final topic proposal

7/30/2019 Final Topic Proposal

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Parrish 1

Rachael Parrish

Instructor: Malcolm Campbell

English 1102

March 11th, 2013

Topic Proposal: Internet as Todays Greatest Influence?

Introduction/Overview

My topic is What if anything can be done to prevent such self-harm forums as pro-ana

(pro-anorexia, thinspiration, etc) from promoting self-destructive habits?. This topic

questions the legality and morality of such websites that are aiding in many people within this

country who are hurting themselves. It does not seem right that these websites not only exist, but

also even more importantly are so readily available. I am so interested and convicted to research

this project so that hopefully I can gain a better understanding of the reasons and solutions to

these seemingly self-harm advertisements and encouragers. The details that I have run across

while doing my preliminary research strike me as so shocking how casually many of these girls

who are a part of these websites, live such double lives that go so deep into their eating disorders.

An article published by the Huffington Post talks about a young girl named Kate who aspires to

be a famous runway model within her home city of New York City, yet she is so active in

Thinspo which refers to the abbreviated name for Thinspiration, more specifically a website

that promotes eating disorders and encourages participants to continue to partake in their

disorders. Kate has been quoted saying "I know that if I stay on a very dangerous path, that it

could kill me within a year easily, if not sooner. But at the same time, I feel like if I set a goal, I

have to reach it. I'm pretty torn about it most days, but I've never really felt bad enough that I

wanted to stop." This quote alone strikes a nerve in me because all the strength that she is taking


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from this website in order for her to continue in her disorder, she could be gaining positive

encouragement and reinforcement from a professional that discourages her from her habits which

she knowingly admits to having the ability to kill her within the next year. This topic provides

such a real-world application on body image and allows me to really investigate the lengths of

extremity that we are dealing with today within the image that we are portraying for females to

contain. I think that this topic can be very diverse and very complex because from this initial

standpoint I do not know of many legal solutions to how this problem could be solved but I

assume that upon further investigation of my topic than I might become more educated about

some of the current solutions and approaches to this social problem. I am sure that as wrong as

these sites might seem to you and I, there are many people who heavily rely on them to function

their lives of self-destruction that would fight back equally hard to continue these sites existence

so I am very anxious to be able to explore in a much deeper manner, more about my topic.

Initial Inquiry Question(s)

Currently a lot of questions exist throughout my thought process regarding my topic of

questioning what is being done about self-harm forums, websites and blogs that promote people

who self-destruct themselves. I want to know a better figure of how many people are truly using

these websites and the extent that it can go to affect them. Do these sites not only proceed to

encourage people in their journey through an eating disorder, but also continue on to lead to

starving people to death? Can creators of these sites involve themselves in legal responsibility for

being accessories to peoples death? Is it more feasible that considering that these sites are

promoting self destruction, there is generally nothing that can be done to stop them? Mainly I

want to further understand what these sites contain that make people so dependent on them and


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what exactly can be a reasonable expectation of a way to decrease their popularity and

prevalence on the web, for so many to easily access.

My Interest in this Topic

I believe that my interest in this topic derives from my AP art concentration topic that

questioned the beauty myth and different ways that are becoming common for people to

beautify themselves, where I elaborated on some of the most shocking and dramatic things that

people are being known to do. Even though this topic is not directly related, I feel that it fits my

prior interest in my art topic and can sort of stem off of that by adding the stipulation of

technology while continuing to discuss the beast that our pop culture has created. I would

however like it to be known that I certainly do not take part in any self-destruction however

because I am of a young females perspective I feel that I am directly within the people group

that usually partakes in these activities and I want to further understand and possibly be equipped

with the knowledge of how to be properly educated on the matter. I think that this topic that I

have chosen is a great way for me to further my previous research while adding technology as a

great avenue to begin on.

Next Steps

The next step for me to further my topic is to research a lot more different forms of these

sites as well as some of the articles that professionals have already written evaluating and

organizing information that they have learned about these sites. I know that I can use the Internet

as a very important source for me to retrieve access to very credible and important newspapers or

researchers articles that I would otherwise have no way to access. I know that because of the

rise in popularity for such sites that have struck very quickly and very abundantly, many

psychiatrists have been studying and looking into this topic as well. Also because the topic


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specifically questions these websites, I am assuming that I will use the websites directly to gain

first-hand knowledge of the things they contain.

final topic proposal

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