Gender (Dis)identification in Anorexia: An Analysis of Tumblr and the Anonymity of Skinny Bodies

Gender (Dis)identification in Anorexia: An Analysis of Tumblr and the Anonymity of Skinny Bodies | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Gender (Dis)identification in Anorexia: An Analysis of Tumblr and the Anonymity of Skinny Bodies Cínthia Demaria, Linda Achilles, Thomas Mandl, Domenico Consenza, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3899682/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Faced with the wide range of social networks on the Internet today, the platforms which offer anonymity have gained prominence among adolescents. As a platform which is home for much LGBTQIA+ activism worldwide, Tumblr has been the choice of many young people for sharing content about their lives. To research the manifestation of content about anorexia published on this social network, we investigated the presence of the hashtags #maletofemale and #femaletomale, which refer to bodies in gender transition, together with the hashtag #anorexia. After collecting and analyzing more than 10,000 posts on Tumblr, identifying subjects with a symptom that favors non-identification with a gender but with asexual bodies is perceived as if the ideal of thinness could hide the biological sex of post authors. The analysis shows the differences of the topics on anorexia posted by males, females and a transsexual group. It was observed that the identification with anorexia remains fluctuating in this network, based on a disidentification with sex. The transition is thus supported in different positions from similar bodies, almost identical and identified by their excessive thinness. Anorexia Social Media Tumblr Trans-anorexia Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3899682","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":269725513,"identity":"7110c0e7-8383-431e-ab3d-40d7ff469fa4","order_by":0,"name":"Cínthia Demaria","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Cínthia","middleName":"","lastName":"Demaria","suffix":""},{"id":269725516,"identity":"ccc3a25f-f81e-4e9b-8d19-3882d1cf95d1","order_by":1,"name":"Linda Achilles","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABCUlEQVRIie3PsU7DMBCA4fPSyUpWW0HlFa6KFBgQeZVUlZgM6siEMjULD5DHYKoYXXXw4u6WMjRTWBgyMhSBTUBicFDZOvifLtJ9OgcgFDrJKMh2CRDbUZKSnYGECQC6zz9IYRd4ORB6FAFH0C2QEr4JjJO42m3slas8NbcbSZ4vaaSqru2Xa4hU6SVM3xWW3MzXxg5EM8q1vpjV2ADXI2cMRUu2RWYEbt9XjKIRk4RagqbwivOBfORpLVASR/YvXXJwZN96CQ5Ekif2QwxkCXxd8b9rpoUji3mtXwfCtcj4IzZ28D9sqnTa9/fXeVyJtCerh2mkVMfeDo0dRn5/NPrP/VAoFAr96hO20me3xtgS2AAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"University of Hildesheim","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Linda","middleName":"","lastName":"Achilles","suffix":""},{"id":269725517,"identity":"92e8ccb6-21b9-43a0-af9d-0d35f6a5b299","order_by":2,"name":"Thomas Mandl","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Hildesheim","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Thomas","middleName":"","lastName":"Mandl","suffix":""},{"id":269725518,"identity":"89444f03-e9e0-4206-adac-e1945fd615e6","order_by":3,"name":"Domenico Consenza","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Pavia","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Domenico","middleName":"","lastName":"Consenza","suffix":""},{"id":269725519,"identity":"6c8d39ac-1ba1-48de-bfae-7ddb46be0a20","order_by":4,"name":"Nádia Laguárdia","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nádia","middleName":"","lastName":"Laguárdia","suffix":""},{"id":269725520,"identity":"e235bebe-11b4-4541-a946-2dc534392c85","order_by":5,"name":"Rafael Oliveira","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rafael","middleName":"","lastName":"Oliveira","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-01-26 10:29:23","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3899682/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3899682/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":51801777,"identity":"f3eb4b19-eafe-4b61-8470-8e356f2e9405","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-02-29 09:19:31","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1263691,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Genderdisidentification.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3899682/v1_covered_fe3e8476-ae9d-40d0-a739-b7f83ffe7b82.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Gender (Dis)identification in Anorexia: An Analysis of Tumblr and the Anonymity of Skinny Bodies","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Anorexia, Social Media, Tumblr, Trans-anorexia","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3899682/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3899682/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eFaced with the wide range of social networks on the Internet today, the platforms which offer anonymity have gained prominence among adolescents. 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