Black Swan Inspires Pro-Anorexia Sites

Natalie Portman blasts pressure on dancers to be thin
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 13, 2010 4:03 AM CST
Black Swan Inspires Pro-Anorexia Sites
Natalie Portman shows off in a scene from "Black Swan."   (AP Photo/Fox Searchlight, Niko Tavernise, File)

While the ballerina movie Black Swan is winning rave reviews for actress Natalie Portman it's also providing deadly inspiration for dangerous "pro-anorexia" web sites. The film underscores the grueling life of a ballerina, complete with bitter rivalries, bone-crunching pain, anorexia and bulimia, causing one blogger to call it "eating disorder porn." Get your "thinspiration from the upcoming movie Black Swan!!!" gushes a "pro-ana" site Thinspo Me Baby, one of many sites extolling the pressure to be skeletal in the dance world, reports The Frisky.

Both Portman and co-star Mila Kunis lost some 20 pounds each for the movie. Kunis said she "looked like gollum" after she dropped the weight. Portman has complained publicly about the extreme pressure ballerinas face to lose weight. She attacked a recent New York Times review that called ballerinas in the Nutcracker "fat." In "what other field is it acceptable to judge artists by how big they are?" she angrily asked in an ABC interview.
(More Black Swan stories.)

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