Being a lesbian made her anorexic,and being anorexic made her a bitch

Let's review: 'being a lesbian made' Portia Degeneres anorexic, being anorexic made Marie Claire editor a bully.


Just because someone has had an experience doesn't make them an expert in its cause and  meaning.

Comments

  1. Rescuing and housing two kittens cured my AN :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Darn it! Failing to have kittens must have caused it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe... We always had cats as a family and my childhood AN developed in the presence of cats, but the cats certainly didn't cause my AN!

    ReplyDelete
  4. However, if one has the vulnerability to an eating disorder and cannot figure out how to deal with excessive stress over an issue, it is possible for anorexia to be trigger by that stress. It's unfortunate the article, as usual, was so brief. I'm sure there is more to this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. what!?! not having cats didn't cause your eating disorder??

    and here I thought we were onto something ;)

    just kidding, in all seriousness though, I think a huge part of the problem is that people want to simplify everything these days.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I 'took the piss' (as we say on the UK), but I do agree with both Kat and Jen above. Infortunately some journalists (especially those writing for weekly gossip magazines) choose titles or phrases that sound farfetched, or oversimplify a situation because they want to attract readers' attention.

    I remember a couple of years ago reading an article in a magazine with the title "Becoming a man cured my anorexia". Apart from the title, the story was really poignant, and was about a young woman with gender identity disturbances who was convinced that she was male. When she developed breasts and female fat patterning at puberty she became suicidal. She restricted her diet excessively and developed AN. Her fear of weight gain was linked to being terrified of looking female.

    And, actually, becoming phenotypically male did cure her (actually his) AN, alongside weight gain, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Portia never said being a lesbian caused her anorexia, the title of the article did. Don't put words into peoples' mouths or you're just as bad as the people writing the headlines.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous, you are taking all the fun out of being snarky!

    But of course you ARE right.

    ReplyDelete
  9. It's a really interesting thought you are having though Laura! If we assume that not eating is calming in biologically predisposed people, then whatever they need calming from might be thought of as the cause. But if I didn't eat, it wouldn't calm me at all, I would be hungry and crabby until I found some food. So, does that mean I have no reason to become anorexic? Of course not-everyone has problems and even those with severe problems can be remarkably resilient in terms of emotions (I kind of think I might be one of those people anyway-but I don't take credit for this, I feel blessed). But I think some anxious people may be predisposed to AN and so if something is making them really anxious when they start losing weight, that will seem like it is the cause. But if the same thing happened to others, they wouldn't get AN. The answer isn't to not eat and remove whatever in life is making you anxious, it is to recognize that for you, not eating will lead to a severe mental illness and you must find another way to handle your stress, anxiety, problems.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts