectival

constructs, inflected very much by the historical, linguistic and political situatedness of

different sorts of actors' (Appadurai 1996). This raises issues around replicability and

objectivity, however, it allows a certain freedom for the researcher. For this project I extend

this freedom to selecting scapes.

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3. Case Study: Pro-Ana

This paper uses the 'Pro-Anorexia' (Pro-Ana) on-line movement as something of a

laboratory experiment that will highlight the apparatuses and grammars at work more

generally on-line. Sociologically, the 'Pro-Ana' movement is interesting and challenging as

it is not an organised movement, but a loosely descriptive term of inclusion. It operates

primarily on-line, its figurehead is not biological, but is organic, the respondents are young

and the websites are subversive, which raises difficult methodological and ethical

questions. The Pro-Ana movement is a socio-cultural phenomenon which harms people and

their lives, as such, sociological enquiry is relevant and important.

Importantly, both researching this case study and answering the question how to research

and understand this case study were performed in tandem- it was a reflexive process. It led

to the development of a conglomeration of a techno scape, a media scape and a self scape

as a site (and respondent) of research. That is to say, the technomediaself scape, was both

the site of research, but also the key 'actor' in the network. As we will see later, 'Ana' is

both the name for a member of the Pro-Ana community, and the name of this movements

figurehead. Similarly, the technomediaself scape is a description of the site, the flows that

are important in grasping the Pro-Ana movement as a research site but also a respondent in

itself.

This project was hugely challenging. Many young respondents physically hurt themselves,

destroyed their own lives and the lives of others, damaged their long term psychological

and physical health, and in one case, committed suicide on web cam10.

Literature relating to Anorexia and previous Pro-Ana research

The literature on Anorexia forms a complex debate between differing explanations of the

condition, along lines of medicine, feminism, history, psychology and in the past, religion,

each making sense among its own epistemological references11 (which explains why

10 As disturbing as it is to reduce Abraham K. Briggs to a foot note, the following link outlines the events http://cyberanthropology.wordpress.com/

11'Anorexia has been variously theorised by medical, social science and feminist scholarship. While

the biomedical model evaluates anorexia as a disease with an underlying organic cause to be treated

and cured (Urwin et al. 2002), other models have emerged that have concluded that the condition has

psychological, social or cultural roots. Several competing explanations have been developed,

including psychological models that locate anorexia as a problem in identity development or familial

relations (Berg et al. 2002, Bruch 1973), and cultural models in which a societal bias towards

18


religious explanations are considered obsolete).

'Anorexia can thus be explained in a myriad of ways: it is a regression to childhood; an

inability to deal with adulthood; an issue of control against a universal backdrop of female

subordination; a genetic predisposition; a biological dysfunction; the fault of the media

promulgating images of thin models as the ideal body type; or a result of ‘anorexic

families’'. (Warin 2006:41) Further, the 'pro-ana movement challenges and rejects medical,

social and feminist models that regard anorexia as a condition to be ‘cured’.'(Fox et al

2005:945) Therefore, identifying traits of inclusion for respondents on the basis of 'the

condition' is problematic. They may have eating disorders for different reasons that are

manifest in different ways. The movement is 'on-line' so they may come from different

backgrounds in different societies and countries. To create a reliable, replicable research

project, a different means of identifying traits of inclusion needs to be defined. 'The social

construction of anorexia nervosa has been the focus of attention of psychologists, scholars

and researchers interested in the social, cultural, and historical construction of women’s

bodies [...] This discursive move has extended prior work by troubling the notion that the

social and cultural systems are acting upon individuals, to the position that individuals are

constituted through and within linguistic systems.'(Hardin 2003:209)

Previous methods applied to Pro-Ana centre around small scale catchments of websites.

(Gremillion 2003, Fox et al 2005, Wilson et al 2006, Hardin 2003) I could find no research

that performed an explicitly immersive period of participant observation, that engaged the

complex, multi-sited nature of Pro-Ana or the multitude of communication practices on and

off-line.

As such, a different conception of where the site of Pro-Ana is was developed. The pro-

anorexia, or more accurately the pro-eating 'disorder' (Pro-ED) movement on-line is a vast

flow of affective material across social networking sites, blogs, video blogging sites, email,

instant messenging, forums, websites, etc. This phenomenon goes beyond the web. 'Real

life' artefacts can be purchased via the internet12. Ana goes beyond that, into the flesh and

slimness leads to extreme eating behaviour (Gordon 2000, Grogan 1999). Feministcultural models

conceive anorexia either as an inscription by culture of the gendered body (Bordo 1993, Orbach

1993), or as a resistance by women to these sociocultural forces (Malson 1998, MacSween 1993,

Gremillion 2003).' (Fox et al 2005:946)12 I purchased pro-ana bracelets through ebay – unethically pouring money into the movement and then

'wearing it on my sleeve'

19


psyches of adolescents around the world. This represents the shape of the 'internet' as we

can conceive of it socioculturally; as a flow of cultural artefacts across technological

scapes, media and symbolic orders, and the social self. As Law puts it 'The world as

'generative flux' that produces realities? [...] Imagine that it is filled with currents, eddies,

flows, vortices, unpredictable changes, storms, and with moments of lull and calm.' (Law

2004:7)

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4. Method and methodology

'[Marx, W[e]ber, Simmel, Lukács, Herbert Mead and Benjamin] incorporated important

elements of philosophical romanticism in their accounts of the world. This means that in

different ways they responded to the idea that the world is so rich that our theories about it

will fail to catch more that a part of it; that there is therefore a range of possible theories

about a range of possible processes; that those theories and processes are probably

irreducible to one another; and, finally, that we cannot step outside the world to obtain an

overall 'view from nowhere' which pastes all the theory and processes together.'(Law

2004:8)

- John Law

'Indeed, the individual actor is the last locus of this perspectival set of landscapes, for these

landscapes are eventually navigated by agents who both experience and constitute larger

formations, in part by their own sense of what these landscapes offer. These landscapes

thus, are the building blocks of what, extending Benedict Anderson, I would like to call

'imagined worlds', that is, the multiple worlds which are constituted by the historically

situated imaginations of persons and groups spread around the globe (Appadurai, 1989).'

(Appadurai 1996)

- Arun Appadurai

'Thomsen et al. (1998) suggest that multi-method triangulation, involving textual analysis,

prolonged participant observation and qualitative interviews can provide valid and reliable

data. In our study, data were obtained from a mix of participant observation of ‘virtual’

interactions and participation in the message boards, documentary analysis of the

noninteractive elements of the websites and a range of online interview methods with

individual participants. As with most qualitative approaches, we did not claim to be

establishing a ‘representative’ sample, but did apply a range of methods to gather data

broadly and to triangulate between observation and interviews.' (Fox et al 2005:952)

It is also important to note that the consultation of the literature, the development of

hypothesis and the primary research (ethnography, interviews, semiological analysis) all

took place in parallel and reflexively, feeding back into each other and creating a holistic

approach. For the purposes of this paper, a multi-sited participant observation took place,

over the course of 10 months, supported by a semiological consideration of rich multimedia

21


and long interviews via the web and off-line (n=6). The overwhelming bulk of research

took place through new technologically mediated communications (mobile phones, instant

messenging, viewing websites, reading and contributing to on-line communities) but also

literature reviews, and 'in real life' where some of the practices of 'fasting in solidarity',

days of hunger and wearing the red bracelet of Ana, or other Pro-Ana accoutrements, were

performed. Interviews, on and off-line contributed to the research. Considering Internet

research brings up the following questions that need to be overcome during the course of

the research.

Who are my respondents and where is the research site?

When researching young people and the body, and electing to use covert research as a

method;

How can this be performed ethically?

How true is the data I am obtaining?

The above chart illustrates the groups (in the US) that are diagnosed with Anorexia, they

are 90% female, and mostly of high-school and university age. Respondents in this research

were technically savvy, usually British, American, Antipodean, or Irish13, between the ages

of 13 and 23 and from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. 'Anas' are members of the

Pro-Ana (Pro-Anorexia or Pro-ED, eating disorder) group, rather than being anorexic as

diagnosed off-line, although, obviously there is an overlap between the two groups. I never

13 That part of the internet, the English Speaking web

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hid the facts of my research but didn't always disclose my purpose on-line as a researcher.

In personal communication I always answered honestly and through my involvement in the

movement I was accepted. The ethics of conducting covert research, among the vulnerable

and especially among the young (under 18) are delicate. I elected that this research would

only be successful if covert research was performed, I owed it to my respondents and to

society generally to gain insight into the world or Pro-Ana, and 'the web' at large.

Furthermore, I never placed anyone under duress or made anyone uncomfortable, similarly,

I never supported the pursuit of starvation or self harm in anyway. The majority of this data

came from publicly accessible sources, where the thoughts and opinions were voiced

openly and freely.

The data collected approximates truth as Pro-ED is represented across a scape of

technology, media and selves, to varying degrees according to individual respondents,

actors, agents and entities. In essence, I used one respondent, the technomediaself scape

which is an informer that can not lie, or be biased or misleading for whatever reasons

(reaching out for help, 'trolling'14). It is valid as it is representative only of the general flows

of information, the technology and of course the actors that use it in a general sense. I also

placed this research firmly 'online' by sharing parts of it through a blog to receive feedback

(with internet researchers and Anas) and I placed my body in the technomediaself scape by

performing 'solidarity fasts', and generally adopting elements of the 'lifestyle' although I

would never pretend to have developed an ED, I did display mild symptoms of Anorexia

Athletica15.

Note: The ethics of 'participant' observation

Participating in Pro-ED is problematic, the very act of participation sends out suggestions

that the movement is 'okay'; presence is support. Participation, by its nature in Pro-ED, is

support. I purchased Pro-ED artefacts, not only supporting the movement through

purchasing and wearing the artefacts, but also through funding the movement. As a

researcher every attempt was made to continue a strict power dynamic (positively, not

letting it get out of hand either way) and a distance, however, twice that 'professional'

distance was broken and intervention was unavoidable (once in anger when a respondent

and 'friend' was clearly ruining her life and once when a respondent committed suicide on

14 Trolling is the act of intentionally misleading people on-line. It ranges from petty banter between acquaintances on forums to full on malicious misleading that extends to tricking mass media.

15 Hypergymnasia, purging through excessive exercise

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web cam – despite the efforts of those involved [it should be noted that many encouraged

him, some not believing that the web cam suicide was really taking place] 'CandieJunkie'

(real name Aaron K. Briggs) successfully ended his life on web cam – intervention here

was inevitable and justified at a 'human' level).

By considering Pro-ED, not just as a set of informants' responses (which given the nature of

the internet could not be considered completely reliable), but as a scape of disjunctive

order, a series of flows of affect, meaning and grammar, the data becomes reliably

representative of the Pro-ED movement. Furthermore, the mechanisms illustrated here are

generalisable to wider internet life, albeit in a much less exaggerated form. By tracing

specific artefacts, be they real or symbolic, across the technomediaself scape it is possible

to illuminate where Pro-ED is and this outlines what shape 'the' internet actually is (far

above and beyond the network) and how it is positioned in peoples lives.

I was also aware of the gap that would be left in the support network when I concluded this

research. 'Leaving the field may also be harder online, as some participants may wish to

sustain the relationship developed with a researcher, and e-mail contacts cannot be easily

severed without causing offence and potentially muddying the water for future researchers

(Illingworth 2001).' (Fox et al 2005:952) It became clear through the course of this research

that a final good bye was sufficient and almost all respondents were helpful and wished me

well in my research going forward.

The above image, taken from a Pro-Ana website, illustrates, Pro-Ana is a convenient term

that includes, but is not limited to, the movement that supports 'eating disorders' (ED) as

acceptable lifestyle choices. Generally EDs are broken into three groups, Anorexia, Bulimia

(Pro-Mia) and Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS). It is clear from even a

24


short, shallow research that most 'Anas' (members of Pro-Ana) engage in a myriad of

practices that include them in different diagnostic categories. Most Anas have much more

complicated disorders than to be labelled simply Anorexic or Bulimic. Most of the

respondents approached ED as a painful but necessary sacrifice that would ultimately lead

to happiness. It is necessary to control ones life, to 'number crunch' it down to calories and

kilos. Pro-Ana provides a manifesto for this order, it gives advice and support; 'How to trick

parents and doctors', 'How to loose 1000 calories in 1 week', 'Stick with it, you'll achieve it,

you can be beautiful'. To the healthy reader these titbits are foreboding and are obviously

dangerous, to the Ana they are essential guidance and support.

When considering Pro-Ana as a support network (which it generally claims to be) it is

crucial that we see the clear contradictions at play. To those outside the Pro-Ana

community, 'support' generally means helping people to get well or healthy again.

However, for those inside the Pro-Ana community, support means supporting a damaging

lifestyle choice. Secondly, the support is snide and bitchy. 'you could be beautiful, but only

if you stick with it'. 'Sticking with it', transplants the vernacular of the support group, it

appears as though 'staying strong' is positive, that you are moving in a positive direction

and everything will work out great if you continue along this path.

At the same time, the pain, the suffering, the 'being fucked up', the impending ill health, the

imminent failure, are always present in the support.

This case study, and report in general, reflects some of the architecture of Pro-Ana, to use

the respondents own words and styles where possible.

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5: Pro-Ana outlined

The following pages report the findings and analysis of the fieldwork performed over the

course of this project.

When thin isn't enough

You've made a decision: you will NOT stop. The pain is necessary, especially the pain of

hunger. It reassures you that you are strong, can withstand anything

- Quoted by 'Jane'

Thinspiritation (a portmanteau of 'thin' and 'inspiration') is the affective façade that

surrounds this movement. That is not to say it is false, just that the same apparatuses are

found in other on-line movements and affective flows. This movement has the aesthetic of

'thinness' and of 'suffering' draped over it. The visual material below isn't referenced, it

flows around the internet as a cacophony of images, a lexicon, and a will to power.

'Thinspo' (a further reduction of 'thin' and 'inspiration') has some key themes. Every aspect

of it is grossly exaggerated – 'emaciated' and 'starvation' replace 'skinny' and 'dieting' – the

exaggerated message is everywhere suggesting the overwhelming importance of

skinniness. The pursuit of perfection must lead to death. It is graphic, it contains bones not

contours. This is not the prepubescent body but the skeletal body. Skinny looks beautiful

precisely because it is unhealthy and macabre. Skinny is worthy because it is extreme.

Thinspo effects you, it shocks or pressurises you into action. It celebrates pain. 'hunger

hurts but starving works', 'the pain passes but beauty remains'. Thinspo uses the same

aesthetic as current fashion trends, influenced by them and no doubt influencing them. We

don't diet, we starve.

26


Common themes > Death and Not being there

Death is beautiful, it is final. It is control to the end, control of the end. Death looks good,

life is disordered, 'jiggly', and normal. Through symbols of death, the Ana is affectively

motivated and supported. Support comes from knowing her own struggle could be worse,

but support, in the form of pressure, also makes the Ana feel guilty, so many people are

dying for Ana, and there she is, stuffing her fat face like a fat pig. Becoming invisible,

being a size 'zero' and 'disappearing' are all part of this drive towards impossible order.

Common themes > Perfection

Perfection seen jointly as an attainable quality that can only be attained in death and as a

quality that others have but 'you' never will is affective turmoil. It is confusion. When the

Ana considers perfection she imagines some kind of harmonious state, she will be accepted

and loved, cherished and valued. However, in considering perfection she falls into a

confused state, feels bad about herself and just how completely imperfect she is, she doesn't

even deserve to be perfect.

Common themes > Love and Hate

The weighing scales is order, but also the harbinger of bad news. Unlike the mirror (which

is just bad news, without comfortable reassuring order) the scales 'never lies', is your best

27


friend and your worst enemy. It is the love for an Ana's body that forces her to hate it.

Thinspo constantly suggests that she loves herself, that it will be ok, but only if she

acknowledge how disgusting she is and that she needs to starve to be worth anything.

Common themes > Sacrifice

Pain, starvation, exercise, even the flesh are offered up as sacrifices to Ana. This sacrifice

is noble, it makes you worthy. Beauty is pain. To be beautiful is to endure, to suffer. This is

fuelled partly by hatred of her body which should suffer to be beautiful, to be worthy, and

partly because Ana's view of beauty is painfully unhealthy. Starvation is beautiful.

Starvation is a glorious passive sacrifice. The female is without agency (contradictory to

the empowerment of control of the body) offering her flesh up to Ana, to beauty and

showing her chosen community that she is worthy.

Common themes > Control

Thinspo has a theme of self control while at the same time its existence suggesting that

control is outside the body; that you can be inspired and motivated to action (or inaction as

she sees it when it suits) through these outside influences. Controlling calories, measuring

the boundaries of the flesh, taking ownership of her body (but giving it to Ana), ultimately

until death, control is an over arching theme in the Ana network.

28


Common themes > Competition

Thispo also reflects the competitive edge found within Pro-Ana. 'Thinner is the winner' is

regularly quoted especially in relation to fasting competitions and competitions relating to

GW (goal weight).

29


Bones are Beautiful

'One day I will be thin enough. Just the bones, no disfiguring flesh. Just the pure, clean

shape of me, bones. That is what we all are, what we're made up of and everything else is

just storage, deposit, waste. Strip it away, use it up.'

- Quoted by 'Louise'

Anas reject the notion that eating disorders are disorders at all, rather they consider them a

positive attribute and a healthy lifestyle of empowerment. They relish the fact that only the

strong willed can be truly skinny. Only the determined are beautiful. To Anas this is what

EDs are, a group of behaviours that mean the Ana is truly brave, determined and worthy of

being beautiful. The weak eat.

They believe that Anas should not be discriminated against, rather they should be held in

esteem (as thinspiration). At the same time, those who 'genuinely' do not have an 'eating

disorder' are termed wannarexics16. The club is exclusive, and none of the respondents had a

consistent notion of what a wannarexic was. Generally it came down to girls who want to

'catch ED because they think it's a diet', which outraged most 'true' Anas who knew EDs are

a 'lifestyle'. Ana's, although claiming to denounce the medical diagnosis of 'disorder',

secretly longed to be diagnosed and to share the news with other Anas.

Again, a paradox; they seek to control their bodies, to rein them in from becoming societal

rather than flesh and in the process become more societal, their bodies become diagnosed,

labelled, photographed, judged, analysed and discussed, as well as being nourished

according to the guidance of others. So the issue is not to rebel against the physical changes

of puberty, or the idea that their bodies are becoming societal, rather it is who controls the

direction of these changes. Or is it that they simply make their experiences 'on-line' shape

their lives 'off-line'?

Bones protruding though the flesh, the skin hanging delicately over a frame of bone is

16 Wanna from wannabe, and rexics from anorexics

30


considered beautiful by Anas. Meat is soft and has pliable boundaries. The Ana likes to

have strict boundaries. This research supports the notion that Anorexia and EDs are often

rebellions against puberty, but unlike other conceptions where the Ana is rebelling against

the physical changes this research suggests that she is physically manifesting a control over

where her body, as a societal thing, is placed. Puberty, represents a change in how the Ana

is seen and held in society. In fact, at the onset of puberty Anas discussed how the body

suddenly becomes 'everyone elses'. Where once the body simply ended along the border of

the skin, now she wears bras to control the flesh and how it moves, uses sanitary products

to control the blood as it flows out of this once perfect boundary, her body is now shared

and 'celebrated' by society.

At the same time, the female body has specific attributes that are almost always aesthetic.

How she looks rather than how she performs is important. Ana alters this perspective and

performance (starvation, pain, exercise) is what is rewarded. Ana places the societal body

into a manageable and comfortable place. It has order, it has support and it does not

celebrate the flesh in a physical way. Instead the body is chopped up into statistics and two

dimensional artefacts.

However, the Anas are the most guilty of constructing the female as an aesthetic rather than

peformative manifestation. Precisely because the body is gazed upon by Anas they fall into

another trap of contradictions. By becoming 'anorexic' she is seen as ill, by becoming small

and fragile, weak and waify, she is cared for. The obligations of the pubescent female as

active, out there and engaged with the community, no longer as a child but as a person, are

removed. Pro-Ana is a community of fragile girls, masked in a veil of strength and

determination, hiding from the obligations of personhood.

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Given all of the contradictions, the pain and the suffering, why is the Pro-Ana movement so

successful and dangerous? Why do girls find it easier to engage this sort of behaviour rather

than interface 'normally' with society and their bodies? Death and disappearing are where

we see this manifestation most clearly, it is the physical embodiment of removing society's

gaze. Anas control how society views them, or at least they try to.

'I want to be so thin, light, airy, that ...

when the light hits me, I don't leave a shadow behind.

I can dance between the raindrops in a downpour.'

- Quoted by 'Jill'

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Getting to know Ana

Allow me to introduce myself. My name, or as I am called by so called 'doctors', is

Anorexia. Anorexia Nervosa is my full name, but you may call me Ana. Hopefully we can

become great partners. In the coming time, I will invest a lot of time in you, and I expect

the same from you.

- Ana (From A Letter from

Ana)

Dear Ana, I offer you my soul, my heart and my bodily functions. I give you all my earthly

possessions.

- From a popular 'Letter to

Ana'

During my research respondents floated in and out of the Ana17 community - periods of

high activity followed by lulls. Further, I had very few consistent, long term respondents.

Generally I would get a piece of data from here or there. This was telling in itself. Anas

would 'spill their guts', confide, and talk openly with me precisely because I was an

anonymous stranger, because by being void of my own identity I took on the role of Ana.

And so was part of the construct that was my main respondent. Which is crucial to

understanding the research site we are involved in. To use the internet (now web 2.0) is to

construct it. That is to say, how one navigates the web now defines the architecture - the

directions other users will follow as links are ranked and ordered according to users 'clicks'.

By searching for, and clicking on, Pro-Ana sites we automatically reshuffle them upwards

in rankings and therefore make them more likely to be clicked. Our presence (just like any

researchers in a field) alters the site. We cannot pretend the web is an 'other' to be gazed

upon from the veranda of the armchair and computer. In this research, the act of participant

observation, the most essential and rewarding method for this site, also constructed the site

– and the main protagonist in the Pro-Ana movement; 'Ana' herself.

17 There are three uses for the term 'Ana'. 1. A member of the Pro-Ana community (Jane is an Ana) 2. Ana is the Avatar of the organic manifestation of many users to produce a personality (Dear Ana) and 3. An abbreviation of Anorexia

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'Ana' is an entity. A 'goddess'. An inspiration. 'She' gives us strength and guides us. She sets

an example, she is knowledgeable, impassioned and 'always there for us'. Ana is a comfort

blanket made from tissue paper skin and fragile bone. Ana has an air of superiority about

her, like she has always been here, like a spirit. She is aetheral. Ana resides not just on the

internet, but else where, on the pages of magazines and in the mirror, in each bite of food

and each stomach crunch, she lives inside us.

Ana is also an idea, representative of empowerment, 'order through disorder', 'hunger hurts

but starving works'18. Ana is a manifesto that we subscribe to, dedicate our efforts to. This

is illustrated by the vast amounts of 'thinspiration' that are produced and proliferated

through the movement on-line - we are always working, we are always present. At any

moment someone can log on looking for support, and find it in the shape of thousands of

semi-anonymous avatars, which all bleed into one another to produce the organic,

responsive, anthropomorphous entity that is called 'Ana'. She is always there for us and

always loves us. She never judges us, but we always disappoint her. Ana is very real.

18 These quotes are common 'thinspiration'. I wore bracelets with these quotes on them for the duration of my research.

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Ana is something of a strict mother, a helpful older sister, a conceited bitch, a bully,

depending on what different girls look for in their on-line experience. While respondents

get to know each other through forums and chatrooms, the overwhelming interaction online

is between strangers, this anonymous interaction, support, etc, is attributed to Ana. All of

the best and most meaningful sayings, motivations, thinspo, etc. are filtered through the

web until it seems apparent that Ana has produced them. Ana is our strength and

motivation. You follow her 'devoutly', you love her and strive for her acceptance, of course

you never get it.

Ultimately, Pro-Ana, though a vast organic network of users, produces a 'voice' and an

outlet for Ana, through which these members feelings are articulated and vocalised in a

very dangerous manner. It is not that other people, or websites, or the media are telling

them how to act or think, rather they become the medium through which these inner

feelings become audible and are amplified and ordered to make a very dangerous

exaggeration.

Ana has become a brand, and a successful one, with an army of volunteers producing a

cache of affective material. Not only has it adopted the grammar of the fashion aesthetic but

also of the support group. 'Stay Strong', 'Ana understands' and the whole system is based

around support. Signing up to the largest Pro-eating disorder forum on-line makes support a

requirement. If support is not offered by new members, membership is renounced. I was

required to write *hugs*, indicating I understood while not necessarily 'supporting' their

actions. I was aware of my role in contributing (simply by being present) to the

development and on-line presence of this persona, Ana.

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As the female body extends beyond the boundaries of the prepubescent fleshcentric body

the Ana looses control. With her physical changes are new obligations, new parameters to

where her 'self' resides. Her body is now social rather than physical. The fertile female

body belongs to us now, belongs to society. These girls, in a reaction to this reshaping of

where their bodies newly reside, from her flesh to the community's flesh, attempt to stifle

that growth. Physically this manifests like a reaction against puberty, but it is not puberty as

a biological process but a social one. She attempts to keep control of where the body ends,

the comfortable flesh and skin boundaries are being forsaken by society as they take her

body, gaze upon it, measure it, bound it, package it. Ironically, her method of stifling the

community of her body is to make it a performative social act, played out on-line under the

illusion of control, of order through disorder.

As the self is poured into the generic Ana-persona, the individual Ana's flesh shrinks away.

But most 'Anas' never shrink as much as they would like to. By being 'ill', by being part of

an 'exclusive' club, by being beautiful and 'skinny' she is freed from obligation and actively

becomes a passive female.

She longs to be a two dimensional object, her body just a hanger for signs, symbols, affect,

artefacts that flow through her, accoutrements of value. Signs that mean beauty, acceptance

and through beauty and skinnyness, no obligations.

She exists, not in a defined body shape boundaried by the skin, or the clothes, or even

architecture19, but across a disjunctive order, an imaginary whereby she takes upon many

meanings, is many representations which she has little control over, and exists in a number

of dimensions; the traditional four (time and three spatial) but also the the dimensions of the

web which are aspatial (intimacy without proximity – the death of distance20) and

atemporal.

19 Architecture as the 'third skin' see Drake (2007) The Third Skin: Architecture, Technology & Environment. UNSW Press.

20 Cairncross, F. (1997) The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives Harvard Business School Press

36


You are what you eat; Wannarexics.

'Wannarexics' are girls deemed by the community as 'not true Anas' but just 'girls looking

for a new diet'. However, once again we reach inconsistency and contradiction.

Wannarexics are criticised for looking for a lifestyle, but most Anas claim Ana is not a

disorder but a lifestyle choice. Wannarexics are not diagnosed, but neither are most Anas

and the whole community rejects typical medical conceptions of Anorexia, including its

diagnosis. As such, anyone in the Pro-ED community ultimately fulfils the criteria for

'wanting to be anorexic' and it seems the Wannarexic is just in that liminal phase between

'normality' and being an initiated 'true Ana'. Being a 'true Ana' is a matter replacing the

flesh self with a self comprised of affective material, signs and signifiers and placing the

self outside the fleshcentric body (e.g. Online).

There are three brands that girls in Pro-ED associate with Ana. These are Evian Mineral

Water, Coca-Cola Zero (formerly Diet Coke) and Marlboro Lights. To consume these

products is to consume a lifestyle, that of the professional, glamorous models, celebrities or

others who are role models by virtue of their skinniness.

Anas can be stamped with the same brand identity as successfully skinny people. Indeed,

these products not only help you to become skinny but you are never truly skinny unless

branded with them, juxtaposed between their fluidness and their pure essence – feeding on

liquid and smoke. Evian, as water represents 'invisibility', 'disappearing from view', and is

the brand of mineral water with the most translucent packaging. Diet Coke seems to have

been re-branded directly to suit 'wannarexics' as it is now called 'Zero', associating it with

size zero, zero calories and zero kilograms. It is marketed as having 'Zero sugar' except in

North America where it is marketed as having 'Zero calories'. It contains caffeine which

37


'speeds up your metabolism and makes you loose weight'. Further, zero has no ambiguity to

it. 'Diet' is a much softer definition, zero is quantifiable, it has hard edges and is

unambiguous. Marlboro lights, again in pale, timid packaging, are 'light' and together with

'Zero' and Evian represent the 'food', or substantial part of a completely calorie free diet.

Marlboro Lights are 'what skinny people smoke because they suppress diet' and because

they are not strong, they are feminine and delicate so fragile girls can handle them – unlike

the masculine Marlboro 'Red' cigarette.

These 'foods' are homogeneous. Consumption is guaranteed to have zero calories, every

time they are the same, the same weight, number, size, amount, constituents. 'Zero'

(caffeine) and 'Marlboro Lights' (nicotine) are highly addictive but also many Anas 'just

couldn't go anywhere with a bottle of Evian', addicted to the sign and all it connotes.

These products are at once a mechanism of consuming the Ana 'lifestyle', a method of

inclusion in an elite group of girls who are in 'the know' (part of the Pro-ED circle), a way

of associating with celebrities, a practice of obsessive compulsions, and a method of

controlling weight through diet.

These products often appear in thinspo, and their groups on social networking sites are

places 'Anas' congregate. This example indicates just how tangible and 'real world' Pro-Ana

is – flowing across the web, through the self, through products, signs and brands which in

turn flow across techno and media scapes.

38


6. Conclusion

'I also want to divest it of a commitment to a particular version of politics: the idea that

unless you attend to certain more or less determinate phenomena (class, gender or

ethnicity would be examples), then your work has no political relevance.' (Law 2004:9)

-John Law

'Get linked or get lost'

-Vic Sussman and Kenan Pollack

It is absolutely clear to anyone who spends even a small amount of time engaging the Pro-

Ana research site, that involvement in the movement has a negative effect on people. As

such a sociological enquiry must have, as its main focus, a motivation to help prevent

further ill health or death from this phenomenon.

What becomes clear through looking at the internet as a dimension of reality, and

considering the multiplicities of ways of being that exist for each user, is that children need

to be regulated but are not. I revert to the convenience of virtual and real. Children are

alone 'out there' in the virtual world and with no 'virtual' guidance or presence parents who

are not linked, get lost.

The more children engage with technology, the more their presence in the world takes place

across a technological scape, and the more their selves are developed by that scape. As

such, it is crucial that parents engage that scape too. The self, is escaping through and being

consumed by, the technomediaself scape and at the same time, it comprised that scape. The

dimensions in which people produce themselves and each other no longer has tangible,

geographical or conceptual boundaries. For researchers, overcoming this challenge is

similar to the challenge of globalisation that researchers faced in the late 80s and early 90s.

However, the challenge for 'people' is not so much that their particular 'culture' may be

consumed by a global imperial culture (McDonaldisation for example) but that the 'self' or

our children's 'selves' are engaging potentially dangerous phenomena that exist within

dimensions that are mutually exclusive to parents. Ana, is a sort of online, surrogate

mother. I have little doubt that societies around the world would consider this alarming and

dangerous, but it doesn't stop with Ana. There are Pro-Suicide forums, sites that incite

hatred, racism, sexism, homophobia, self-harm, etc. It is crucial, that parents begin to exist,

within these dimensions, rather than attempting to regulate them from 'outside'.

39


This research represents the culmination of 10 months in 'the field' and illustrates the need

to develop site specific multi-sited ethnographic maps, that the internet is not simply a

network of networks and that humans engage computers in much more rich ways than

merely a cyber or virtual way. I hope this research also illuminated the shape of flows

within the Pro-Ana technomediaself scape. Finally I hope we can see how crucial it is that

we do no leave our children alone there.

40


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Appendix i: Joanne's Letter to Ana

Dear Ana and Mia,

We've known each other for quite some time now, almost eight years I'd say. Mia, I met

you through your close acquaintance Ana, and she and I had a VERY tight bond for the two

years prior to meeting you. You and she are so different--where Ana made me want to hold

all my emotions in, you allow me to get them out. She had me running 12 miles a day and

eating only vegetables while you let me eat lots of things, as long as they don't stay down.

However, you both kept me so tired and weak and angry that I never felt quite like my own

person.

You were both always there for me--through the good times and the bad--whether I wanted

you there or not, you were like these omnipresent beings who haunted me day after day,

night after night. Mia, you and I have become sort of a team--whenever I feel any type of

negative emotion I turn to you, and you immediately tell me what to do--get lots of food,

eat it and get rid of it, after all, we don't want to get fat! In a perverse way, I do feel better

after I listen to your sick advice, but then I also feel guilty and hungover the next day,

dehydrated and exhausted from what I've put my body through . . .AGAIN. Can't we figure

something else out? If you truly are my friend and truly want what is best for me, as you

always try to tell me you do, isn't there another less painful way than by ramming my finger

down my throat?

You've both really had a negative impact on my social life--not only am I hyper-anxious

about going out if I even imagine that I am not looking my best (and according to you, I

never look my best), but going out to dinner is literally a battle for me because public

bathrooms are not ideal locations for us, and restaurant menus generally don't have items

that we can order off of safely. If I do manage to get out to a dance club, I'm still always

wondering if I look ok, no matter how many accolades I get from others about how I look,

it is your voice that is always in my ear, telling me that my stomach could be a little tighter,

my butt a little smaller, and asking me how many calories are in the drink I am having,

forcing me to dance just a little longer to make sure I burn off everything I am drinking. Its

actually shocking that I am not a raging alcoholic because the only time I don't hear your

voice whispering those hurtful things in my ear is when I am knock-down drunk, and can't

hear a damn thing at all, when all I can do is focus on wobbling back to the car--and those

occasions are few and far between.

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Although you Mia, have been the main person in my life for the past four years, Ana has

also been creeping back into my life recently, it is as though you and she have been

collaborating to make my life even more hellish, as if purging wasn't enough, now you want

me to restrict as well, so that I can lose weight even faster. Well, I'm in a program now, and

they DO NOT LIKE YOU TWO! In fact, the whole focus of the program is to kick the shit

out of you both and to ensure that you never bother me again. I always thought that I

needed you both (or at least one of you) to survive--to make it through the days, especially

the stressful days, but frankly, I think I am beginning to realize that it was both of YOU

who were making my days stressful!

If we do part ways, I will have a lot of time on my hands, and I will need to think of a

positive way to fill that time, but I believe that I will be able to do that, and that I can live a

very full life without you two. I think if I had a wish for myself right now it would be for

peace and silence in my mind. I believe that not hearing your voices every day critiquing

me and urging me to harm myself through restricting and purging would be the best peace I

could ever know.

I may call out for you in the future, but please, just ignore me, I don't really want your help,

I am just having one moment of weakness and it will pass. I hope that I will never ever

need you again. You are cruel and horrible and I loathe you with every ounce of my being. I

hate that you have stolen my adolescence from me, and I vow that you will not steal the rest

of my 20's from me--I am a strong-willed individual, and I will silence you both, no matter

what it takes.

Your former friend and devout follower,

'Joanne'

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Appendix ii: Perfection according to 'Ana'

46

Soft Machines: 'Ana' and the Internet

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Transcript of Soft Machines: 'Ana' and the Internet