Not A Pretty Picture
Posted
November 18, 2006 at
10:27 am by
Amy
Twenty-one year old Ana Carolina Reston died in Sao Paolo, Brazil on Tuesday due to complications from anorexia nervosa.
She weighed 88 pounds.?‚? At 88 lbs she had a body mass index of 13.5%.?‚? Anything under 18.5% is considered malnourished.?‚?
Does it matter that she was a model??‚? Yes and no.?‚? She was also someone’s daughter, granddaughter,?‚? possibly a niece, maybe an aunt, most likely a friend.?‚? Not all those afflicted with anorexia are models, but all are dying to be thin. I know that was the name of a movie of the week at some point, but it certainly describes the epidemic perfectly.?‚?
No matter what or who she was, she ?‚? caught-up - or shall I say - tangled up - with the driving need to be thin. So much so that thinness became her addiction and her illness?‚? and it overtook - and took - her life.
Its not news that models are too thin these days and that it sends a convoluted message to girls, women, boys and men everywhere as to what a healthy body is - and what a healthy body image should be.?‚?
In Spain, models must have a body mass index of 18%.?‚? That country is trying to keep its young models alive. Thinner than most of us still, but not dead model walking thin.?‚? And I think that’s a good start and a trend worth following.
I’m telling my eleven year old about the Brazilian model and also about?‚? the ruling in Spain.?‚? Not that I think she’s anorexic - or even has the tendency to be.?‚? Not that I want to scare her. I just want her aware of what happens to?‚? some people sometimes - and that it is possible to be too thin.?‚? Not too thin?‚? along the lines of the girls who are still sporting little girl bodies in junior high, but?‚? so thin that?‚? it isn’t healthy. I think that is a hard concept?‚? for us to wrap our heads around, even as adults. We know it, but it’s hard to believe and understand.
So while?‚? Brazilian bikini waxes get a lot of?‚? airtime?‚? ?‚? — why not this story from south of the equator??‚? Because?‚? a young model dying from anorexia nervosa is not a pretty picture.?‚? Real images of a young woman at 88 lbs with bones sticking out of paper thin skin, gaunt cheeks and?‚? sunken sullen eyes do not sell the magazines that Ana Carolina was dying to be in.
When you’re in the pretty picture business, death and dying do not add up to dollars.
Maybe just once if these magazines would hold up an example of ‘What Not To Do’ it could make as much of an impact on young girls?‚? everywhere as the famed “What Not To Wear” has made on the contents of many closets.
?‚?
Tags: Ana-Carolina-Reston, anorexia-nervosa, eating-disorders, Health, models, teens |
4 Responses to “Not A Pretty Picture”
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1. Antique Mommy said:
November 18, 2006 @ 5:22 pm
Our country is insane. We have 3/4 of the population digging their graves with their forks and then this other group that are starving themselves to death. What is wrong with us?!
2. Miss Conception said:
November 18, 2006 @ 9:07 pm
I read Blog Antagonist’s post too. I didn’t know what to say.
It’s disheartening, and Antique Mommy is right.
Why is it so hard for us as a people to hit the midground? Why are we over or under the healthiest weight margins in so many cases?
And let us not forget that obesity is as great an eating disorder as anorexia, as bulimia - but without the sympathy.
It is real easy for average-to-thin people to feel disgust with the overweight for being lazy, grazing slackers. It is just as easy for those who struggle with their weight to feel angry at the skeletal girls with jutting hips and sunken eyes for perpetuating the thin-is-in thing, for having the audacity to have such a problem as being too thin.
The key is compassion - a disorder is a disorder and it’s harmful either way.
Why can’t we all just get along… and be healthy… I have no answers. But I liked your piece.
3. Gina said:
November 19, 2006 @ 11:54 am
I think I read somewhere that mothers play a HUGE influence on their daughter’s self esteem. And sometimes mothers make these offhand remarks about themselves (not their daughters) about how they look and the daughters internalize that.
I’m not blaming moms, it is just a shame that people can’t be happy the way they are. They always have to be thinner/better hair/whiter teeth.
And the bigger shame is that the myth of beauty is all about consumption.
4. Jessica Carlson said:
November 19, 2006 @ 4:02 pm
Actually, it may come as a big suprise to most of you — I just got through reading a book on anorexia and it stated that scientist believe it to be a neuro/biological disorder. If that is true, it completely changes my damnation of society, because if that were true, the “illness” would manifest itself in one way or another, regardless of social pressures. What do you all think of that?