"Triggering" Clothes?: Fashion and the Pro-Anorexia Community.
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The first national meeting of textile and clothing professors took place in Madison, Wisconsin in June 1959. With a mission to advance excellence in education, scholarship and innovation, and their global applications, the International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) is a professional and educational association of scholars, educators, and students in the textile, apparel, and merchandising disciplines in higher education.
This site provides free, public access to the ITAA annual conference proceedings beginning in 2015. Previous proceedings can be found by following the "Additional ITAA Proceedings" link on the left sidebar of this page.
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Abstract
Pro-anorexia is a subculture of anorexia nervosa sufferers who vary from rejecting treatment to embracing the disorder as a lifestyle choice. Anorexia is consistently linked to body dissatisfaction and this dissatisfaction can be related to internalization of the thin body ideal. One of the main disseminators of the thin female body ideal is the media. Higher frequency of appearance-based social comparisons to such ideals contribute to thin ideal internalization and body dissatisfaction. A common element in pro anorexia communities is thinspiration, or media which promotes weight loss and idolizes extremely thin female celebrities. This research investigated pro-anorexia pages on Facebook and Pinterest in relation to the body and clothing ideals portrayed. Most pictures were user generated, portraying thin women who appeared to be under 30 years old. Clothing objects varied but were largely body hugging or body part revealing. Findings indicate the unique body and clothing ideals within this community.