School of Social Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK.
Qual Health Res. 2024 Oct;34(12):1216-1230. doi: 10.1177/10497323241238628. Epub 2024 Mar 26.
Healthy eating (HE) and pro-eating disorder (pro-ED) websites are popular sources of dietary and weight loss information, social support, and lifestyle inspiration. However, the discursive styles and language used by authors/moderators and users of these two site genres have not been widely studied or compared. Forty-three HE websites and twenty-four pro-ED websites were analysed using Fairclough's model of critical discourse analysis. Findings indicate that sites share common characteristics in terms of power relations played out by authors, 'successful' dieters, and those attending these sites. These power plays encourage moral and spiritual commitment to the care of one's body, with authoritative language used to support readers' loyalty and adherence to dietary plans. On HE sites, medicinal properties were attributed to 'clean' or 'pure' foods, whereas pro-ED sites conveyed their importance for weight reduction. Healthy eating sites were largely entrepreneurial, promoting products or themselves. Pro-eating disorder sites typically featured discussions of bodily disgust, the chastisement of others, and self-discipline in the name of 'Ana', such that dieting came to be framed as part of a devotional, often punitive, body project. On both sites, morality discourses were gendered around the thin female body and the 'ideal mother', with occasional praise for muscular male bodies. Our findings indicate how transitioning from healthy eating preoccupations to eating disorders may be facilitated by normalising discussions about restrictive dieting and the shaming of bodies, overseen by self-appointed diet 'experts' and 'buddies' online.
健康饮食（HE）和赞成进食障碍（pro-ED）网站是饮食和减肥信息、社会支持和生活方式灵感的热门来源。然而，这两种网站类型的作者/主持人和用户使用的话语风格和语言尚未得到广泛研究或比较。使用 Fairclough 的批判话语分析模型分析了 43 个健康饮食网站和 24 个赞成进食障碍网站。研究结果表明，这些网站在作者、“成功”节食者和参加这些网站的人所发挥的权力关系方面具有共同的特征。这些权力游戏鼓励对身体护理的道德和精神承诺，使用权威语言来支持读者对饮食计划的忠诚和遵守。在健康饮食网站上，“清洁”或“纯净”食品被赋予了药用特性，而赞成进食障碍网站则传达了它们对减肥的重要性。健康饮食网站主要是企业家性质的，宣传产品或自身。赞成进食障碍网站通常以身体厌恶、对他人的惩罚以及以“Ana”为名的自我纪律为特色，因此节食开始被框定为奉献的、常常是惩罚性的身体项目的一部分。在这两个网站上，关于道德的论述都是围绕着瘦弱女性的身体和“理想母亲”进行的，偶尔也会赞扬肌肉发达的男性身体。我们的研究结果表明，通过将关于限制饮食的讨论和对身体的羞辱正常化，并由自我任命的饮食“专家”和在线“伙伴”进行监督，从健康饮食的关注转变为进食障碍可能会得到促进。
