I can almost guarantee that an overwhelming majority of the girls and young women featured in the #pro-ed tags:
posted pictures of themselves (or allowed others to post their pictures) online without any intent to glamorize restrictive EDs, and would be offended, insulted, and absolutely horrified if they saw their body plastered all over a pro-ed blog.
published pictures of their sick bodies because they felt that they needed their unhealthy self-perceptions and thoughts to be validated, and are now struggling to track down all the copies and altered forms of their post because this is NOT what they wanted and they NEVER considered how easily they could be championed by a movement that’s little more than assisted suicide dressed up with filters and heart emojis.
I don’t think you realize how much it would SUCK to find out that people have edited, altered, cropped, and captioned your body in ways that dehumanize you, demean you, and celebrate your unbearable pain, emotional turmoil, and extensive suffering for no reason at all.
I don’t think you realize how sickening it would be to know that preteens, expectant mothers, abuse victims, dysphoric individuals, self-destructive teens, relapsing eating disorder sufferers, and struggling human beings of all ages, genders, races, and backgrounds are using your body to harm themselves.
I don’t think you realize what it’d be like to lay awake at night and wonder if someone looked at your physique in order to convince themselves to continue their fast or stick their fingers down their throat.
I don’t think you realize how devastating it is to consider the very real possibility that beautiful boys and wonderful girls with spirit, charisma, worth, talent, and potential have made themselves bleed and cry and starve and puke and hurt because they want to see you when they look in the mirror.
I don’t think you realize how heart-wrenching it would be if you became aware that someone in your life recognized your images while they were looking for tools, tips, and ways to whittle themselves away until they were as small as they secretly felt inside.
I don’t think you realize how complicated it’d be to use social media in recovery when you couldn’t connect to an online support system without the fear that you’d see your “LW” pics floating around and feel helpless, triggered, and taken advantage of.
I don’t think you realize how sharp that ache in your chest would be when you considered that none of the bloggers who silently like and reblog your pics see you as a person, that your various gaps and concavities and bones are all they care about.
I don’t think you realize how miserable you’d feel about making a mistake and never being able to truly move on from it, because once it’s on the internet, it’s there forever. I don’t think you realize that nobody truly dreams of being stripped of their identities, reduced to a disease, and idolized for almost dying.
I don’t think you realize that you are furthering eating disorder glamorization by praising thinspo and calling it “hopelessly romantic.” It’s time for you to wake up.