The Politics of Anorexia
As much as WWP enjoys writing about the sartorial mistakes of politicians, recent discussions with friends have compelled me to write a post on the darker side of fashion. No idea how much politics will really come into it.
I never used to take anorexia or any eating disorder that seriously. Probably because when I was thirteen years old and obsessed with Marisa Cooper in the OC I went through a stage when I didn't eat that much (although it was probably more than I eat now) because I wanted to be skinny like her. The fact of the matter was I was tiny and probably still fitting into children's clothes. In any case, I was 'suffering from anorexia' in my head and in my diaries, but as this nonexistent eating disorder lasted all of a couple of months, I always assumed it was an easy thing to get over.
When everyone grew up a little bit I had a friend at school who came very near to hospitalising herself over anorexia. She then proceeded to find God/an older boyfriend and recovered. But when I moved to university, it was a different story. I've realised that those of my friends (and there are substantial amount of them) that have suffered from an eating disorder all went to all-girls, usually private schools.
An urban, female-intensive situation in my mind, spawns anorexia. When trying to explain eating disorders to a male friend a couple of nights ago, he genuinely couldn't comprehend how skinny is attractive. And 'attractive' is the key word, even discourse. In a rural small town and co-educational comprehensive school, attractive means appealing to the opposite sex, which in turn equals breasts. In a heterosexual, girls-only boarding school in the middle of nowhere, attractive means fashionable. And in fashion, fashionable tends to equal skinny. Until this is turned around I cannot see a way the anorexia problem can be solved, in white middle-class England at least.
