English

Noun

pro-ana ‎(plural pro-anas)

1. A movement that promotes anorexia nervosa as an acceptable lifestyle choice.
   • 2006 December 5, Christine Dunford as Shelley Ford, The Nutcrackers (Boston Legal), season 3, episode 10, written by David E. Kelley and Sanford Golden:

     Pro-ana is not a disease, Mr. Crane, it's a lifestyle choice.

   • 2013 February 17, Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick, Red Team/Blue Team (The Good Wife), season 4, episode 14, written by Robert King & Michelle King:

     Alicia: It's a pro-ana website, isn't it?
     Diane: Objection. Relevance?
     Howard: Yeah, I- I don't get it. What is that?
     Alicia: Pro-ana? It's a site intended to promote anorexia.

2. A member of this movement.
   • 2004 October 27, Eda R. Uca, Ana's Girls: The Essential Guide to the Underground Eating Disorder Community Online, AuthorHouse, ISBN 9781418437954, OL 8467390M, page 69:

     Beyond celebrating the aesthetic value of thinness, pro-anas claim that thinness is a reflection of excellence in other areas of one's life.

   • 2009, Avis Rumney, Dying to Please: Anorexia, Treatment and Recovery, 2nd edition, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, ISBN 9780786453917, OL 23186553M, pages 25-26:

     But juxtaposed to a caveat about the life-threatening nature of anorexia is often an avowal of the pro-ana's goal: to help anorexics in their quest for the "ideal" (emaciated) body.

See also

• bulimia
• EDNOS
• pro-mia
• thinspiration
• wannarexic