"Thinspo" is shorthand for "thinspiration," which refers to material used by those with eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, to discourage themselves from eating in a healthy manner. "Thinspo" comes in a variety of forms, but most exists as slogans and pictures on pro-ana websites. It encourages black-and-white thinking, making food seem to be evil so that it is easier to avoid.
Examples of Thinspo
On principle, I will not provide visual examples of thinspiration. But here are a few nuggets that torment those with eating disorders:
- "If it tastes good, it's trying to kill you." If ever there was an exaggeration of reality, this is it. Obviously, food is one of a handful of things that keep us alive. I believe that our sense of taste is designed to direct us toward things that are nourishing. It can be fooled, of course. But it isn't food that's out to get us. It's eating disorders.
- "Anyone can have 'inner beauty,' but few can earn real beauty, inside as well as out." Here's a bid to ridicule emotional intimacy and replace it with bald-faced physical attraction. It seems to encourage both, but by saying that only physical beauty can be earned, it devalues what isn't physical. Maturity and inner beauty is perhaps the hardest thing on the planet to earn.
- "Nothing can't be fixed with hunger and weightloss." (sic) Our next president should offer this message to those in the Middle East.
- "Have you ever seen a person NOT notice a walking skeleton?" Originality points here. But people notice things for a variety of reasons. People tend to notice things like car accidents even when they're horrified.
- "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels." This one is truly a classic. What do those who believe this notion think of others who genuinely don't agree with it? It seems to be assumed that this statement is universal. But there are many thin people in the world who would find the taste of a soda cracker preferable to their condition of starvation.
- "Guys will want to get to know you, not laugh at you and walk away." It's true that men generally are more attracted to physical beauty than women. But a guy won't tend to stay around when he realizes that avoiding food is more important than being with him. That's how eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia create isolation.
You get the idea. At prisoner-of-war and concentration camps, it's common for loudspeakers to blare propaganda that is designed to wear down the defenses of those who hear it -- a not-so-subtle form of brainwashing. It's a simple psychological technique. "Thinspo" seems to be the equivalent in the eating disorders community.
