Tumblr has recently promoted changes to its user policy, which would either ban or severely limit the hosting of so-called “self-harm” blogs on its platform.
These blogs include those that glorify anorexia, bulimia, cutting and other unhealthy, self-destructive behaviors.
For those who are unaware, Tumblr and sites like it have often acted as springboards for the creation of large online communities that promote such lifestyles.
The proposed changes would either remove the blogs in these communities entirely or place advertisements and links to the help hotlines and websites of organizations, such as the National Eating Disorders Association, in their sidebars or headers.
As someone who has personally suffered from the existence of such online communities, I applaud Tumblr for taking a stance against them.
Growing up as a girl who was a little bigger than her peers was difficult when being thin is valued so highly.
When Xanga was the popular microblogging site of the time, I stumbled across the so-called “pro-ana” blogging community.
I had never exhibited anorexic behaviors before, but seeing blog after blog of women logging their daily calorie counts of 100 to 300 calories, posting photos of their “thinsperation” and urging each other to “stay strong and starve on” was the push I needed to propel myself into a lifestyle of obsessive food restriction, excessive exercise and infinite self-loathing.
In this case, a thin-centric society that pressures both men and women into extremely unrealistic body ideals has left individuals susceptible to the destructive ideas promoted on self-harm blogs.
As a private business, Tumblr has the right to determine what content is and is not allowed to be spread via its platform.
By allowing pro-self-harm communities to flourish on its platform, Tumblr has, in a way, offered tacit approval to a serious threat to the mental, physical and emotional health of its users.
By putting an end to pro-self-harm communities, Tumblr would send a simple but powerful message to its users: There’s another way, and there are people who can help you.
— kbeasle@indiana.edu
