Righteous anorexics. The pro-anorexia (pro-ana) movement as an audience cult
https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-4158-2022-4-20-43
Abstract
The article considers the pro-anorexia (pro-ana) movement an audience cult. The author defines the pro-ana movement as an Internet movement whose members view anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders not as severe mental illnesses, but as a lifestyle choice. The audience cult is a term proposed by sociologists R. Stark and W. S. Bainbridge in the framework of the theory of religious movements. According to Stark and Bainbridge, an audience cult is a community of people who are not bound by a fixed membership, but are united by a set of ideas spread by the media. Adherents of the audience cult act as “consumers” of cult ideas, and not members of a religious organization. The author considers the materials of Russian-speaking pro-ana communities, collected by the methods of the virtual ethnography. The author uses research conducted by Olivia Knapton, Beata Hoffman, Grace Overbeke, Michelle Lelwica and other authors who researched English-speaking pro-ana communities. The article describes the mythology and practices of the pro-ana movement. The article also uses the research of Rudolph Bell and Caroline Walker Bynum on medieval women mystics in order to separately discuss the similarities between the food restriction practices of the pro-ana movement and the ascetic practices of the Middle Ages saints. The author concludes that there are features of an audience cult in the Russian-speaking pro-ana movement.
Supporting agencies: The publication was prepared as part of the work on the scientific project of Russian State University for the Humanities “The Cult in the Perspective of the Humanities” (contest “Student scientific project teams of Russian State University for the Humanities”).
About the Author
E. P. Ivlieva
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ekaterina P. Ivlieva
bld. 6, Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047
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Review
For citations:
Ivlieva E.P. Righteous anorexics. The pro-anorexia (pro-ana) movement as an audience cult. Studia Religiosa Rossica: Russian Journal of Religion. 2022;(4):20-43. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-4158-2022-4-20-43
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