I should get it out now. I desPISE anorexics. And I have nothing against naturally thin people, I'm only a little jealous of them. It's the near-religious sanctimoniousness and ultimate selfish self destruction of the phenomenon that is disordered eating that disgusts me. And for what it's worth, I think overeating, binging, all of it, is disgusting as well. But anorexics? They are the ones who make me really mad, because they are the ones most people idolize. I think you should be allowed to starve to death if you truly want to, but I don't think you should be considered glamorous and fashionable while doing it.
Today the fashion industry came out with some "suggestions" for women who are models. Basically so that they don't continue to be seen as catering to a death-by-anorexia culture. However, they totally are (for the models anyway), and I'm okay with it. Part of me wants them to just get it over with and hurry up and die. The world is not a worse-off place when these vapid, cellularly deprived women are not in it.
I think that anyone who wants to be really skinny should be really skinny. As long as someone continues to make cool clothes for people with more normal bodies, I'm okay with the fashion industry's skinny chicks who die stupidly. I am sincerely okay if people voluntarily starve themselves to death. I think the money spent on rehabilitating people who refuse to eat should be better spent on public education supplementation (like 4th R afterschool care and music/drama/art programs) for inner cities and other intellectual pursuits that are ridiculously underfunded because we as a society continue to try to save the undeserving.
Anyone who coddles the pathetic self destruction should stop, because the anorexics are the only one who can make themselves eat, and if they don't? Not a big loss. Literally. Yes, I obviously cannot stand people who refuse to eat. I think they are disgusting abominations and an insult to people around the world who do not have enough to eat. You should only be starving if there is a famine, and not until. It sounds so cruel, but call it what it is: Starvation Disordered. They are starving and it ain't beautiful, and they have messed up brains and will refuse to eat even if you force feed them. Why spend the money trying to fix them?
That said, I sincerely do not think the fashion industry has anything to say about it. Maybe we should look at fashion as art more than a statement of function? Or maybe, just maybe, they should make things for normal sized people if they want to have a runway show that features people who can wear the clothes in real life?
Surrounding yourself in an envelope of obesity is also not healthy, but at least it can be fixed by diet and exercise. You can only get so fat before it takes someone else to enable your behavior (ie., feed you, bathe you, change your diapers.) I find that to be much more tolerable in a person than someone who will not eat food or who obsesses about food. Caloric counting of healthy, wholesome foods is acceptable to me, but only for regulating a portion size and staying within a normal number that will maintain your body's functions.
My daughter will be taught that being overly fat is likely unhealthy but changeable and that being unnaturally thin is ugly and painful and embarrassing. I hope it never happens with her, because I want to give her the tools for success and how to honor herself and cherish her humanity and enjoy life as much as possible. I'm a little scared that other mothers aren't failing at that, but their daughters screw it up anyway. I am going to try not to coddle self-loathing and I'm taking a stance now. She will probably think I am cruel and unbending and a meanie for making her taste creme brulee and chocolate...
She will be taught to eat the wholesome foods we feed her, balanced, tasty, normal calories. She currently eats until she is full and no more. I hope to emulate her portion choices. I hope to continue in this fashion. There is a lot to be learned from a toddler. Thank you, Beanie. You are my inspiration.
And one day you are going to tell people your mommy is mean because she made you eat creme brulee.
Today the fashion industry came out with some "suggestions" for women who are models. Basically so that they don't continue to be seen as catering to a death-by-anorexia culture. However, they totally are (for the models anyway), and I'm okay with it. Part of me wants them to just get it over with and hurry up and die. The world is not a worse-off place when these vapid, cellularly deprived women are not in it.
I think that anyone who wants to be really skinny should be really skinny. As long as someone continues to make cool clothes for people with more normal bodies, I'm okay with the fashion industry's skinny chicks who die stupidly. I am sincerely okay if people voluntarily starve themselves to death. I think the money spent on rehabilitating people who refuse to eat should be better spent on public education supplementation (like 4th R afterschool care and music/drama/art programs) for inner cities and other intellectual pursuits that are ridiculously underfunded because we as a society continue to try to save the undeserving.
Anyone who coddles the pathetic self destruction should stop, because the anorexics are the only one who can make themselves eat, and if they don't? Not a big loss. Literally. Yes, I obviously cannot stand people who refuse to eat. I think they are disgusting abominations and an insult to people around the world who do not have enough to eat. You should only be starving if there is a famine, and not until. It sounds so cruel, but call it what it is: Starvation Disordered. They are starving and it ain't beautiful, and they have messed up brains and will refuse to eat even if you force feed them. Why spend the money trying to fix them?
That said, I sincerely do not think the fashion industry has anything to say about it. Maybe we should look at fashion as art more than a statement of function? Or maybe, just maybe, they should make things for normal sized people if they want to have a runway show that features people who can wear the clothes in real life?
Surrounding yourself in an envelope of obesity is also not healthy, but at least it can be fixed by diet and exercise. You can only get so fat before it takes someone else to enable your behavior (ie., feed you, bathe you, change your diapers.) I find that to be much more tolerable in a person than someone who will not eat food or who obsesses about food. Caloric counting of healthy, wholesome foods is acceptable to me, but only for regulating a portion size and staying within a normal number that will maintain your body's functions.
My daughter will be taught that being overly fat is likely unhealthy but changeable and that being unnaturally thin is ugly and painful and embarrassing. I hope it never happens with her, because I want to give her the tools for success and how to honor herself and cherish her humanity and enjoy life as much as possible. I'm a little scared that other mothers aren't failing at that, but their daughters screw it up anyway. I am going to try not to coddle self-loathing and I'm taking a stance now. She will probably think I am cruel and unbending and a meanie for making her taste creme brulee and chocolate...
She will be taught to eat the wholesome foods we feed her, balanced, tasty, normal calories. She currently eats until she is full and no more. I hope to emulate her portion choices. I hope to continue in this fashion. There is a lot to be learned from a toddler. Thank you, Beanie. You are my inspiration.
And one day you are going to tell people your mommy is mean because she made you eat creme brulee.
posted by A P M @ 10:58 AM
4 Comments:
At 6:55 AM,
Anonymous said…
Your feelings are so strong! It scared me, lol.
The thing about anorexics is that they are sick. Our society tells everyone that they are worthless if they're fat, and that thin is morally right and being thin will assure them happiness and fun forever. And for whatever reason, they didn't have whatever resources you and I have to fight it off. They internalized it, where you and I can see and be critical of the message. So to my mind, they are merely products of the environment.
But I hear you. I have sat across the table, begging an anorexic to take a couple bites, and it wasn't long before I wanted to strangle her.
At 8:52 AM,
A P M said…
Yeah, I know they are sick, and I seriously don't care anymore. Loads of people are sick (and fighting it! Anorexics? Tend to be happy with their illness!) and are not glamorized for it. It ain't like depression is sexy or anything. But, on top of the kudos for weight loss these women receive, they get so much "oh, help them, they are sooo sick, we must SAVE THEM." Contrary to the fat person, who may or may not be healthy, who is called names, villified, poked fun at, whatnot.
And it makes me very angry that there are women (and men) who would rather DIE than be thought of as "fat."
That kind of brain and genetic coding? I wouldn't mind eugenicizing out of selection naturally. To put it even more appropriately: I think we have enough on our plates.
I know that a lot of these people have nothing good in their lives except the control they have over their bodies. Honestly, I don't want them in our schools, on our tvs, raising children, anything that has to do with public opinion. If they can't change their self destructive behavior that will kill them in the most ironically hideous ways, they deserve their fates.
At 12:09 PM,
Moe said…
I too was a little scared off by your vitriol, but I do tend to agree with your sentiment.
Loads of people are sick and we all get crap messages from society and we've all got various weaknesses in our upbringing. It's the willful, gleeful self-destruction and the celebration of that that makes me quite disgusted too. Not to mention the sanctimonious, smug bragging that often accompanies someone who has an eating disorder. That really is revolting and pathetic.
I have no pity for them. Maybe some initial pity and hope that they get some help and fix themselves, but if they can't pick themselves up and stop acting like retarded children, then fuck 'em. We don't need those genes in the pool anyhow.
And that is generally my attitude towards any kind of selfish, sick behavior.
At 12:55 PM,
A P M said…
Truth be told, I will capitulate a little because it's not so much the average every-day anorectic (although those are the ones I'd personally run into and who I want to strangle) who bother me. The ones who piss me off are the ones spread on every gossip page, every TV story. Even when they give attention to the "dying to be thin" part, it still comes off as "glamourous lifestyle." I do think Rachel Zoe and her ilk should be lined up and forcefed full-fat milk, mainline it if necessary.
I guess my rant was more on the anti-fashionability of anorexia and the fashion industry's "suggestions". Although it definitely turned into a "they should just die cuz they are dumb" gibberish that I am totally capable of saying out loud when I get upset about something randomly stupid.
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