"Do You Ladies Relate?'': Experiences of Gender Diverse People in Online Eating Disorder Communities

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The study of eating disorders online has a long tradition within CSCW and HCI scholarship. Research within this corpus highlights the types of content people with eating disorders post as well as the ways in which individuals use online spaces for acceptance, connection, and support. Despite nearly a decade of research, online eating disorder scholarship in CSCW and HCI rarely accounts for the ways gender shapes online engagement. In this paper, we present empirical results from interviews with 14 trans people with eating disorders. We demonstrate how working with gender as an analytic lens allowed us to produce new knowledge about the embodiment of participation in online eating disorder spaces. We highlight how trans people with eating disorders use online eating disorder content to inform and set goals for their bodies, such as throughout gender transition, and how, as gender minorities within online eating disorder spaces, trans people occupy marginal positions that make them more susceptible to harm, including threats to eating disorder validity and gender authenticity. In our discussion, we consider life transitions in the context of gender and eating disorders, addressing how online eating disorder spaces operate as social transition machinery. We also call attention to the labor associated with online participation as a gender minority within online eating disorder spaces, outlining several design recommendations for supporting how trans people with eating disorders use online spaces. CONTENT WARNING: This study is about the online experiences of trans people with eating disorders. We discuss eating disorders as well as related content (e.g., thinspiration) and practices (e.g., binge eating, restriction). We also discuss gender dysphoria. Please read with caution.