Every time a new case comes to light, the comedians and late night talks show personalities jump on the bandwagon. The jibes and jokes about celebrities with eating disorders though stretch far beyond this circle of professional satirists. Whatever you think about this satirical open season on certain celebrities, it does seem clear that a lot of celebrities, notably female celebs, find their dieting choices subjected to the dictates of the very same driven personality that enables them to achieve such a celebrated place in their professional craft.
It's common to blame the glitz of the lifestyle and the superficial and sexist attitudes of the general public who consume the mass media images. However, such glib and politically correct assessments too easily gloss over the fact that everything in the lives of successful actors, musicians and other media personalities is colored by the driven personalities that allow them to succeed.
Can it really be surprising then to discover that turning those personality traits to a determination to control their weight would unleash the same kind of obsessive focus? Christina Ricci, in her irreverent way, illustrated this hard driven personality feature of celebrity eating disorders when she remarked to the Guardian newspaper, in 2004, on how her own eating disorder experience began with an odd introspection 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.'"
Others, such as Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell, acknowledge that the source of eating disorders is often in dealing with the highs and lows and pressures of daily life. Being a celebrity may or may not increase the pressure, but it doesn't dictate the particular 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.)
If a celebrity already on record as alerting her young fans to the dangers of eating disorders cannot joke about her own freely chosen dietary deprivations what exactly is going on here? It seems that there is a large, invested concern to deny such celebrities freedom to take responsibility for their own choices. Somehow they have to be treated as victims, presumably so that any admirer of such celebrities can also be easily convinced she too is a victim. But who benefits from this?
The lesson from all this is certainly not to be misconstrued as implying that eating disorders are unique to celebrities. What is true, though, is that in the case of such celebrities, it is valid to regard those disorders as a product of the determination and strength that they already had to draw upon to achieve their professional success. This is not a denial of environmental pressures and stresses, in the end though, celebrity or otherwise, the bulimic or anorectic are making their choices.
If this seems unfair, blaming the victim, maybe this is seeing it in the wrong light. If the cause of celebrity eating disorders really was the Hollywood glamour machine, the only solution would be to leave Hollywood. The great number of success stories, of celebrities who overcame their eating disorders, without needing to retire from their careers, shows that just as the cause of the eating disorders lies in the celebrity, so too does the solution. This should be encouraging to everyone who suffers eating disorders: however difficult your own circumstances may be, the very strength and determination that holds you to the strict regime that leads to your eating disorder, is also there in you, that same strength and determination, to draw upon, 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's common to blame the glitz of the lifestyle and the superficial and sexist attitudes of the general public who consume the mass media images. However, such glib and politically correct assessments too easily gloss over the fact that everything in the lives of successful actors, musicians and other media personalities is colored by the driven personalities that allow them to succeed.
Can it really be surprising then to discover that turning those personality traits to a determination to control their weight would unleash the same kind of obsessive focus? Christina Ricci, in her irreverent way, illustrated this hard driven personality feature of celebrity eating disorders when she remarked to the Guardian newspaper, in 2004, on how her own eating disorder experience began with an odd introspection 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.'"
Others, such as Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell, acknowledge that the source of eating disorders is often in dealing with the highs and lows and pressures of daily life. Being a celebrity may or may not increase the pressure, but it doesn't dictate the particular 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.)
If a celebrity already on record as alerting her young fans to the dangers of eating disorders cannot joke about her own freely chosen dietary deprivations what exactly is going on here? It seems that there is a large, invested concern to deny such celebrities freedom to take responsibility for their own choices. Somehow they have to be treated as victims, presumably so that any admirer of such celebrities can also be easily convinced she too is a victim. But who benefits from this?
The lesson from all this is certainly not to be misconstrued as implying that eating disorders are unique to celebrities. What is true, though, is that in the case of such celebrities, it is valid to regard those disorders as a product of the determination and strength that they already had to draw upon to achieve their professional success. This is not a denial of environmental pressures and stresses, in the end though, celebrity or otherwise, the bulimic or anorectic are making their choices.
If this seems unfair, blaming the victim, maybe this is seeing it in the wrong light. If the cause of celebrity eating disorders really was the Hollywood glamour machine, the only solution would be to leave Hollywood. The great number of success stories, of celebrities who overcame their eating disorders, without needing to retire from their careers, shows that just as the cause of the eating disorders lies in the celebrity, so too does the solution. This should be encouraging to everyone who suffers eating disorders: however difficult your own circumstances may be, the very strength and determination that holds you to the strict regime that leads to your eating disorder, is also there in you, that same strength and determination, to draw upon, 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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Check out Mickey Jhonny's other great work at the Celebrities with Eating Disorders blog.
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