In 1994, Margaret Bruce, the mother of David Bruce, a toddler who wasn’t eating, caught an episode of 20/20 about Peggy Claude-Pierre, the supposedly visionary founder of an eating disorder clinic. Though her son was only two at the time, the Bruce family had already visited numerous doctors. David’s pediatrician…
A third of the way into the 1981 ABC movie The Best Little Girl in the World, lead character Casey Powell steps onto the scale at the doctor’s office. She weighs nearly 83 pounds and so far, we’ve seen Casey, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, throw up food, ditch meals entirely, and exercise in her bed at 3 a.m.
Bulimia, like all eating disorders, is usually described by a compendium of facts, on informational websites and “About” pages for clinics that are, more often than not, for-profit. They talk about the cold mechanics of it—you binge, you purge, you live, you learn—and the generally accepted root cause, which is, as…
For months, the French government has been moving to ban runway models who are unhealthily thin from the runway and ad campaigns, citing not just the toll on the models themselves but the influence they may have on young women. On Thursday, the legislation passed, and now all models will be required to provide medical…
An Yves Saint Laurent ad in Elle UK magazine has been banned for featuring a model who is “unhealthily underweight.”
According to a recent study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, women diagnosed with eating disorders or disordered eating behaviors were “at a distinct disadvantage when trying to achieve socioeconomic independence in early adulthood,” with “lower levels of educational attainment, personal…
The French Parliament passed a measure Friday banning the use of excessively thin models on the runway. Part of a larger Health Bill, the measure won a majority vote in the National Assembly lower house of Parliament and will move on to the Senate next week. Other countries, including Spain and Israel, have passed…
The Chive, who yesterday used a photo of a woman in the depths of anorexia for a post on "amazing" weight loss transformations, has apologized to the woman. Kinda. An apology that's like, "Woah, how did that picture get in there? We guess we'll never know!"
France is reportedly likely to pass a bill that would ban very thin models from being featured in advertising campaigns and fashion shows.
“I learned at a very early age that eating could take me away,” former model Ron Saxen admitted on Good Morning America.
Today in America's Holy War on Obesity, teenagers who "beat" fatness and manage to become thin (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED BANNER) are at a significant risk of developing eating disorders and unlikely to have those disorders diagnosed. Because, hey, thinness is the goal—not health. Thinness is everything, thinness is the…
Scientists at Cambridge University have found that girls with anorexia possess traits that echo characteristics of autism; their findings may helpfully impact the way we discuss, diagnose, and treat the disorder.
In a cover interview with Net-A-Porter's magazine, the iconic model and actress Lauren Hutton, perhaps best known for playing Richard Gere's adulterous employer-turned-pro bono love interest in American Gigolo (nobody else actually saw that? K), has some Opinions About The Fashion Industry that might raise your…
Over on BuzzFeed, Copyranter has posted a series of ads from Brazil. Star Models is that country's branch of Ford Models* and the ads involve a glamorous fashion sketch placed side by side with a model Photoshopped to appear painfully thin. The tagline:
Sweden's largest eating disorders treatment clinic, the 1,700-bed Stockholm Center for Eating Disorders, says it has an unusual problem: scouts for Sweden's biggest modeling agencies who congregate outside its doors, persistently trying to recruit patients.
Since time immemorial, fresh-faced collegiate youngsters have been skipping Tostada Bowl Day at the dining hall in anticipation of the "Babies and Mommies" party later tonight at ΑΤΩ.* Drinking on an empty stomach is as integral to the college experience as shower-flops and Glee Club incest—it facilitate maximal…
Instagram has 80 million users and they're growing fast, and with that, moderating the quickly expanding community is a mounting concern. For Beat, a British nonprofit that helps people struggling with eating disorders, the concern is with hashtags and images that celebrate disordered eating and emaciated bodies.…
Every so often, a celebrity will "come out" about her past struggle with an eating disorder. These stars are almost always women, and they are almost always "better" by the time they make a public statement. They are also almost always slender. Just this week, Katie Couric admitted that she had "wrestled with bulimia…
Only a decade or so ago, experts believed that eating disorders were largely a girls' disease. 95% of sufferers of anorexia and bulimia are female, said the common line. But now, some experts are warning that we've been overlooking a massive, heartbreaking problem: as many as 20 to 30% of people suffering from eating…
The results of Pinterest and Tumblr's efforts to remove posts from their sites that promote eating disorders have so far been underwhelming. Last month, Pinterest, momentarily "caught off guard" by the amount of pro-anorexia posts and discussion threads, promised to limit the number of photos labeled "thinspiration"…
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