It’s no secret that actresses face ridiculous pressure to be thin, and it’s equally obvious that, rightly or wrongly, they are role models for their more impressionable fans (yes, I know that’s a redundant expression). And it’s not always their healthy choices that are the most popular, to say the least. Defamer has gone ahead and coined the term “Fanorexia” to describe the attempt to follow your favorite actress’s lead by dieting away to a lolipop body.
Defamer says:
Kate Bosworth and Keira Knightley both became stars playing the leads in films about healthy, headstrong female athletes, which only heightens the irony of what they’ve become: flesh-covered sticks swimming in size zero designerwear, with barely enough energy to raise their now giant-seeming heads to answer the endless barrage of press junket questions launched at them.
But did you know that anorexia is the deadliest mental illness? It’s true: 15% of anorexia sufferers will die from the disease. Over 11% of women in American universities are bulimic. And 80% of ten year old girls are on diets.
Here is a look at the disease from the point of view of an anorexic, made by a survivor, in memory of a victim. Take a look at these images, which are not photoshopped, and give some thought to the suffering, both mental and physical, that this disease causes in its victims and their families. Video over the jump.
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raincoaster media 
timethief
May 29, 2007
People who starve themselves and people who over-eat have serious eating disorders. The skin and bone models are upheld as role models and fat mamas in the blogosphere promoting over-eating does not change the reality that both groups are “sick puppies”.
raincoaster
May 29, 2007
Eating disorders are quite commonly fatal, and both sides of the coin should be treated as serious conditions. It is critical, however, to note that body dysmorphic disorder is prevalent in our society: in fact, inaccurate and unhealty body self-image is the norm. There’s a big difference between someone who eats more than he needs and someone who is morbidly obese.
We need to make a distinction between bad habits and potentially deadly mental illness.
JBSullivan
September 9, 2007
The first time I went to an Overeaters Anonymous meeting, I was shocked to see that 2/3 of the people there were skinny. As a fat girl, my inner response was, “So what are you doing here?” But as I listened to them tell their stories, I slowly realized we are the same under the skin. They are obsessed with food; I am obsessed with food. The difference is that they are not able to ignore the public pressure on women to look thin, helpless and young. I am. My attitude is: “@#$% ’em if they can’t take it!” Both of us lose, anyway. I would like to point out, however, that anorexia is a fatal disease with a huge mortality rate before the age of 40. I am 50 and expect to live to 70, with medical care. Also, people who are at least 20 pounds overweight live through catastrophic events like hospital stays while skinny people are far more likely to succomb. The extra weight, apparently, gives you the pad you need to get through the worst of it. I learned very young I would not be able to be the Barbie doll that Twiggy was– the Kate Moss of my childhood. I also heard the women in my family worry about my size, pressuring me to stop eating while they pushed food at my brother. FAT IS A FEMINIST ISSUE! So I gave up and ate too much to console myself. Plus, sexual advances from older men while I was still just 13 made it safer for me to be fat. Sexual attention scared me until I was in college after that. I pay for my obsession with food now– I am diabetic with high blood pressure, high triglycerides, high cholesterol, and the apple figure that will give me an early death. I have lost 60 pounds and guess what? People who didn’t respect me before now respect me when they find out about the weight loss. Imagine that– I have a doctorate and bunches of accomplishments in this world, but it’s the weight loss and not my brain or my charity that gets respect. That fact disgusts me. I see why women become anorexic. And look at TV and magazines– all bony girls. No fat girls, not after Kathy Bates, who came and went like a shining beacon to normal size women. But you can’t find a single normal, plump, or fat girl anywhere in the public eye, not even as a joke character. Shame on us for letting this happen to our young teenage girls! Ninety percent of anorexics start as teenage girls. Stop buying those magazines! Write letters complaining about the skinny models on the covers! Watch Oprah and Tyra, who push a normal size doctrine. Let’s focus outwardly– on what we can do in the world to make it better and QUIT OBSESSING ABOUT OUR @#$%$ WAIST SIZE! Love you all, skinny, fat and in between. Learn to love yourself! God loves us just as we are!
raincoaster
September 10, 2007
Perhaps the respect you earn for the weight loss is not so much an expression of the world’s obsession with weight, but rather respect for a difficult achievement; after all, how many people have what it takes to do what you did? It’s a big life change, and deserving of respect as much as any equally difficult accomplished goal.
Thanks for sharing your story and your perspective. You’re right; it’s not a question of what size you are so much as where your head is at.