When Anorexia was trendy...

Some do Sara Lee, they do Jenny Craig. I guess they like the idea of being constantly sick, constantly tired, constantly cold and constantly hungry. I guess that they don’t mind becoming an introvert and anti-social. I guess they want to be lonesome and timid. I guess they want to obsess over every calorie they consume. I guess they don’t care that malnutrition can cause permanent organ damage, which can have severe repercussions in the future, where conditions could threaten one’s life. - I guess it doesn’t bother them that starvation can damage their brain and heart. I guess they don’t care about the risk of irregular heart rhythms and heart failure. I guess they think insipid complexion is attractive, as pale yellow skin is obviously the new sun-kissed golden tan skin. (Just ask Mary-Kate.) I guess the piercing and demeaning looks people give them, don’t bother them at all. I guess they won’t mind being defeated by their nemesis; I guess they won’t mind being dead.           

Fat: a very scary three-letter word that evokes women of their desires and discontentment of their body image. If gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins, then anorexia should be the eighth sin being the other extreme on the spectrum. Women struggle to mold themselves into an idealistic and artificial identity, as they claim to need to have the “perfect” body. Without the perfect body you cant wear this. Without the perfect body you cant wear those. Without the perfect body you cant do this. Clearly in America the obsession has become a craving. Body Fat Index. Cholesterol. Trans fat. Calories. Sugar. Total fat. Saturated fat. Sodium. Total Carbohydrates. Dietary Fiber. Sugar.

It is estimated that there are currently eight million anorexics in this country alone, primarily constituting this number are women striving for a “perfect” body, much like that of Barbie doll’s. We can't help but stare at beauty, yet we laugh at the means by which some people pursue it. We cannot accept beauty as itself. In other words, we do anything to mold us into the superficial “perfect” image we desire to be.

Unfortunately, anorexia on the West coast has become synonymous for third world country starvation.

It’s a disease, it’s a pandemic, it’s an epidemic. It’s called anorexia. In our modern Western American culture, fatness is seen as an outward sign of neglect of the body and thinness is viewed as a virtue that requires obsessive attention to self-control.  Why is it then, that in the Renaissance Era, a woman was worshiped by the curves she had, but now women are acknowledged by the number of ribs they can see?

  I can hardly bare to watch the sorry individuals who parade about feeling that they have to be skinnier than the skinniest person in Africa. These starving children in Africa simply have no choice. Across the world, there is an average span of life expectancy of 48 years with Sierra Leone having an overall life expectancy of 34 years. Eating disorders, once considered culture- bound syndromes, have emerged in cultures that did not formerly value slenderness, following introduction of western media and in the context of rapid social change and unrest.  

Now, women are rewarded for being the size of a stick by being advertised in magazines, on the internet, and on the news. Soon, the smallest size will no longer be an xs but rather an xxxxxs with xxxs waist. Why try to wait around for a Lindsay Lohan to go down to a zero-zero when one can fly 20 hours to Nairobi. Exploitation is there for the taking, but can the media be absolved from exploiting such young women? Why should we hog all the food when nobody eats it? We should send the excess provisions to those begging for the bare survivals in life. Why in America, a country that has earned its independence for 200 years, do we give up food and out of our own volition choose starvation as a lifestyle?

Regardless, I cannot help but gawk at the magazines that advertise such scrawny and waif-like women. What is the point of being anorexic? So you can be the skinnier than the skinniest model? For popularity gain? To attract a sexier man who is dating your competition: those skinny awful models? Trust me when I say that men would much rather hold their dead grandmothers bag of bones than their girlfriend who crumbles to bones as he merely pats her. Do these anorexic women desire the harsh lifestyle that anorexia necessitates? Of course, because being anorexic is cool. I guess its cool to always be sick, tired, lethargic, and cold. Being antisocial is cool.

Anorexia is the epitome of identity. As my first request I ask that the media ceases on effecting the progression of this negative feminine body image. With heightened competitions with so many trying to attract so few, women try to be thinner than their opponents and thus try to be more attractive in a society where outward appearance dictates social stature.

My panacea, which would ultimately solve all starvation problems in the entire world is that once these women can see every single ribs piercing their skin, as well as their chest cavity and knees bulging from their body, they will be satisfied. The only fat that they might have left would be ear lobe fat. As ear lobe fat would irritate them, we could hire a company that could turn their ear lobe fat into delicious, juicy steaks for these children and adults starving in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.