CallaFirestormBW
Posts: 3651
Joined: 6/29/2008 Status: offline
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quote:
What I am asking here is, not so much for commentary on that scenario...but do you view pro-ana and/or pro-mia as what you would consider to be kinks? Do those things have a place (in your mind) under the umbrella of BDSM? I think that they would potentially fit under the category of "authority-based", and -could- fit in the S/M end of BDSM, though I have to qualify that with some additional commentary which I'll add below. To me, I keep BDSM to the Bondage-Discipline-Sadism-Masochism end of things, and this scenario fits the sadism/masochism end from what I can see. Personally, I find anorexia/bulimia to be indications of OCD-like behavior or, in some cases, part of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder group (similar to people who believe that they should be missing limbs -- in this case, at least for a couple of clients I've known over the years as a minister, it was that they didn't believe they should have flesh/muscle -- they honestly thought the most beautiful thing in the world was a thin layer of skin stretched tight over bones). However, people who are in this situation can be relatively functional, and as long as they are cognizant of the trade-offs of their decisions, they are entitled to do what they want with their bodies. You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped (as is evidenced by the girls who are hospitalized due to complications of anorexia, and are forced into inpatient treatment for their anorexia/bulimia, gain enough weight to get out, and then go back to starving/purging to get back to where they were, even knowing that it nearly killed them the last time). One other challenge that I have with this scenario is that, over time, individuals who are malnourished stop being able to make rational decisions. This is one of the theories surrounding the causes of Stockholm Syndrome -- so I think I'd be sort of squidgy, ethically, if I saw this going on in my community, and would want to have a professional evaluate the situation... then, if it turned out that everyone involved was really fully committed, well, that's up to them, as cognizant adults. Calla
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*** Said to me recently: "Look, I know you're the "voice of reason"... but dammit, I LIKE being unreasonable!!!!" "Your mind is more interested in the challenge of becoming than the challenge of doing." Jon Benson, Bodybuilder/Trainer
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