Less than a week after Tumblr officially banned pro-anorexia and bulimia blogs,Business Insider's Jim Edwards notes that bulletin board-like social site Pinterest is also home for "thinspiration" — "thinspo" for short.
What's more, "thinspo" photos "pinned" and shared — often featuring scantily clad, sometimes-naked women, many with grotesquely protruding bones — are bypassing Pinterest's no-nudity rule. As such, search for porn on Pinterest, and "you get pictures of shoes, real estate and kitchen gadgets that people have ironically labeled porn because of their acquisitive lust, not their actual lust," Edwards writes.
"Thin" is one of the search terms that turns up revealing photos of malnourished women, typical fare for the "pro-ana" community that's been on the Internet almost as long as porn. True, you can find naughty images that aren't meant to inspire eating disorders via a search for "erotica," "boudoir" or "sexy." Mostly however, these key words turn up photos about as racy as World War I-era French postcards, or the far more sexually charged images used in fashion magazines of today. Meanwhile, a search for "sexy" turned up a headshot of a young Bob Dylan, among other things.
Arguably, it's the images of malnourished women that are more unnerving than these "adult entertainment" images you'll find on Pinterest. Edwards writes:
If you want a disturbing look at how pro-anorexia women view themselves and the world, check out pins tagged "thin" on Pinterest. A large portion of those images are from women who have pointed a cellphone camera at themselves while standing in their underwear in front of the bathroom mirror.
As Edwards writes, Pinterest will need to deal with this "porn problem" if it hopes to attract advertisers. Meanwhile, anyone looking for actual "porn" is better served hitting one of the many Pinterest clones specifically designed for that purpose. Pornterest, for example, and we're totally not making that up.
More on the annoying way we live now:
- Tumblr bans anorexia, bulimia and other self-harm
- So this exists: Kickstarter for porn
- Pinterest helps clever crafter clean house -- and save marriage?
Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitterand/or Facebook. Also, Google+. Because that's how she rolls.