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ASCETICISM 17
that comes with having a psychiatric disorder. Many anorexics and bulimics have
formed “pro-ana” communities (often online) in which they support each other’s
choices and swap weight loss tips as well as advice on how to hide one’s condition
from family, friends, and medical professionals. For these people, anorexia
is a lifestyle choice and they are intentionally molding their bodies in a way that
shows that they are able to control them.
While the pro-ana movement is not as popular now as it once was (the height of
it as measured by pro-ana Web sites was between 2001 and 2003) it still remains
true that anorexia is seen by many young women as an alternative lifestyle and that
by modifying their bodies in the extreme way they do, it is their choice. For these
people, anorexia, or extreme dieting, is not about having a psychiatric disorder or
a problem with one’s body image; instead, it is about exercising control and pushing
one’s body’s limits. In addition, some feel that it is a form of self-expression,
but even within the body modification community, self-starvation is seen as an
unhealthy disorder.
See also: Body Dysmorphic Disorder; Health Issues
Further Reading: Bordo, Susan. “Reading the Slender Body.” In Mary Jacobus, Evelyn Fox
Keller, and Sally Shuttleworth, eds., Body Politics: Women and the Discourses of Science.New
York: Routledge, 1990; Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and
the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993; Fallon, P., M. Katzman, and S.
Wooley, eds. Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders. New York: Guilford, 1994; Gremillion,
Helen. Feeding Anorexia: Gender and Power at a Treatment Center. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 2003; Levenkron, Steven. Anatomy of Anorexia. New York: W.W. Norton
& Co., 2001; Girard, Rene. “Hunger Artists.” In Tobin Siebers, ed., The Body Aesthetic:
From Fine Art to Body Modification. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000.
APOTEMNOPHILIA See Amputation
ASCETICISM
Asceticism refers to a life that is characterized by abstaining from worldly and
bodily pleasures, through self denial and often self-mortification. The goal of
the ascetic is to strengthen one’s spiritual life through distancing oneself from the
profane world. Asceticism is a part of a number of religious traditions including
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as well as Buddhism and Hinduism. Because not
all members of a religious tradition can life an ascetic life, asceticism is usually
practiced by monks, nuns, yogis, and other especially devoted adherents.
Fasting is a form of self-denial, and is the most common practice associated
with asceticism, and involves the temporary abstaining from food in order to punish
oneself, atone for one’s sins, or to produce visions. Fasting and other forms
of spiritual purification is often a step in the process of communicating with God
or the gods. Other forms of self-denial include refraining from sexual contact (either
temporarily or permanently), dressing in old clothing or rags, and giving up
all personal possessions, all of which are used to release one’s connection to the
profane world and also to purify the soul.