Pro-ana

Pro-ana (pronounced pro-anna)

(1) Of or relating to the position that anorexia is a lifestyle choice.

(2) The on-line community advocating this view.  The most pure among the community actively deny anorexia nervosa is a clinical condition.

Circa 1998-2001:  The construct is pro + ana.  Pro was from the Classical Latin prō (in favor of, on behalf of), from the Proto-Italic por-, from the primitive Indo-European pr- & pro.  Ana is a clipping of of anorexia (an(orexi)a), a phonetic diminutive of the 1957 scientific term anorexia nervosa, the construct being the Ancient Greek ἀν (an) (without) + ὄρεξις (órexis) (appetite, desire) + the Latin nervōsa (nervous).  The clipping of "anorexia" was created both as verbal shorthand and coded language (so the matters of diet and related matters could be discussed without the risk of "outsiders" understanding.  "Ana" was thus a form of personification and a "cover", the outsiders hopefully assuming a young lady named Anna was being spoken of.  Ana in this context is thus obviously unrelated to the suffix -ana (familiar in forms such as "Victoriana", "Americana" etc) which originally was most associated with continental literature and derived from the neuter plural of Latin adjectives ending in -anus.  In his A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) defined the suffix thus: "Books so-called from the last syllables of their titles; a Scaligerara, Thuaniana; they are loose thoughts, or casual hints, dropped by eminent men, an collected by their friends."  The suffix -ana has since been subject to some mission-creep.

Etymologists are inclined insist the correct form can be only "pro-ana" and there are traditions in English which supports this but the community itself uses ana, pro ana and proana interchangeably, the most common form the short-form ana, following the practice with anorexia nervosa which is truncated to anorexia in all but formal academic or clinical work.  Over two-odd decades, pro-ana has also spawned words such as thinsperation and thinology, used to describe specialized editorial content of the calling; the much less-used term pro-mia refering to bulimia nervosa.  Pro-anas are purists who maintain high-standards; those who aspire to the anahood but in some way fail are dismissed as "wannarexics".

Lindsay Lohan wearing (non-ana) red wrist-string.

The ana's standard means of social identification is a simple, beaded red bracelet, the beading of some significance because variations of red bracelets, some as simple as a wrist-string, have long been used by many cultures, usually with some sort of link to the idea of a good-luck charm.  Famously, a חוט השני (the khutt hasheni, a thin scarlet or crimson string) is sometimes worn as Jewish folk custom as a way to seek protection from those misfortunes which may be aimed at one by the עין הרע (evil eye).  It's most associated with the Kabbalah sect and Kabbalic scholars say there's nothing in ancient Jewish texts about wrist-strings of any color and the "tradition" is a recent folk practice which seems to have begun in the north-eastern United States early in the twentieth century.  Anas thus need always to check for beading before reaching out.

Notes

Although at the time it never reached the critical-mass needed to coalesce into a movement, the pro-ana concept actually pre-dates the web.  Among the bulletin boards the nerdiest connected to with 1200 or 2400 baud modems in the 1980s and early 1990s were both anorexia support boards and those which celebrated the condition but it was the widespread adoption of the www by the mid-late 1990s which permitted pro-ana to become world-wide.

Pro-ana content tends to be (1) victim stories, (2) images & clips where ribcages & shoulder blades are often seen and clavicles much admired and (3), lists of helpful tricks and techniques.  Politically, the accepted world view is they are not suffering from an illness; ana is a human right, an essential part of their identity and just another lifestyle choice.  As pieces of design, the sites tend to use pre-defined templates and in that are unremarkable although the preponderance of monochromic imagery is noted.  The pro-ana sites began to attract wider attention early in the twenty-first century, the irony being that much of the criticism came from the very publications many suggest contribute to eating disorders.  Off and on since then, pressure from the public and anti-ana organizations has compelled many hosts to shut down pro-ana sites although these efforts are Sisyphean, the relocations usually quick.

Pro Ana Tips and Tricks for Beginners

(1) Keep track of your calories.  Set an absolute number and NEVER exceed it, while trying always, gradually to lower the number.  Within the calorie limit, aim for a diet which is 75% leafy-green vegetables & legumes, 20% tart fruit and 5% nuts. Sugar should be zero because enough is in the fruit but, if absolutely necessary, a daily barley-sugar boiled sweet is OK.  This diet mix can at the margins be varied but must stay vegan.

(2) Drink lots of water; try to aim for seven litres a day but anything over five is OK.  Being hydrated is anyway healthy and drinking water before taking food helps fill your stomach faster so you’ll eat less.  Remember to not drink a lot of water at once; instead keep hydrated by drinking little amount after every few minutes.  Always drink it as cold as possible, it forces the burning of more calories to restore body temperature.  Unless operating in extreme conditions with high fluid loss, do not go over eight litres a day. 

(3) Place a full-length mirror in your bedroom and evaluate yourself on daily basis. This is one of the best ways to keep yourself motivated and remember, you’re there to be critical as well as admire.  If you can arrange multiple mirrors to provide for a 360^o view that's even better because it makes it easier to focus on problem areas.

(4) Have small meals.  It’s easier for the body to burn three 100 calorie meals than one of 300 and gives your body the illusion that you’re eating enough to keep the stomach full, whereas you’re eating less.  Always eat slowly and chew thoroughly, it will hasten the digestive process.  After every meal, brush teeth.  Not only is this good for dental hygiene but with freshly brushed teeth, you'll be less inclined to eat. 

(5) Find an ana-buddy.  The anorexic diet can be a harsh mistress so an ana-buddy with whom you can talk about your problems and diet related stuff can be helpful but only if they're a kindred spirit.  This works not only by keeping each other motivated but you'll find also you'll teach each other new tricks or exercise routines.  You both must be 100% committed to the diet and such noble souls are rare so, if need be, replace them with someone wholly committed.

(6) With the aggressive pro-ana diet, it’s very important to take vitamin pills.  Research suggests that for most people on what is the orthodox "balanced diet", vitamin supplements are probably unnecessary but because pro-ana doesn't include certain food groups, a daily multi-vitamin is recommended and usually adequate so take two only if you become light-headed or faint with any frequency; you may need specific additional supplements.  The most publicized deficiency associated with pro-ana is iron and it may thus be necessary greatly to increase the intake of leafy greens like spinach or peas, broccoli & string beans; seeds high in iron include pumpkin, sesame, hemp and flaxseeds.  One's family physician can obtain the tests to determine specific deficiencies and these should be dealt with by adjustment to the diet.  Remember though that doctors are apt to be dictatorial and the recommended technique to deal with their negativity is just to agree with whatever they say.  Try to appear sincere and be deferential; they like that.   

(7) Avoid butter and oils.  Treat them like sugar.

(8) Sleep at least eight hours a day, preferably more.  Less sleep means tiredness and hunger and you can’t eat while asleep.

(9) Keep setting a target weight.  Because of fluid retention and other cyclical variations, it’s probably counter-production to set daily targets and a weekly goal is better although true obsessives will monitor at least once a day and this is not discouraged.  To stay motivated buy some posters of your favorite slim model to observe while weighing-in.  Many non-ana diet sites suggest avoiding weighing-in daily or even more frequently and clinically they're probably right but they just don't understand the nature of obsessions.  Record the weigh-ins so you can chart progress over weeks and months; this requires nothing more demanding than the most basic open-source spreadsheet but math nerds can do it with pencil & paper which they find satisfying.   

(10) Wearing short clothes can be very motivating. When you wear short and revealing clothes and look at yourself in the mirror you will realize the parts where you need to lose weight and how important it is to you.  Wear in private clothes you'd never dare to wear in public and make it a goal to be able to wear them out without looking fat.

(11) Coffee and tea are good appetite suppressants.  Drink only black coffee or tea and NO milk or sugar.  Avoid caffeine drinks; either they’ll contain sugar or chemicals about which there exists no reliable research on how they affect the appetite.  Avoid the inherently sweet herbal teas; they do tend to stimulate the appetite in a way black tea and coffee don't.  Black tea and coffee are an important component in training the palette away from sweetness and towards the tart.  After a while, this will start to influence your choice of fruits and vegetables; as a general principle the darker and more bitter in taste, the better.

(12) Drink the juice of a squeezed lemon in hot water first thing each morning and last thing each evening; it has the general effect of adding to the stomach acids which break up food.  Because of this acid, always brush teeth afterwards.

(13) If you have to eat in company, wear baggy clothes with big pockets which can be lined with plastic bags.  Then, when no one is looking, you can dispose of food and people will think you eat normally.  It sounds a difficult thing surreptitiously to manage and to start with it will be but you’ll learn to adopt techniques like always sitting in a corner or at the end of the table and soon become an expert.  It's easier than it sounds.

(14) Exercise every day.  Gyms are optional because you can do even better with ana-specific routines such as running up stairs or hills, both of which have an extraordinary multiplier-effect on whatever distance is undertaken.  Unlike gyms, it's also free.  Never use elevators and escalators; always take stairs.  Wherever possible replace travel by cars, trains and busses with walking or biking.  This is also good for the planet which is the only one we have.

(15) Eat ice; ice can be an alternative to a meal, it really works.  Shaved ice is best because it avoids dental damage and there are many things to consider when eating ice and curiously, sometimes it's advantageous to take more, sometimes less.  For a discussion on the mechanics of ice-eating: The eating of ice

Anorexia nervosa was included in the (1952) first edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a psycho-physiological reaction. The DSM-II (1968) moved it to Special Symptoms–Feeding Disturbances and in 1980, a new eating disorders section was created for the DSM-III.  The most significant structural change probably came in 1994 when in DSM-IV the condition was afforded its own section.  The DSM-5 (2013) relaxed some of the diagnostic criteria including, for the first time, rendering it all entirely gender-neutral, a gesture to conform with practices elsewhere rather than anything suggestion clinical experience was noting a greater gender-spread in the patient count.  Announcing DSM-5, the board noted it wished to reduce the number of patients in the former EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) category, now reclassified as the OSFED (Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder) group.  Thus the psychiatrists staked their claim in this low-cal demarcation dispute by claiming the wannarexics.

Thinspo

Thinspo (pronounced thin-spoh)

Material created, curated or used (almost exclusively in distributed digital form) to inspire thinness or weight loss; a sub-set of the pro-ana community which exists to support those who have chosen to anorexia nervosa as a lifestyle.

2005–2010: The short form of thinspiration, the construct being thin +‎ (in)spiration.  Thin was from the Middle English thinne, thünne & thenne, from the Old English þynne, from the Proto-West Germanic þunnī, from the Proto-Germanic þunnuz (thin) (and related to þanjaną (to stretch, spread out)), from the primitive Indo-European ténhus (thin), from ten- (to stretch).  It was cognate with the German dünn, the Dutch dun, the West Frisian tin, the Icelandic þunnur, the Danish tynd, the Swedish tunn, the Latin tenuis, the Irish tanaí, the Welsh tenau, the Latvian tievs, the Sanskrit तनु (tanú) (thin) and the Persian تنگ‎ (tang) (narrow). A doublet of tenuis, it was related also to tenuous.  Inspiration was from the Middle English inspiracioun, from the Old French inspiration, from the Late Latin īnspīrātiōnem (nominative īnspīrātiō), from the Classical Latin īnspīrātus (past participle of inspīrō).  It displaced the native Old English onbryrdnes (literally “in-pricked-ness”).  Thinspo inspired others forms such as fitspo (encouraging fitness) and blondespo (advocating being blonde) and between thinspo and fitspo, critics noted some overlap, suspecting that in at least some cases the later identity is assumed as an attempt at disguise.  Thinspo is a noun; the noun plural is thinspos.

Thinspo's idealized bone definition.

The companion term ribspro (the short form of ribspiration (known also as bonespo)) is a particular genre within thinspo.  Whereas thinspo material can be long or short-form text, diagrams or images, rinspro is almost exclusively visual, the text limited to perhaps a few admiring or encouraging words and as the names suggest, the focus is on ribcages or other bones proximately highlighted against taut skin.  Backbones, ribs, clavicles and hipbones seem the most favored, presumably because they tend to provide the most definitional contrast but there’s also the suspicion that the particular aesthetic construct of the thinspo community finds there the most attractive, unlike a knee or elbow which, however boney, seems not to be thought photogenic.  Another genre (a kind of applied thinspo) within the community is meanspo (the short form of mean inspiration), from the “tough love” or “cruel to be kind” school of weight loss and this school of thought advocates issuing critical and insulting comments to those considered “insufficiently thin enough”, the rationale being this will convince them to reduce intake, exercise more, purge and thus lose weight.  The thinspo ecosystem has also proliferated thematic variations such as “vegan thinspo” although that to some extent was opportunistic give that the most extreme of the thinspo operatives had long since banished animal products, regarding recommendations like “lean mean” or “chicken strips” as just so much fat.

Like much in the pro-ana community, the thinspo sites exist on a spectrum, those thought innocuous left to continue while any judged to be encouraging eating disorders subject to being shutdown although the efforts undertaken by (and sometimes imposed on) the platforms is a Sisyphean battle, the content shifting as required.  It’s also organic in that thinspo, like all that’s curated by the pro-ana community, is just another function supply-demand curve; the supply of pro-ana content at least to some extent a product of demand and, like much that is on-line, some of the material is blatantly fake, something most obviously detected in the dubious before & after photos which appear with frequent duplication.  Whether there were statistically significant differences in the nature of the content of thinspo and fitspo sites attracted academic interest and there were studies, the results differing in detail (and demonstrating widely divergent results depending on the platform analyzed which was thought to be a reflection more of the degree of success a platform achieved in enforcing its policies than any difference in the collective user profile) but displaying the same general trends: Thinspo sites portrayed body parts with more than twice the frequency of fitspo and posts highlighting bony body features and references to mental illness were overwhelmingly almost specific to thinspo.  Interestingly, the differences between fitspo & thinspo relating to sexually suggestive images, appearance comparison and messages encouraging restrictive eating were not statistically significant, the divergences being striking but almost wholly correlated with the platform on which they were posted.  The more extreme of the forks such as self harm (cutters etc) appeared almost exclusively on thinspo.

Thinspo Rules

Lindsay Lohan during thinspo pin-up phase, 2005.

(1) Never eat something just because you want to finish it.  Eat only enough to stop the worst of the hunger pangs and don’t eat until sated; those extra bites add up.

(2) Don’t let emotions take over and eat only if hungry.  Stop yourself once you start eating if you know it’s for the wrong reasons.

(3) If you catch yourself in a binge, stop the moment you realize.  Don’t forgive yourself for screwing up; it will only permit you to screw up again.

(4) Every calorie counts.  Review every recipe and remove as many calories as possible.  Where possible, choose the diet or low cal version and drink water (soda water is fine), black tea or black coffee instead of other beverages.  Avoid zero-cal sweeteners (1) because they’re a chemical cocktail and (2) on thinspo goal is to completely cure the body’s natural sugar addiction. 

(5) Don’t feel guilt about wasting food.  The undesirability on environmental grounds is noted but the sooner you change yourself, the better.  Set a goal always not to eat everything you’re served and gradually increase this quantity.  Before long, you’ll be throwing away food without barely a thought.

(6) Eat slowly, savoring each bite.

(7) Drink water during meals, as much as you can manage.   This curbs hunger, is filling, aids in digestion and maintains hydration which has many benefits.  Water has zero calories and can be taken as ice.

(8) Chew your food more, taking at least one 1 full breathe after every bite.  It can vary according to what’s being eater but as a guide, chew 30 times for each mouthful. This not only assists digestion but slows the pace of eating, reducing consumption.

(9) Cut food into smaller pieces which slows eating, can make you you’re eating more and it will makes other people think you ate more, something which can be important.

 (10) Associate unhealthy food with something else: ice cream with saturated fat, bread with carbs, juice with sugar etc.  Concrete visual examples are also helpful: cake as fat sitting in your thighs, chips as a permanent lining in the stomach etc..

(11) Learn from other people eating because while there are individual variations, overall, the patterns should be consistent.  Watch skinny people and apply their principles to your own diet; watch fat people with disgust and revulsion, avoiding what they do.

(12) Decide beforehand how much you are going to eat and never eat more.  If cooking, cook only one serving, so you can’t eat anymore.  The idea model is to have no food in the house and each day but only what you’re that day allowed.  It can be difficult at first but it can be done and if stuck to, it’s a foolproof diet.

(13) Always remind yourself of your goals and rewards.  Keep track of daily nutrient and food goals (some use diet minder journal or cronometers but the best method is whatever works for you).  Weigh yourself twice a day (before morning coffee and just before going to bed), the goal being always to see a lower number than previous weigh-in.  If you have achieved a target weight and operate in a variation of +/- 100g, that is acceptable.

(14) Don’t eat 2 ½ hours before bed.

(15) You’ll sometimes eat with friends or family so you may need to develop techniques surreptitiously to dispose of food.  You’ll get good at knowing where to sit so one hand can always been unseen and a good trick is to wear clothes with big pockets you can line with plastic bags.

Pagophagia

Pagophagia (pronounced pag-off-faghia)

(1) The excessive and constant eating of ice, often as part of extreme dieting.

(2) A craving to eat ice, sometimes associated with iron-deficiency anemia.

Pre 900: A compound word, the construct being págo(s) + -phagia.  Págos is from the Byzantine Greek, the perfective stem of ἔφαγον (éphagon) (I ate; I devoured), singular first-person aorist active indicative form (by suppletion) of ἐσθίω (esthíō) (I eat; I devour).  Phagia is from the Ancient Greek πάγος- (phag-) (stiff mass; frost; ice) from pēnunai, (to stick, stiffen), from the primitive Indo-European root pag.  It was used also in a derogatory, figurative sense to describe a cold, unfriendly person (in the sense of one metaphorically cold like ice).

Ice, diet and the DSM

Pagophagia (the excessive consumption of ice or iced drinks), is often regarded as a recent phenomenon and a novel manifestation of pica (a disorder characterized by craving and appetite for non-edible substances, such as ice, clay, chalk, dirt, or sand and named for the jay or magpie (pīca in Latin), based on the idea the birds will eat almost anything) but in texts from Classical Greece are warnings in the writings of both the physician Hippocrates (circa 460–circa 370 BC) and the polymath Aristotle (384–322 BC) concerning the dangers of the excessive intake of cold or iced water.  The cause of the death of Theophilus (Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Emperor 829-842) was officially dysentery but, based on the original texts of Byzantine historians and chroniclers of the era, modern researchers speculate the cause of death may have been related to Theophilus' pagophagia (snow eating), a long-time habit he indulged to relieve the symptoms of gastric inflammation.  In the medical literature, from the sixteenth century on, there are discussions and illustrative case histories about the detrimental effect of immoderate usage of cold water, ice and snow, frequently in the context of eating disorders, another range of conditions with a long history.

A noted feature of the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 (2013)), was the more systematic approach taken to eating disorders, variable definitional criteria being defined for the range of behaviours within that general rubric.  What may have appeared strange was including the ice-eaters within the psychological disorder Pica which is characterized by the manifestation of appetite for non-nutritive substances including sharp objects (acuphagia), purified starch (amylophagia), burnt matches (cautopyreiophagia), dust (coniophagia), feces (coprophagia), sick (emetophagia), raw potatoes (geomelophagia), soil, clay or chalk (geophagia), glass (hyalophagia), stones (lithophagia), metal (metallophagia), musus (mucophagia), ice (pagophagia), lead (plumbophagia), hair, wool, and other fibres (trichophagia), urine (urophagia), blood (hematophagia (sometimes called vampirism)) and wood or derivates such as paper & cardboard (xylophagia).  DSM-5 also codified the criteria for behaviour to be classified pica.  They must (1) last beyond one (1) month beyond an age in infancy when eating such objects is not unusual, (2) not be culturally sanctioned practice and (3), in quantity or consequence, be of sufficient severity to demand clinical intervention.  Interestingly, when the text revision of DSM-5 (DSM-5-TR, 2022) was released, the sentence “individuals with atypical anorexia nervosa may experience many of the physiological complications associated with anorexia nervosa” was added to the description of the atypical anorexia nervosa example to clarify that the presence of physiological consequences during presentation does not mean that the diagnosis is the (typical) anorexia.

However, it must be remembered the DSM is a tool for the clinician and, while it can be a useful source document for the lay-reader, there are other publications better suited to those self-diagnosing or informally assessing others.  An individual for whom the only symptom of pica is abnormally high and persistent ice consumption doesn’t of necessity need to be subject to the treatment regime imposed on more undiscriminating consumers.

The pro-ana community does recommend the eating of ice, not merely as a food substitute but because the body needs to burn energy both to melt the ice and subsequently restore the body to its correcting operating temperature.  With frozen water, this effect is greatest in negative calorie terms but the discount effect applies even to iced confections.  If a frozen confection is listed as containing a calorie content of 100 (25 grams of carbohydrate @ 4 calories per gram), this does not include the energy the body expends to melt the ice and the net consumption is actually around 72 calories.

All things in moderation: Lindsay Lohan enjoying ice-cream and (an allegedly virgin) iced mojito, Monaco 2015.

Pro-ana does NOT however approve of frozen confections, the preferred one litre of frozen water containing zero calories yet demanding of the body a burn of around 160 calories to process, the energy equivalent of running one mile (1.6 km).  The practical upper limit per day appears to be between 3-5 litres (.8-1.3 gallons) depending on the individual and it’s speculated a daily intake much over eight litres may approach toxicity, essentially because the localized symptoms would be similar to hypothermia and some organs fail optimally to work when body temperature drops too much.  Paradoxically, pro-ana also notes, ice shouldn’t be eaten when one is too hot.  After running, the body actually exerts energy through the active effort of dissipating excess heat and if one were to ingest large amounts of ice as one was cooling off, some of the heat generated would be neutralized by the coolness of the ice, minimizing some of the energy burning benefits.  There’s also the need to avoid dental damage; pro-ana recommending it be allowed to melt in the mouth or consumed as shaved ice.

Macro

Macro (pronounced mak-roh)

(1) Anything large in scale, scope, or capability.

(2) In the colloquial language of economics, of or relating to macroeconomics.

(3) In computing, an instruction that represents a sequence of instructions in abbreviated form (also rarely called macroinstruction) or a statement, typically for an assembler, that invokes a macro definition to generate a sequence of instructions or other outputs.

(4) In photography, producing larger than life images, often a type of close-up photography or as image macro, a picture with text superimposed.

(5) As the acronym MACRO, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma).

1933: A word-forming element from the Ancient Greek μακρός (macros), a combining form of makrós (long), cognate with the Latin macer (lean; meagre) and from the primitive Indo-European root mak (long, thin); now a general purpose prefix meaning large.  The English borrowing from French appears to date from 1933 with the upsurge in writings on economics during the great depression.  It subsequently became a combining form meaning large, long, great, excessive et al, used in the formation of compound words, contrasting with those prefixed with micro-.  In computing, it covers a wide vista but describes mostly relatively short sets of instructions used within programs, often as a time-saving device for the handling of repetitive tasks, one of the few senses in which macro (although originally a clipping in 1959  of macroinstruction) has become a stand-alone word rather than a contraction.  Other examples of use vis-a-vis include macrophotography (photography of objects at or larger than actual size without the use of a magnifying lens (1863)), macrospore (in botany, "a spore of large size compared with others (1859)), macroeconomics (pertaining to the economy as a whole (1938), macrobiotic (a type of diet (1961)), macroscopic (visible to the naked eye (1841)), macropaedia (the part of an encyclopaedia Britannica where entries appear as full essays (1974)), macrophage (in pathology "type of large white blood cell with the power to devour foreign debris in the body or other cells or organisms" (1890)).

Dieting and the macro fad

In the faddish world of dieting, the macrobiotic (macro- +‎ -biotic (from the Ancient Greek βιωτικός (biōtikós) (of life), from βίος (bios) (life)) diet is based on the precepts of Zen Buddhism.  It’s said to seek to balance what are described as the yin & yang elements of food and even the cookware used in its preparation.  The regime, first popularised by George Ohsawa san (1893-1966) in the 1930s, suggests ten food plans which, if followed, will achieve what is said to be the ideal yin:yang ratio of 5:1.  Controversial, there’s no acceptance the diet has any of the anti-cancer properties its proponents often claim beyond that expected if one follows the generally recommended balanced diets which differ little from the macrobiotic.  It was Ohsawa san's 1961 book Zen Macrobiotic which introduced the word to a wider audience although he acknowledged the system had been practiced in Germany in the late eighteenth century.

A later fad, macronutrients, is distinct from macrobiotics and describes another form of a balanced diet, the three classes of macronutrients being the familiar proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.  The macro diet puts a premium on whole rather than processed foods and requires calorie counting because of the need to track intake and maintain the metrics within a certain range.  Where the macro diet differs is that the metrics vary between individuals rather than requiring conformity to the unchanging yin:yang ratio .  Depending on factors such as body type, life-style, age and health, a nutritionist will construct a target macro ratio (eg 40% carbohydrates, 40% protein and 20% fat) although that may change depending upon outcomes achieved.

The pro ana community seems to view the macrobiotic diet with uninterest rather than scepticism, noting it’s optimised around a concept of balance rather than weight-loss and, while perhaps useful in some aspects, is just another fad diet and that’s fine because, if followed, all diets probably work but for pro ana purposes there are better, faster, more extreme ways.

Macrophotography (also known as photomacrography, macrography or macro-photography) is a specialised niche in imagery, usually in the form of close-up photographs of small subjects, typically living organisms like insects, the object being to create an image greater than life size.  The word is used also by processing technicians to refer to the creation of physically large photographs regardless of the size of the subject or the relation between subject size and finished photograph.

When macro photography depended on a camera with a macro lens committing images to film stock, it was a genuinely specialised skill.  Now, advances in the sensor technology used in small, general purpose digital cameras mean anyone can produce raw images very close to those attainable using a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) or SLR (single-lens reflex) with a true macro lens and editing software exists to enhance the images.  The emergence of very high definition (8K+) OLED (organic light-emitting diode) televisions in sizes larger than human beings has introduced a new subset to macrophotography for home use.  The 8K devices are currently available in sizes up to 150" (3.8m) and the technology exists to join together edgeless screens to create one vast panel, the size limited only by the software support.

Macrophotography of Lindsay Lohan's eyes, Venice Film Festival, 2006.

Chic

Chic (pronounced sheek)

(1) Attractive and fashionable; style and elegance, especially in dress (particularly when applied to women).

(2) Modishness, a casual and understated style, as in dress or décor, that expresses a specified trendy lifestyle or activity.

(3) As a noun, when used with an attributive noun or adjectival modifier, a descriptor for just about any defined style (shabby chic, boho chic etc).

1856: Adopted in English with the general sense of “style in fine art, artistic skill, faculty of producing excellence rapidly and easily”, from the French chic (stylishness; elegant (the original sixteenth century meaning was "subtlety")), of unknown origin but probably from the German Schick (elegant appearance; tasteful presentation) & Geschick (tact, skill, aptness), from Middle Low German schikken (arrange appropriately), from the Middle High German schicken (to outfit oneself, fit in, arrange appropriately), causative of the Middle High German geschehen & geschēn (to happen, rush), from the Old High German giskehan (to happen), from the Proto-West Germanic skehan, from the Proto-Germanic skehaną (to run, move quickly), from the primitive Indo-European skek- (to run, jump, spring).  The Germanic forms were akin to the Dutch schielijk (hasty) & schikken (to arrange) and the Old English scēon (to happen).  The alternative etymology is a link to the French chicane, from chicanerie (trickery) which in the 1610s English picked up as chicanery (legal quibbling, sophistry, mean or petty tricks).

The meaning "Parisian elegance and stylishness combined with originality" emerged in English by 1882, used to convey the sense of a style which was tied specifically to the most identifiably elegant street wear of the ladies of Paris, the influencers of the day noting chic was "an untranslatable word, denoting an indispensable quality"; something of the je ne sais quoi then.  The use as an adjective to describe the appearance of individuals dates from 1879 in English but interestingly, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) pointed out the use of chic was nowhere near as frequent among French speakers in France although Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) in Madame Bovary (1857) used chicard (one who is chic), the then current Parisian slang for "classy" before waspishly adding that it was “bourgeoisie”, one indication of why it's as rewarding (and less time-consuming) to read Flaubert as it is Proust (Marcel Proust (1871–1922; author of the multi-volume À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time (1913-1927))).

One adjectival variation was chi-chi (extremely chic, sophisticated) which by 1908 was recorded also as a noun meaning “pretentious fussiness", from the French chichi (airs, fuss).  Etymologists think this, like frou-frou (showy or frilly ornamentation but in its original sense "the rustling of a woman's skirt as it swishes around the legs"), likely imitative.  Chic is either used invariably, in which case the spelling of the plural is chic, or has the plural chics for both the masculine and the feminine forms.  While the spelling chic is correct for the uninflected adjective, all inflected forms are nonstandard (to be correct, inflected forms must be derived from the preferred spelling schick).  The accepted homophones are sheik & sheikh, the pronunciation “chik” is non-standard except when used facetiously.

Lindsay Lohan, 2013 Jingle Ball, New York City.

Chic fills a most narrowly specific niche and is thus without no exact synonym.  Words like exclusive, mod, modern, current, sharp, smart, dap, dapper, dashing, faddish, modish, natty, with it, elegant, stylish, dapper, fashionable, natty, trendy, voguish, fancy, posh, or swank tend in the direction and in many cases run at least in parallel but none quite capture the sense of chic.  Nor are the likely antonyms (inelegant, unfashionable or unstylish helpful; there is unchic but is so rare as to be probably obscure and it’s unnecessary: someone or something is either chic or not.  Chic is a verb & noun, chicly an adverb, chicness a noun and chicer & chicest are adjectives.  The noun chic is very often used with an attributive noun or adjective modifier, indicating the kind of style, such as boho-chic, heroin-chic, shabby-chic, eco-chic, geek-chic, radical-chic, porno-chic, communist-chic, terrorist-chic, Ayatollah-chic, scruffy-chic, super-chic, uber-chic, goth-chic, ultra-chic, industrial-chic et al.  There were also forms designed deliberately to insult such as chav-chic (also in the form council house-chic), gypsy-chic & hillbilly-chic.  Chiconomics was a clever coining which deconstructed the ways of looking chic on a budget and très chic was a way to emphasize the French connection.

Heroin chic

Anjelica Huston photographed by Bob Richardson, 1971.

Heroin chic, an aesthetic characterized by a painfully thin (preferably tall) build, pale skin, dark circles under the eyes, disheveled hair and a vacuous, haunted expression, was first noted in the late 1980s before the following decade becoming prominent in the modeling industry, an allusion not only to (a not actually typical) the look of an addict but also the alleged popularity of the drug in the business.  However, the look wasn’t new, examples existing from the early twentieth century and Bob Richardson (1928-2005) photographed Anjelica Huston (b 1951) very much in the mode as early as 1971.

When first coined, heroin chic was intended as a criticism but, in the democratic way English works, it was quickly embraced by popular culture and soon, even in the early days of the internet and long before even embryonic social media platforms, guides were soon circulating, detailing how to achieve the look which, proved so popular they were reprinted in mainstream magazines.  Had it been just a fashionable look it might not have attracted the disapprobation but, for all sorts of reasons (in part related to the symbiotic economics of drug production, distribution and enforcement regimes), the look happened at a time when heroin use in the West spiked, along with a sudden increase in overdoses and drug-related deaths.

Echoes of an earlier chic:  Models at the BCBGMAXAZIRA show, New York Fashion Week, 2012.  BCBGMAXAZIRA (bon chic, bon genre max azira) was created as a Max Azira sub-brand.  Bon chic, bon genre (literally "good style, good attitude") in this context translates as something like the philosophical statement  “dress stylishly and you'll feel self-assured and project confidence".

Itself a reaction to the more voluptuous models in the 1980s, heroin chic departed the catwalks rather abruptly, 1997 noted as the end-point, induced by what was a classic moral panic, ostensibly in reaction to a general concern about heroin use and overdoses but really triggered by the drug-related deaths of a number of white pop-culture celebrities.  Although seemingly oblivious to the the death-rate among ethnic minorities and the poor, the toll of the high-profile caught the attention of the White House staff and in May 1997, President Clinton became involved, his speech on the subject a carefully choreographed interruption to a prayer breakfast in which he condemned heroin chic, saying “You do not need to glamorize addiction to sell clothes, the glorification of heroin is not creative, it’s destructive. It’s not beautiful; it’s ugly. And this is not about art; it’s about life and death. And glorifying death is not good for any society.”

Still, the thought police can only suppress but not kill an idea.  Given the political pressure, the industry remains too timid to reprise the look on covers or cat-walks but there remains a counter-culture which finds irresistibly alluring the sight of a slender models walking as if in a drug-induced stupor and although it never entirely went away, impressionistically, it does appear heroin-chic is enjoying, on-line and on the street, a post-pandemic renaissance.  The pro-ana community, always supportive of forks of fashion which build on their framework, will sometimes include style-guides but does caution it’s an aesthetic which works only on the thin (you need not be statuesque; any height can work but not any weight).  So, the first goal is to be thin and pro-ana is there to help with any number of guides available and all work but only if rigidly they’re followed.  Techniques can vary but an indicative approach to the mechanics of heroin-chic is:

(1) Get thin.

(2) Begin the process formerly when able successfully to shop in the (US) size zero to one section.  Clothes need to be loose and baggy (if they’re not, return to step (1)).

(3) Never buy anything clingy or with a bare back.  Structurally, the core elements you’re trying to achieve are emaciation and androgyny.

(4) Never buy anything with giant polka dots or made with fabrics of bright colors.  It sounds an unimportant point but is essential; heroin-chic simply doesn’t work with vibrant colors or certain designs.  The preferred colors are black, white, grey, the darker purples and navy blue.

(5) Buy layered items or those made with fluffy fabrics.

(6) Avoid vertical lines unless the stripes are really wide and the color contrasts distinct.

(7) Wear boots wherever possible.

(8) Prime the eyelids, then use a medium to dark brown eye shadow, packing it on to the eyelids.  Unlike the conventional approach to eye-styling, using the fingers is best because it creates an inherently messy finish and the result will inevitably be asymmetric which is good.  When content, add some eye shadow under the eyes and again, strive to achieve coverage but not neatness.

(9) Wait a few minutes (which isn’t a necessity with all eye shadows but there are variations even within the ranges of the one manufacturer.  When ready, run jet-black eye shadow along the top and bottom lash-lines.  This is best done with a small eye shadow brush and, once applied, smudge as desired using the fingers.  Experienced users claim Nyx Cosmetics eyebrow cake is the best product available and for touch-ups or quick corrections, recommend Urban Decay’s 24/7 pencils.

(10) The look is convincing only with clumpy eyelashes.  Take a mascara and use the tip to stick the lashes together, forming something which looks vaguely what you imagine spider legs so treated might resemble.  What you’re after is a variation of what eyelash stylists call “the spiky” except instead of being neatly separated, the lashes are in irregular clumps.

(11) The rest of the make-up should tend to the neutral.  The aim remember is pale skin (avoid exposure to sunlight) so use just a BB cream rather than foundation, accentuated only with just a bronzer to emphasize the shape of the cheekbones.  Illamasqua’s cream pigment is highly regarded.

(12) Perhaps counter-intuitively, the hair needs to be washed and conditioned according to the normal routine (heroin-chic is a look, not a consequence).  The idea is to achieve a stringy, un-kept look but, again counter-intuitively, that can really be constructed only if the hair is clean and well kept and with most hair-types, it’s not difficult using nothing more exotic than inexpensive product such as spray, wax or fudge.  In most cases the styling technique is a variation of what hair-dressers call the JBF but because hair types vary, you may need to experiment.  However it’s done, heroin-chic works best with straight hair so, if you’re after the optimal look, straighten first.

(13) There’s no consensus about which color should be used on the lips or even if it should be glossy or matt.  However, unlike the eyes, lip-stick should be applied with precision; it’s just a convention of use.

(14) Juxtaposition.  As a look, heroin-chic works only if at a second glance it's apparent everything is expensive (think of it as a sub-set of shabby chic); it's not something done with cheap clothing and needs a pair of diamond studs and a good watch to complete the effect but jewelry should be chosen with some restraint, too much and it detracts from what is a very specific construction and silver will always work better than gold.