There Are More Than One Kind Of Disorder In The World Of Celebrities With Eating Disorders
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Late night talk show hosts and indeed a host of other satirists make them the object of continual jokes. Whatever you think of whether such jibes are in good taste or not, it's clear that many celebrities, particularly female celebrities, engage in dieting practices fueled by the very sort of driven personality which likewise enables them to achievement greatness in their craft.
It has become something of a clich by now to point a wagging, accusing figure at the mass media, blaming the glitzy lifestyle along with the shallow and sexist mindless consumerism of the general public, who are said to buy into it all. Such glib diagnoses, however comfortingly politically correct they may be in the current environment, serve to obscure the fact that all aspects of the lives of successful movie stars, performers and other media personalities is colored by the hard driving personality tendencies that motivate their success.
It should hardly be surprising then that once they turn their attention to weight loss, they can get a little carried away. Christina Ricci, in her usual irreverent style, suggests this personality driven aspect of celebrity eating disorders with her remark to the Guardian newspaper in 2004 that hers began while watching trash television. "At the time that I was starting to diet and stuff, I saw this TV movie, and I thought, 'Ooh - anorexia. I could probably do that.'"
Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell, in a different way and tone, likewise helped dispel the PC myth machine when she acknowledged that the cause of eating disorders, even among celebrities, can be the simple challenges of coping with the roller coaster like ups and downs of everyday life. Celebrity status surely has unique pressures, but is their careers so much more stressful than many jobs and professions? Whatever the stresses of celebrity life, they do not dictate the coping strategy adopted.
The backlash against the innocent, ironic tweet of the ever entertaining Lady Gaga, from 2012, though is typical of the victimizing machine of the mass media and the self-appointed morals police. Young girls everywhere, it would seem, are in constant danger of the corrupting influence of social expectations. Even Lady Gaga, already on record as encouraging girls to develop a healthier sense of body image, couldn't acknowledge resisting a craving for a cheese burger without the self-appointed busy bodies raising hell. (Whether a cheese burger would actually constitute a healthy meal choice is of course another matter.)
So let's try to be real, here. If they're going to crucify a celebrity who it just so happens, by the way, is already on the public record as cautioning her young fans toward vigilance against potential dangers of eating disorders for an innocent witticism regarding her own freely chosen dietary decisions, what is up? Why this strange obsession with denying celebrities the freedom to be responsible for their choices. There's an uncompromising imperative that they be shown to be victims. I'm no mind reader, but I'm guessing the motivation behind this silliness is to legitimize the automatic treatment of any and all admirers of those same celebrities as also victims. Who though reaps the benefits from this relentless victimization?
The lesson in all of this, naturally, is not that celebrities are uniquely confronted with the trials of eating disorders. It is true though that such disorders are a product of the motivation and will power of the person making the food choices. It would be silly and a straw man to pretend that the view contrary to the busy body victimization crusade denied the role of environmental conditions in creating very real pressures. That though in no way changes the reality that in the end the bulimic or anorectic are making their choices. To claim anything else is to resort to two-bit mysticism.
And for those who think this assessment is unfair, who would dismiss it as a form of blaming the victim, perhaps you have the whole thing backwards. If the explanation for celebrities with eating disorders really was the mass media and the Hollywood glamour machine, there could be no other solution than to leave Hollywood or working in the media. Yet, there are plenty of success stories in which celebrities were victorious in combating their eating disorders, without needing to retire from their careers. They may have needed a break from the stress of work, but stress reduction is going to be an ingredient in any recovery plan. Rather, what this reveals is that just as the cause of the eating disorders lies in the celebrity, so too lay the solution. This shouldn't be offensive or threatening, it should be a note of encouragement. The news for all those who suffer eating disorders is one of hope: regardless of the difficulties in your own life, you have a secret weapon. That same strength and determination that holds you to the your current strict regime, the very engine of your eating disorder, is likewise there in you, the very same strength and determination, to draw from, when you decide you want to change your life.
Is that not encouraging, exciting, even exhilarating? Stop letting others cast you as the victim of your life. It's your life; you're the star and the writer. How you live your life is up to you. Reject simplistic excuses about mass media pressures and social expectations. You have the power to take responsibility for your life. Be the celebrity star of your own story.
It has become something of a clich by now to point a wagging, accusing figure at the mass media, blaming the glitzy lifestyle along with the shallow and sexist mindless consumerism of the general public, who are said to buy into it all. Such glib diagnoses, however comfortingly politically correct they may be in the current environment, serve to obscure the fact that all aspects of the lives of successful movie stars, performers and other media personalities is colored by the hard driving personality tendencies that motivate their success.
It should hardly be surprising then that once they turn their attention to weight loss, they can get a little carried away. Christina Ricci, in her usual irreverent style, suggests this personality driven aspect of celebrity eating disorders with her remark to the Guardian newspaper in 2004 that hers began while watching trash television. "At the time that I was starting to diet and stuff, I saw this TV movie, and I thought, 'Ooh - anorexia. I could probably do that.'"
Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell, in a different way and tone, likewise helped dispel the PC myth machine when she acknowledged that the cause of eating disorders, even among celebrities, can be the simple challenges of coping with the roller coaster like ups and downs of everyday life. Celebrity status surely has unique pressures, but is their careers so much more stressful than many jobs and professions? Whatever the stresses of celebrity life, they do not dictate the coping strategy adopted.
The backlash against the innocent, ironic tweet of the ever entertaining Lady Gaga, from 2012, though is typical of the victimizing machine of the mass media and the self-appointed morals police. Young girls everywhere, it would seem, are in constant danger of the corrupting influence of social expectations. Even Lady Gaga, already on record as encouraging girls to develop a healthier sense of body image, couldn't acknowledge resisting a craving for a cheese burger without the self-appointed busy bodies raising hell. (Whether a cheese burger would actually constitute a healthy meal choice is of course another matter.)
So let's try to be real, here. If they're going to crucify a celebrity who it just so happens, by the way, is already on the public record as cautioning her young fans toward vigilance against potential dangers of eating disorders for an innocent witticism regarding her own freely chosen dietary decisions, what is up? Why this strange obsession with denying celebrities the freedom to be responsible for their choices. There's an uncompromising imperative that they be shown to be victims. I'm no mind reader, but I'm guessing the motivation behind this silliness is to legitimize the automatic treatment of any and all admirers of those same celebrities as also victims. Who though reaps the benefits from this relentless victimization?
The lesson in all of this, naturally, is not that celebrities are uniquely confronted with the trials of eating disorders. It is true though that such disorders are a product of the motivation and will power of the person making the food choices. It would be silly and a straw man to pretend that the view contrary to the busy body victimization crusade denied the role of environmental conditions in creating very real pressures. That though in no way changes the reality that in the end the bulimic or anorectic are making their choices. To claim anything else is to resort to two-bit mysticism.
And for those who think this assessment is unfair, who would dismiss it as a form of blaming the victim, perhaps you have the whole thing backwards. If the explanation for celebrities with eating disorders really was the mass media and the Hollywood glamour machine, there could be no other solution than to leave Hollywood or working in the media. Yet, there are plenty of success stories in which celebrities were victorious in combating their eating disorders, without needing to retire from their careers. They may have needed a break from the stress of work, but stress reduction is going to be an ingredient in any recovery plan. Rather, what this reveals is that just as the cause of the eating disorders lies in the celebrity, so too lay the solution. This shouldn't be offensive or threatening, it should be a note of encouragement. The news for all those who suffer eating disorders is one of hope: regardless of the difficulties in your own life, you have a secret weapon. That same strength and determination that holds you to the your current strict regime, the very engine of your eating disorder, is likewise there in you, the very same strength and determination, to draw from, when you decide you want to change your life.
Is that not encouraging, exciting, even exhilarating? Stop letting others cast you as the victim of your life. It's your life; you're the star and the writer. How you live your life is up to you. Reject simplistic excuses about mass media pressures and social expectations. You have the power to take responsibility for your life. Be the celebrity star of your own story.
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