I came here to say this!
*DISCLAIMER* *I’m not saying she definitely has an ED, just that with her history of having one and the full recovery rate of EDs being so low that it is deff looks like it from an outside source*
Having struggled w an ED for over a decade(!) I can spot all the tricks to look thinner also I’m 5’3 and while I have a different body type (wouldn’t say I’m hourglass but I gain weight on my bum & boobs before my stomach), I can tell her body type means she gains weight first on her upper body, then on her legs.
How that’s relevant is that I focus on my legs and arms when trying to lose weight (even though my stomach is usually flat I don’t take pride from it as I think ‘my legs still look so fat’) and I’d say with her she does the opposite and focuses on her top half and doesn’t see how thin her legs get.
This all being said, what I took from this photo:
1. Her feet aren’t flat in the slippers, they’re hovering to make her legs look longer
2. She knows that her legs are thin so perhaps she’s not feeling good about other parts of her body and that is her way of showing herself she’s thin (what I do sometimes - I’ll proper suck in in a photo and make my waist seem super small when I’m feeling like my legs are fat)
3. She is turning her knees in to accentuate her thigh gap, same with the slippers being together but not her ankles - from first glance it looks like a full thigh gap when in part it is created from the gap between her ankles
4. She’s popped her right(our left) hip slightly so her waist to hip ratio is larger
5. She is arching her back with expertise! By this I mean she is titling her hips to increase her thigh gap, but in a way that hasn’t made it obvious and I only know because I’ve taking these photos before!
6. She is holding in her abdominal muscles (& probably not breathing
) extra so - which you can tell from her shoulders - try it yourself, take two photos one where you’re relaxed or slightly posing, another where you’re compressing your ribs and abs (also try this with the other ways I mentioned that she’s posing to look like this)
7. This is a textbook ED bodycheck pic - the only reason I wouldn’t have my face in photos is if my pose prevents my face being in a good angle at the same time, which is only really when taking body check pics
8. She’s clearly not well but is still proud of how she looks in the way an ED will congratulate you for losing weight no matter how ill you are
my personal opinion: photos like this are damaging especially to younger audiences - I grew up in the ‘th1nspo’ tumblr era and would strive for bodies like this! It seemed no matter how thin I got my thigh gap was never that big and it wasn’t until 5 years deep into an ED that I realised all the photos I wanted to look like were impossible to accomplish because of the extreme posing being used.
TED Talk over
*mic drop*