Friday, May 30, 2008

Eat something!

I've been watching this issue with the Thinspo thing, the pro-anorexia pictures, and the like that's been covered on Shopping Cart Disco and NWN this week with interest. I've suffered with eating disorders probably for most of my life, since elementary school really, and I did wonder when the pro-ana/mia groups would hit SL. Because believe it or not, there are so many people out there that embrace their eating disorders and are completely for it. I am very much not one of those people. [I also didn't do my disorders right, because I never got thin!]

But, this whole thing reminded me of some pictures I took last month for the Free Speerit crying skins contest. I ended up not entering because I wasn't all that interested in entering, but I did LOVE the skins and wanted to take pictures. When I first saw the skins, I thought "Ooh, crying pissed off cheerleader!" But later that evening I saw a blog on an exercise outfit and my mind went to "Ooh, crying model." Here are the pictures I took.


Crawling away


Too many calories in veggies?


Fallen


It's easy to come into SL with a dislike of your body and wave your wand and poof, you're perfect. But look at it for what it is. You have a lovely avatar. But the person behind the avatar is more important. If you're unhappy with your body, in the real world, please please please don't hurt yourself trying to change. You can't take skinny with you in the end.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

vnoeAw, you don't need to lose weight to have an eating disorder. A huge difference between people suffering with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa is that bulimics often maintain a healthy weight but it's obviously still a very serious thing.
This sort of thing gets me really flustered and angry and no doubt it's going to have me fidgeting and ghost-posting for weeks. I saw a skin on Fash Con the other day with rib shading and the model was definitely too thin, I was pretty much in tears. You can't promote this look and expect young, impressionable people on the grid and in the teen grid to want a healthy lifestyle. :/

Alicia Chenaux said...

No, you don't need to be stick thin to have an eating disorder, and I think a lot of people forget that. I have met 400 pound anorexics and 100 pound binge eaters.

At the end of the day, being happy with who you are, and emotionally healthy, is much more important than fitting into some size 0 jeans or having enormous biceps and pectorals. We owe it to ourselves and to these little ones growing up to show them that being successful has nothing to do with your body shape in the long run.

Unknown said...

OH NO!!! what am I going to do??? My blog post for this week is an article on exercise and my avatar's figure and Bridal Boot Camp!!! OMG what terrible timing for this issue to come up. Crapola!!

Alicia Chenaux said...

LOL! Oh do it anyway. :) But I know, I feel like it's a bad bad time to be a thin av right now, no matter how much we say we don't support pro-eating disorders.

C said...

Excellent pictures Ali, very powerful.

Ali (and other petite girls) you shouldn't feel bad about about what size you choose to have your avatar, especially if it's in proportion and healthy looking, which you are. It's not like you've maxed out your height and breasts and left your waist teeny.

Tymmerie I think you should do your post anyway because I'm sure you would in no way be advocating anything inappropriate or controversial. Besides it's bikini season soon and I have a bit of winter jiggle to firm up LOL so I'd love your boot camp tips.