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Karen Dias

Abstract

This article explores cyberspace as a site in which women who are struggling with anorexia can find sanctuary from the surveillance of the public sphere. Feminist geographical and sociological work on the body and critical analysis of medical and psychiatric discourses inform the analyses of the text, narratives and images presented. I locate women’s (dis)embodied cyberspace experiences in the context of the pathologization of women and within attempts to silence their voices. Through these women’s narratives, women’s engagement in the interpretation of their experiences can be observed. What women struggling with anorexia may not be able or ready to say to family, friends or professionals, they express in the “safer” space of cyberspace. Dominant cultural scripts about their bodies are reproduced, negotiated and/or resisted in their narratives.

Author Biography

Karen Dias, Graduate Student, Department of Women’s Studies and Gender Relations, University of British Columbia, Canada

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