Mk. Walstrom, "You know, who's the thinnest?": Combating surveillance and creating safety in coping with eating disorders online, CYBERPSYC B, 3(5), 2000, pp. 761-783
Online support groups have become highly attractive to seekers of health ad
vice. These sites offer rich online support and information, which may be e
njoyed in a nonthreatening environment. The "bodiless" nature of online sup
port groups helps ensure participants' sense of safety, because judgments r
elating to physical appearances are largely decreased. This article examine
s interaction in an online eating disorder support group, where such safety
cannot be assumed. Because women with anorexia and bulimia routinely discu
ss problems relating to appearances (size and weight), the risk of monitori
ng and negatively evaluating oneself and others jeopardizes the safety of i
nteraction in this online context. In a microlevel discourse analysis of th
ree exchanges, the linguistic structure and joint nature of creating a safe
communicative context is traced, as it unfolds amid solving a problem conc
erning physical appearances. The aim is to illuminate the therapeutic poten
tial of online forums for women with eating disorders, namely, as safe spac
es for coping with eating disorder-related problems. This study calls for i
ncreased inquiry of online forums as viable alternatives to face-to-face ea
ting disorder support groups, as anorexia and bulimia continue to prolifera
te in the United States.