Friday, April 17, 2009

Gonzo Journalism 3

So I look around at what I see on TV, hear on the radio, read on magazine covers. Lose weight, keep it off. Stay skinny. Get thin. Ways to help beat hunger.

And here we are, Eating Disorders all around, obsessing over food, losing weight, getting thin, staying thin, beating hunger. How is it that our obsession is so wrong and different from theirs? How is it fair that we get called abnormal for losing weight and getting thin, and yet if they lose weight and get thin people applaud their accomplishments.

Magazines trading off on all the tips... tips we ourselves see and use everyday. Do we even take it any further than they do? Do we obsess more?

No.

And then I see more. More and more people are being diagnoses with Eating Disorders. Most people at one point in time have had an ED. Whether or not they 'got over it' is another matter. Maybe.

So basically here we are in a society that applauds weightloss and thinness, promoting ways to beat hunger and keep the weight off. So why are we the ones who get looked upon with pity and sorrow. Displeasure. We're wrong, they're right...

Is that how it really is? Or are we all disordered, them and us. We just accept it, don't we? Maybe the problem is that we promote our ideas and tips as 'Pro-Ana', they use a nicer word I guess. A world that breeds these kind of views... and yet WE are the ones who are wrong.

7 comments:

SinkorSwim said...

There isn't any reason in arguing the unfairness, because we all know that it is, but at the end of the day if you're under your BMI, and another person who has lost the same amount of weight in approximately the same time frame isn't, your the one who is going to be attacked, not them. Sucks, but its true =/

throughraindrops said...

we're all disordered lol about our bodies i would like to meet the person who honestly loves every bit of their appereance its just pretty crappy that weer the ones that get looked down on whilst they get praise
x

Anonymous said...

Hi, I'm Lina. I just found your blog (interest search), and I really like it :) It's nice to hear the "other perspective"-- I don't want to say "I wish more guys had EDs", but... I wish more guys with EDs were vocal about it :)

Excellent point, too. My theory is that while LIVING the "ED lifestyle" is a choice, eating disorders aren't a choice, but someting EVERYONE in our society has the potential to become... thanks to our lovely society.

And while some people are genuinely concerned about how messed up we all are, most of us are dyed-in-the-wool wannarexics with the same jealous paranoia... that someone else is better at starving themselves than you are.

Tulip said...

I think we are the extremists, we are the determined ones, the perfectionists and speaking for myself here down right stubborn at times. I think to some extent we're all disordered but where as when a 'normal' person sets out on a diet, thats all they see it as, a casual diet and if they end up falling off it after a week or two its no big deal. They wouldn't beat themselves up like we do if we have a minor slip. We frown upon that as weak, poor self controlled, when we set out to do something we're hell bent on making sure we do it.

Not_A_Barbie! said...

I do think that it is fair that ED is not accepted...well in the past people used to hide they were on diet it was shemefull and not everyone could do it. Now it's everywhere, but diet hasn't got a meaning anymore... everyone can do it, can make up any diet or be on it for a week and that counts...

same as diets i believe one day opinion will change about ED as more and more people are obesse... but only people who do hide it and live it are determined and can be succesfull...

unfortunatly there's allways a but... soo many wannabe anorexic people are just making it up for attention so people would accept them the way they are (fat) and make a big deal out of it... if it wasn't for these kind of people true ana people could acually reach their goal...

PrettyWreck said...

Because it's easier to label someone as fucked up and blame it on that person than realize it's their own fault for promoting it.

Kristie Allie vowed to lose what, 80 pounds in three or four months? And yet we're called sick. If she's not going to starve it off, then what IS she going to do?

It's the same with every other star. They're idolized, we're frowned on. It doesn't make sense, but that's the way it goes.

Anonymous said...

It's true, most people in this country exhibit disordered thinking regarding food and their (mostly grotesque) bodies, and a significant subset of them exhibit disordered behavior.

There is nothing special or beautiful or unique about the patterns of thinking and behavior which people with eating disorders exemplify. So many of the blogs of so-called "ana" people I have been reading are by women in the 140's, the 150's, the 160's. There was one blog, the owner of which was a 200 pound man shooting for 140 pounds (hahahahaha -- dream on, dude!), and his diction and the dull endless whining were the same as any other pro-ana blog.

"EDNOS" is a joke because it would probably apply to a majority of women in America, and a sizeable minority of the men. People drink the nectar of fantasy and willful delusion, thinking that THIS time, THIS thousandth ten-day-fast-that-only-lasts-three-days, THIS thousandth i-resolve-to-be-strong-and-perfect-and-beautiful whinefest, whatever, will actually work. It's all very tiresome and pathetic. I am 5'11" and weigh 140 and am unhappy with my weight. I was 120 for a few months because I ate when hungry, exercised, and did not think about food or weight or exercise; I just did it. Then I pissed it all away by adopting the maxims and stupid sayings of vapid anorexics everywhere, lost five more pounds, maintained, and then ballooned back up to 140. I have at last regained some of the muscle tone and shape to my body I sacrificed by succumbing to the quick-fix allure of binge-starve-binge-purge-starve-binge-starve, and I will be losing weight back down to 125 or 120. And I will be doing it the right way; not by starving, not by obsessing and haranguing myself, but by cutting all sugar, caffeine, alcohol, other drugs, corn, and continuing to eat no gluten. And I will be thinner and more shapely and beautiful than all you half-assed whineorexics put together, and I will laugh and flounce and strut.

PS: I am a man so 140 is still what most people would call "thin," even though there is a coating of fat on my back on my thighs (MY THIGHS!!!!) and oh my fucking god I want to cut it off suck it out with a vaccuum fat fat fat fat fat!!!!! Plus I am constipated from Aderall and Oxy and Percs and alcohol and have not taken a shit in many days so my stomach is bloated out which is one reason I feel fat. The end.