(Un)twisted: talking back to media representations of eating disorders

In 2014–2015, there were several news reports about a rise in the diagnoses of eating disorders (EDs), as attributed to the use of image-driven social media. Such coverage can be situated within a long history of concern in which those diagnosed with an ED are constructed as ‘especially vulnerable’ to the power of media images – a subjectivity which is pathologised and devalued precisely through its association with femininity. The most incisive objections to EDs being presented as a response to the ‘weight’ of media representation have come from Abigail Bray (2005) in her work on how anorexia is constructed as a reading as well as an eating disorder. In exploring the results of 17 semi-structured interviews with people who have experience of an ED discussing their encounters with media representations of EDs (material that is often co-opted into debates about the ‘toxic’ nature of media culture in this regard), this article uses empirical evidence to intervene in how ‘ED’ media subjectivities are often defined. In particular, it aims to explore the qualitative responses in the context of more ‘every day’ understandings of media engagement, thus working against the gendered pathologising which has persistently occurred.