“At war with my body, a violent punishment on myself”.....


Many celebrities suffer from eating disorders because of their work situation. Occupations like dancers, actors, singers, models, sports people and other media people are traditionally expected to be skinny. People in these careers often decide to pursue an extreme weight-loss program to fit the mould. Then it becomes the person’s habit and an eating disorder develops.



Ana Carolina Reston: Brazilian model, died from anorexia nervosa. At the time of her death Reston weighed just 40kg (88lbs) her height was 1.73m (5’8″), and she had been hospitalized before her death for kidney malfunction due to anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.  She had a diet that consisted only of apples and tomatoes.


Heidi Guenther: ballet dancer: She turned to an anorexic after she was told by the theatre that at 5’5” and 96 pounds she was “too chunky.”  She died from anorexia at age of 22.


Christy Henrich: gymnast: died from complications of anorexia at the age of 22. She contracted her anorexia after she was told by a US judge that she needed to lose weight in order to make the Olympic team. After that her weight dropped significantly and she eventually died.


Gelsey Kirkland: ballet dancer, had anorexia. She recalled in her autobiography, “Dancing on My Grave,” that although she weighed less than 100 pounds at the time, Mr. Balanchine her coach was not satisfied. He stopped a class to inspect her body, thumped on the bones of her chest and said: “Must see the bones. Eat nothing.”


Melanie Chisholm: singer, dancer and former Sporty Spice from the Spice Girls has suffered from anorexia and bulimia since her teens. She was reported to have food restriction, frequent over-exercising, and amenorrhea (stopped period) and frequent purging episodes. She said about herself: “I went to the gym and trained constantly. I wasn’t eating properly. I wanted to get as perfect as I could, and that got me very sick.”


Kate Dillon: model. She has admitted to having an eating disorder “Starving myself was how I dealt with wanting to be perfect. I desperately wanted to fulfill what I believed to be the socially accepted size and presence.”
These are but a few. To see the full incredibly long list of celebrities who have suffered from an eating disorder see:
http://www.eatingdisorder-institute.com/?p=414

One celebrity name frequently associated with eating disorders is dancer, choreographer and singer Paula Abdul (American Idol Judge) who battled bulimia for over 17 years, she is also Brazilian born and Jewish so following on from my blog yesterday about body image holding no discrimination, I decided to check out Paula’s story and investigate further.
Her negative feelings about her own body image came as early as seven years old when she began dancing, but "it didn't manifest into a full-blown eating disorder until I was in high school."


People with bulimia crave food and binge-eat and afterwards they make themselves sick or misuse laxatives to get the food out of their bodies.
They feel guilty about the binge eating but because they are very afraid of becoming fat they continue the destructive cycle of compulsive eating and vomiting which they cannot control.
Abdul says she was very much a perfectionist as a child and wanted to make everything perfect. She describes herself as an ‘overachiever’ who in high school was class president, a top honour student and head cheerleader but she always thought she was too short and overweight. Her eating disorder was a “violent punishment on herself”.


At 5ft 2ins she always weighed between 105 and 110lbs (7½ stones) so battling bulimia was like a “war on my body”. She says, “I learned at a very early age I didn’t fit in physically. I learned through years of rejections at auditions and I would ask myself, “Why can’t I be tall and skinny like the other dancers? I have always thought, ‘God I’m not perfect. I’m going to disappoint people’”.


Today Paula Abdul is a spokesperson for the National Eating Disorders Association. She speaks out about her own past battles, in hopes of encouraging young women to love their own bodies and take the scary, but necessary, steps to seek help if they find they are on that downward spiral. "It is one of the toughest things to talk about, bar none, and it is one of the hardest disorders to deal with because it's not black or white. Eating disorders really have nothing to do with food, it's about feelings." 


The National Eating Disorders Association presented Abdul with its highest honour, the ‘Profiles in Living Award’.  When presented with the award she admitted, "You know, it's like any other girl, and I can always relapse. I have my moments when I look in the mirror and say, ‘I'm okay.' I also refuse to weigh myself. I don't have scales in my house anymore."
Abdul said she even battles Simon Cowell when he criticizes "Idol" contestants about their weight. "It's perpetuating eating disorders," she insists.


It is encouraging to see so many women celebrities openly discussing their own personal battles with body image issues and finally admitting their problems and disorders as it is still an issue in the industry that is not openly discussed and to admit you have a problem is seen as a failure in its self but for many young female dance students who suffer in silence and alone, educating students on how to make healthy choices and to look after their bodies and not be ashamed may well encourage those who are at risk to seek help before it’s too late and to stop them punishing themselves and being at war with their bodies.

References:

http://www.paula-abdul.net/html/article_29.html

http://www.subodhgupta.com/yogaarticle/paula-abdul-bulimia-yoga-nutrition.html

http://www.eatingdisorder-institute.com/?p=414

http://telepixtvcgi.warnerbros.com/v2/news/1105/14/2/text.html

It’s a small world ……………………..

I have not considered during my research any deviation for race, creed, culture or colour as I see body image as a discrimination that would be equal to any female dancer regardless of colour, race or culture and my inquiry question is really about body image issues that affect all female dancers and how it can have detrimental affects on their health and well-being and not specifically about any other type of discrimination in dance,( eg; racial) , not that I don’t think that’s an important issue, I do, but I think it would open my question far too wide and be a whole new debate.

I think in hindsight I didn’t ever relate my research to white women in isolation, perhaps naively,  I presumed body imagery related equally to all creeds and cultures. Certainly, thinking back to my own personal experiences, I can’t recall any difference in the consideration of body image with any of my college peers. I went to college with girls from all cultures and creeds and we all shared the same body conscious issues. One of my best friends in my first year at college was black and we shared the same body ‘hang ups’.

I also think (just my opinion) that there are some castings that would be, for obvious reasons specific to a certain culture or skin colour and this is not discrimination just good sense casting. For example in ‘Hairspray’ there has to be black members of the cast and white members to make the story line about prejudices work, the role of Tyrone in ‘Fame’ has to be black, again for the script to work, the role of Tuptim in the ‘King and I’ has to look Siamese and so it goes. I think I naturally accept that as a white, blond haired, blue eyed female I would never be cast in the role of Anita in ‘West Side Story’ for example, for obvious reasons.

However as I was travelling to my classes this morning on the bus, by chance I was reading ‘The Sun’ newspaper, rather than my usual choice of my free Metro (basically because I have to buy the Sun for the next 9 days to get my tokens to save up for free Alton Towers tickets - oops, I digress as always,) and there was an article in the women’s section (page 34) entitled “Black women tend to be heavier and happier”.

Immediately this sparked my interest and reminded me that Adesola had hinted in a comment on another of my blogs that I might wish to consider how my inquiry question related to black women and so I  had to read the whole article and here I share the findings …………………interesting to those of us concerned with body image issues.

According to a new poll, a US survey found that 66% of overweight black women have high self esteem compared to 41% of thin white females.  X factor star, Alexandra Burke, says “I am curvaceous but I like having an ass. I don’t feel pressured in any way. Those people who want to go out there and be a size zero is not a great reflection on how a woman should look.”

The article goes on to discuss, “what is it that makes some black women happy with their curves while many white girls are addicted to dieting?”

The article reports,

“A recent survey of 1,936 adults conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation found that while black women are heavier than their white counterparts, they have higher self-esteem and a better body image. Of the average-sized and thin white women polled, 41% reported high self-esteem, but among black women considered overweight or obese by government standards, 66% reported high self-esteem”.

A feature article on the topic by Lonnae O’Neal Parker explored possible explanations. Parker interviewed one woman, a 41-year-old black fitness instructor that wears a size 14, who said she loves her body. After spending years trying to lose weight, she now focuses instead on being healthy and fit and teaches 10 aerobics classes a week.
The poll also found that more black women than white women say being physically attractive is very important to them—28% vs. 11%–as is living a healthy lifestyle—90% vs. 78%–suggesting that the central difference may be the perception of what’s beautiful and healthy.

One trainer and nutritionist interviewed said black women he works with often have a higher body mass index than white women but have different goals. While the white women want to be between 110 and 120 pounds and slim, he said the black women wanted to be sizes 6, 8, 10 and 12—far removed from a typical fashion model’s size 0 or 2. Of course, black celebrities like Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson have famously dropped pounds, but they’ve also maintained healthy curves.

The article questions whether there is a cultural difference as to what body type is deemed attractive, whether white women are more likely to internalize images of waifish models and actresses, and whether black women’s acceptance of heavier weights could be a slippery slope toward health issues like obesity and diabetes.
The reporter decided to pose these questions to the Forbes Woman communities on Facebook and Twitter and got many thoughtful responses.
“I am a thicker woman. I think a black woman likes her curves,” said one. “I can be thick and still healthy.”


“I agree in a sense because historically we HAD to build our esteem based on ourselves not others (men),” replied another, adding that men of all colors like “a nice booty.”
Another woman (who wears a size 2) challenged the idea that as a rule black women are or want to be heavier: “I’m black and don’t believe in extra weight,” she wrote. “We carry our weight differently, so we are happier. Yes, the self happiness can bear health risks–same as unhappiness can lead to anorexia.”


Some men who responded faulted the media for negatively impacting white women’s views of themselves. “A lot of white women tend to look at themselves as being fat when they simply are not,” observed one man. “They are more obsessed with being skinny and in the image of what is accepted as a ‘model type figure,’ whereas black women (not all) may be more content with the way they are no matter how they look.”
“Western culture prizes thinness, because it has been presented to mean fitness,” agreed another. “The fashion industry as well, which is dominated as a general rule by white Westerners, also portrays thinness as glamorous.”


Others commented that Western society breeds neuroses and increased body consciousness, possibly leading to more white women suffering from eating disorders. However, studies suggest that while eating disorders affect more women than men, they are fairly equally diagnosed among all races of women.

The  black women ( both from London)  interviewed for the article in the Sun stated that, “In our culture being bigger is not only beautiful, it’s also a sign of wealth”; Joycelyn goes on to say the she doesn’t read magazines because she feels the images are unrealistic. She says, “I think it is unfair to make women feel they have to be a size zero. We are becoming a country of easily influenced women who aspire to look like skinny, scrawny models and that’s not normal.”

Michelle says, “Being healthy is the most important thing. Food is an important part of our culture. The theory behind this tradition is that you may not have a lot of material belongings but you can always have the food you need to eat.”

Hala El-Shafie a specialist dietician comments, “We live in a society which idealises and values it’s women based primarily on the way they look. This is reflected in the disturbingly high proportion of women caught up in a cycle of yo-yo dieting, poor self esteem and negative body image. Women should be thankful for a healthy body, plenty of food to eat and an abundance of choice and the ability to nurture and nourish. Instead we sadly live in a society where many women can’t enjoy food without guilt and are body and diet obsessed. There is a massive pressure on women to look a certain way and our ideals of beauty are the images that are reflected back at us in the pages of magazines. I have clinics full of women who have crippling levels of self esteem and unhealthy relationships with food and their bodies. I feel the same sort of pressures around appearance as any woman but culturally I was raised to value who I am as a person and my worth was not dependant on how I looked or my body shape but rather on my strength of character”.  

Thinking back to watching the Oscars this year I have to admit (in my opinion) the most glamorous on the red carpet were the 2 black actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer nominated for best actress and best supporting actress – they looked amazing in their gowns, as did Penelope Cruz and J Lo, all who were confident and proud of their curvier bodies and looked healthy and amazing as compared to most of the white celebrities who looked scrawny and skinny.

I decided to google when I got home to see if there was any further information to either agree or deny the report and provide some relevant information for my inquiry.

I found an article on a web site called ‘something-fishy’ called ‘ Shades of Grey’ which discusses this issue in detail. The opening statement says, “It used to be thought that eating disorders were only found in college-aged white women. It is finally coming to light that this statement is just not, nor never was, true”

The article goes on to say;

“A great number of researchers are focusing in on why there seems to be an increase in the growing number of Black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American sufferers who are coming forward to say that they indeed are afflicted with an eating disorder.

"Dangerous Eating" (Essence Magazine, Villarosa) featured an article on the subject of Eating Disorders in Black women, providing a possible insight. "The Black-American culture traditionally accepts more fat on women than the White culture, but when Black middle-class women become integrated into White culture while they are trying to get ahead, they become more at risk of developing eating disorders."

The article says, “As African-American and Hispanic women compete more and more in the professional job market and face the pressures of trying to succeed, they can be faced with discrimination as well as society's portrayal of the successful ‘smart, beautiful and thin’ career woman’ ”.

The article continues to say that there has been a steady increase in famous African-American and Hispanic figures in the media. While this helps to represent equality and diversity there may also be a "down-side" as well. Young white women and girls faced with thin and beautiful white celebrities aspire to be like them -- it would make sense to think that young Black and Hispanic women and girls, when faced with seemingly beautiful and thin celebrities sharing the same culture (such as Janet Jackson or Mariah Carey both who are famous people who have suffered from eating disorders) might also wish to achieve the same physical goals.

 According to this article eating disorders are the most common psychological problems facing young women in Tokyo, Japan, are on the increase in China and in Argentina, cases of anorexia and bulimia are higher than in America.  Quote: “And some Argentine feminists say that 'machismo' is responsible for the epidemic, encouraging a climate where women are valued for how they look, not who they are." Women that don't fit the harsh Argentine ideal end up in their own world of self-hate”.

This statement is taken from the ‘About Face’ organisation website: "The more a person is pressured to emulate the mainstream image, the more the desire to be thin is adopted, and with it an increased risk for the development of body image dissatisfaction and eating disorders." About Face is an organisation dedicated to “equip all women and girls with tools to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect self esteem and body image.”

Further research led me to a web site called ‘ My Body, My Image’ which was set up by  black dancer and teacher, Theresa Ruth Howard who herself suffered body image pressures in the dance world. She says, “I launched ‘My Body My Image’ as a heartfelt project stemming both from my personal struggles and the struggles of the many young dancers I encountered through my years of teaching.

To introduce her site, she says, quote:
“I got annoyed! In the media there are no real conversations about the body or the images we hold of them, oh yeah there is talk- chatter but honest conversation not so much…Instead it’s always someone trying to sell you something: a product, a belief, a lifestyle that amounts to a pipe dream.

Buy this! Wear that! Eat these and it will make you look like the image we are projecting (which has been digitally altered and bares no resemblance to a human being at all).
The body has been commercialized.

That commercialization has many of us twisted and feeling horribly inadequate- you are never enough! Young, thin, tall, rich, smart, blonde, or nowadays naked (publicly).

I wanted to create a place where we can discuss the body the way we do with our girlfriends on the telephone, with our mothers and sisters over the kitchen table, with our partner and lovers in the dressing rooms of clothing stores and with ourselves in our heads! (Sometimes it’s the best conversation you can get). I wanted to create a place where women and men alike can realize that they are not alone in their feelings of confusion (as to where they fit or what to be) or frustration (at not being at all what they truly want to be). I wanted for all us to have that collective “somebody” to say, “You’re all right?” – “It’s ok” – “I know” or sometimes, “Shut up- and eat that cake!” Because sometimes- what you have – ain’t what you want – but it’s better than nothing, so, we have to learn how to accept and appreciate what we do have because we are all fabulous by design- and fabulous starts in the mind!!
My Body My Image is your body, my body, our Bodies let’s redefine and Re- fine Our Image- together!!!”

The web-site is worth checking out for anyone interested in body image issues, it discusses some very interesting articles popular in the media.

I also found an article that was published in The Guardian on Tuesday 7^th April 2009 by Lola Adesioya entitled:  “Black girls have body issues too. Not all of us like being bootylicious. Eating disorders aren’t just for white women anymore.”


Adesioya reports: “As minority and mainstream cultural ideas collide. It has been suggested that the more a black woman adopts western standards of beauty – which tend to equate being thin with being beautiful – the more likely she is to suffer from an eating disorder. I can attest to this. At the age of 15, I was curvy. At a predominantly white all-girls school, I had a hard time feeling comfortable in my body when I was surrounded by thin white friends and teen magazines which held up women who looked totally different from me as paragons of beauty”.


So it would seem that while “the black and Latina female stars are shown flaunting their curves and being bootylicious. They are lauded for their willingness to embrace their natural shapes, rather than starve them out of existence. The popular preconception is that women of colour don't have eating disorders. Apparently we love our hips, thighs and butts unconditionally. There's no doubt that many of us do but the truth is that black women have body-image issues just like any woman”.


So as far as body image issues are concerned it would seem the evidence is that it’s a small world and there are no boundaries:  eating disorders, low self esteem and psychological problems hold no discrimination for race, culture or colour.


I would be interested to hear from any black, hispanic or other ethnic dancers out there in the BAPP world who may be able to share any of their experiences  in their training or professional practice related specifically to body image that they may feel is relevant to either agree or disagree with the findings of this blog or relevant to my inquiry question.

References:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/search/newSearchAction.do?querystring=Black+women+tend+to+be+heavier+and+happier&view=internal&pubName=sol&p=sun&bl=on&navigators=&offset=0&sortby

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/03/01/black-women-heavier-happier-white-women-weight-body-image/

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/black-women-heavier-happier

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/03/01/black-women-heavier-happier-white-women-weight-body-image/

http://www.something-fishy.org/cultural/roles.php

http://www.about-face.org/

http://archive.suite101.com/article.cfm/anorexia/45443

http://www.mybodymyimage.com/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/apr/07/african-american-women-bulimia

‘Dying To Be Thin’ –  a review.....

‘Dying To Be Thin’ is a documentary which was filmed in the year 2000 by NOVA.

A 14-year-old looks at her image and says, "I see somebody that is fat and ugly and a disappointment." She is like a large number of young women afflicted with such eating disorders as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Tormented by an irrational fear of being fat, an estimated eight million young women are torturing themselves world wide—sometimes to death.

It’s no wonder eighty percent of women are dissatisfied with their bodies. Driven by the waif-like images flooding the media of popular actresses, models, dancers and celebrities—who can weigh nearly twenty-five percent less than the average  woman—young girls are obsessed with an unattainable image of perfection.

The documentary discusses different types of eating disorders and problems that women face in the entertainment world. After reading through the transcript as research for my inquiry question, I decided that this would make a good piece of literary evidence for my review.

It is a sobering but ultimately hopeful documentary which examines a disturbing increase in the prevalence of eating disorders, particularly anorexia and bulimia. It interviews students, dancers, fashion models, and other young women who are seeking recovery or are doing their best to conquer their disease. The transcript from the documentary provided some excellent research for my inquiry question and some insight into the pressures young female dancers feel to conform with the required perfect body image and the terrible consequences they can pay with their health.

The opening interviews give insight into why a dancer will put her health on the line to achieve an impossible ideal in order to fit in with the body ideals promoted in the dance world…………… the documentary begins with the narrator saying “ A dancer  must be abnormally thin. It is a dangerous obsession for many dancers”.

KATEY TRACEY: “If they want thin, I will give them thin. And I did. I dropped more weight in two weeks than I had ever done in my life”.

DR. LINDA HAMILTON: (A former dancer herself who understands the extremes to which a dancer will go) “Dancer thin is not like thin on the street. We're talking about 15 percent below your ideal weight for height, which is basically an anorexic weight. If your career is on the line, if the roles are on the line, whether or not you reach that ideal, you will do practically anything”.

KATEY TRACEY: “It was going from one extreme to the next and people in the dance world they were praising it. They were saying, "Gosh you look so good. It looks nice. You have a new body!"

GABRIEL: “I believe that very few women escape a battle with their bodies. I think that it's to varying degrees, but I think that many women at different points in their lives are unhappy with their bodies. I don't think there are a lot of women who can say, honestly, they love their bodies”.

RUTH STRIEGEL-MOORE: “Today, we're told to believe that we too can look this way if only we work hard enough at it. So there's this whole myth that everybody can achieve the impossible. And that's very damaging. Because if then you don't achieve this look, something is wrong with you. In some ways we all have distorted views of what is beautiful. And the repeated exposure to a particular image teaches you to like that particular image. And we have become so used to seeing extremely thin women that we have learned to think that this is what is beautiful.”

Whilst reading through the complete transcript I was amazed to read that there are some really shocking stories concerning eating disorders and just what women will put their bodies through just to try to get ‘perfection’.

During the documentary, doctors, specialists, dancers, models and young girls who are receiving treatments for their disorders were interviewed.

One dancer who now performs with American Ballet Theatre, Eleena Melamed, who has  suffered from anorexia nervosa since the age of 12 says, ”‘My Anorexic Year’, I call it. I was the happiest I had ever been in my life. I was getting all the good parts in our performances at the school. I was getting all the attention. I was not being ignored anymore. When I was heavy I was ignored instead of nurtured. And when I was really thin I was all of a sudden nurtured and taken care of. And the teachers loved me and they cared about me and it was like I was a whole new person.”

At age 21, Eleena Melamed has also paid a heavy emotional price. A gifted dancer, she was told to lose weight at age 12.

ELEENA MELAMED: “I remember having a teacher come up to me and pinch my back, pinch the skin on my back and say, "What is this? Are you drinking milk? You know you need to lose weight."

Eleena eliminated fat from her diet. In time, she became anorexic.

Despite her fragile state, Eleena's talent did not go unnoticed. At age 17, she was invited to join the prestigious American Ballet Theatre in New York, by artistic director, Kevin McKenzie. But her struggles with weight would continue.

ELEENA MELAMED: “All of a sudden there's that added pressure of being on stage every day next to these amazing, beautiful dancers. And I just...I buckled under the pressure. I could not lose weight. It made me eat more, because I got very depressed. I felt horrible about myself”.

Eleena faced one of the most difficult decisions of her life: whether to pursue her dream to be a professional dancer no matter what the personal cost.

Erika Goodman made that decision many years ago and now, in her 60’s, she lives with the consequences—a lifelong struggle with anorexia and severe osteoporosis. A former Joffrey Ballet dancer, she is no stranger to extreme dieting practices.

ERIKA GOODMAN: “The scale becomes your altar. It becomes the site where you pray every morning. You pray that it will be down another pound or another ounce or anything to show that the work that you're doing—and the work is starving—is working. Because other things in your life aren't working, and it's the one thing you have control over. And that's a major thing. I think that's what keeps a lot of these people in this anorexic mode. It's control. Nobody else can control that for you.

The really perverse irony of this is that what has been taken away from me are my legs. And for somebody who had always been very flexible, I'm very stiff. And, it's only now that I know. It's only when you're paying for it. You're paying for it then, you see, but you don't know. The cash register hasn't rung. It's ringing now. And it's not until it rings. It's like sleeping. You can have your alarm clock set, but it's not until it goes off that you're going to awaken”.

Reading the transcript I learned that there are a lot of underlying problems which spark off problems and issues with young girls’ weight. Leading back to being young children in school there has already been underlying problems such as bullying and name calling which can lead to these kind of issues. One doctor commented that most young girls are already vulnerable before suffering from an eating disorder and  it can stem from parent’s divorce, sexual abuse in which one case mentioned in the documentary where a young 14 year old girl spoke out and said she’d been hiding behind her insecurities and keeping it bottled up and  a secret until she became obsessed with her appearance when her mother moved to Korea for a year to work, she felt lonely and abandoned.

The results of eating disorders throughout the world is shocking.  Anorexia is the most deadly. It has the highest death rate of any psychiatric illness. Approximately half a percent of all the people with anorexia nervosa die every year from malnutrition or other kinds of complications, such as heart attacks. So over the course of 20 years, 10 percent of people with anorexia are going to die from this. Prolonged starvation can cause a number of medical conditions, including dangerously low blood pressure, severe osteoporosis, damage to the kidneys and liver, and ultimately, heart failure. Anorexia is one of the most difficult psychiatric illnesses to treat. Nearly 50 percent of patients will relapse within the first year.

An even more disturbing fact is that at least three out of every hundred girls will develop anorexia or bulimia, often in the wake of puberty, many in the world of dance, fashion, gymnastics and skating.

I think the dvd exposes a negligence in our society in placing pressures on young girls to conform to an unachievable idea of ‘perfect’. As Dr Linda Hamilton comments, for dancers in particular this pressure is on girls who are not overweight to start with.

Even though this narrative is from the year 2000, I think this is still very relevant and important to add to my research and confirmed my own up to date findings from my questionnaire and interviews with dance practitioners and my own experiences and observations.

NARRATOR: “In today's image conscious world, surveys show that 80 percent of women are dissatisfied with their bodies. Girls as young as nine and ten years old are dieting, even though they are at normal weight”.

RUTH STREIGEL-MOORE: “The diet industry is a very, very big industry. It sells the myth of transformation. If you do our product, you, too, can be Princess Diana. You, too, can marry your Prince. You, too, can be wealthy. And it's amazing how people can suspend this belief and buy in to anything. You know, "Lose 30 pounds in five days!" And again, I think it gets nurtured in a culture that values extreme thinness. And of course underneath that is...what's the basic message? The message is, "You're not okay the way you are. You need to be transformed."

NARRATOR: “The mystique of thin began with the arrival of the British model Twiggy, in the late 1960s. Standing five feet, six inches tall, she weighed only 91 pounds and was dubbed Britain's top mini-model.

Since then, fashion models have become increasingly thinner, with body weights nearly 25 percent less than the average American woman, who weighs 140 pounds”.

DR. JOAN BRUMBERG: “I think there are two primary things going on right now with the cultural availability of eating disorders. First the whole society is involved in the perfection game, alright?  That we all can fix our bodies, make our bodies over. And then I think, among young women...they're increasingly tuned in to a celebrity culture where the models and actresses bodies are considerably thinner than they have ever been in the past.
This is very seductive and hard for young girls to resist. This is not about illness. This is about idealized beauty and perfection of a certain type”.

I think the transcript is even and balanced. It is a candid look at body obsession. Using real ‘sufferers’ from the entertainment industry in a series of honest and frank interviews. It hits home its point and is interesting and informative. The real nature of the grief of these case studies is movingly portrayed.

 It gives a little bit of the history of anorexia and bulimia, briefly discusses the biology of people prone to eating disorders and touches on the trigger points that lead to eating disorders (familial and cultural) and that is what I am concerned with in my inquiry, the underlying reasons why people develop eating disorders and whether for female dancers increased health education can help reduce the number of dancers suffering from body image issues and how we as dance practitioners can promote a change in aesthetic demands in the industry. It is my belief if attitudes changed and there was more support for young dancers within the industry it could be more a case of preventative than cure!!!

One of the most revealing interviews for me was the one with Eleena Melamed who only felt valued and nurtured once she became anorexic. That is so tragic ! She was obviously a very gifted and talented dancer and whilst the ballet school supported her once she was sick there was a definite negligence whilst she was a normal weight. That for me really hit home as a sufferer myself of that type of negligence. That is the ‘hole’ that I feel exists – a need to nurture and support dancers to be healthy and happy. 

I think as an educational tool a dvd of actual ‘real’ people who have been in the industry and suffered has more impact than merely reading an article on the same subject especially for younger student dancers and this could be a very valuable teaching tool as it gives you a better perspective and you can connect with the issues and the people on screen. I know I would have found it very useful if I had been shown this whilst a dance student at college. I found it to be very straight forward. There is no sugar coating of the issues.  It speaks of the facts concerning eating disorders without too much superficial information and so is not boring. There is no happy ‘Hollywood’ conclusion, just an insightful look into an all too prevalent   problem.  It is not too graphic as to scare people to death but it does give the  relevant warnings and messages.

“Thin offers hope, but no happily-ever-after ending for these women” as these disorders affect them for the rest of their lives and that is one of the most powerful messages I think as dance practitioners we can give to young female dancers starting out into the industry. The psychological and physical affect of these disorders can be life long and we need to advocate happy, healthy dancers from an early age and not bury our heads in the sand that the problem doesn’t exist – the evidence is clear that it does and as dance practitioners we have a responsibility to discuss it out in the open and a sharing of  real life experiences is an inspiration and can be for a greater good. The message of hope from this is that we all as dance practitioners can promote healthy as the new skinny.

However there is still a need in the dance industry to warn and educate young female dancers of the pitfalls of trying to achieve an impossible body image and be perfect although the desire to get on in the industry when there are so many ‘out of work’ – ie: the supply out weighs the demand - means many individuals will still do anything to land that role or get that ‘dream’ job or college place. Often to fit in with the required ‘look’, girls will take extreme measures to achieve that. By managing one's weight, that can be one way to have power and control. There is nothing more soul destroying than turning up for an audition to be told or see that they only want tall girls when you are 5ft 4ins but there is nothing you can do about your height, however if the dance industry advocates ‘skinny’ dancers as the norm then that is one thing you can control and why eating orders are such a risk in the dance industry. Why should starvation and ill health be the price of success? 

KATE DILLON: “I think that it happens to everybody at some point where you feel one way about yourself. And that your initial...your intuition about who you are is that you're a good person, that you're beautiful, that you're strong, that you're capable. And at some point it's met with an outside force that's telling you, "no, you're none of those things."

“I remember getting ready for my first day of Junior High. And I was sitting at my mirror, putting on my electric blue mascara and my frosted pink lipstick. And I was thinking I was like, "yeah, I'm fine. I'm looking good." You know?. And when I got to school it was just...they were just horrible to me, telling me I was fat. And whether it was in PE or coming home on the bus every day, they'd stand up, and they would jump up and down and chant, "Overweight Kate. Overweight Kate." And I remember just like, you know, I'm like, sitting in the front seat ...I would always wear these massive sweaters...and I was sitting in the front seat and just like, trying so hard not to cry, because I was so embarrassed and horrified”.

Desperate to fit in, Kate took extreme measures.

KATE DILLON: “The end of my seventh grade year I'd lost 30 pounds and I grew like four inches. And I was cool. Suddenly everyone liked me. My plan worked, sadly and unfortunately. But it seems to be that that's the way the culture is, you know? You sort of, you do what they want and they'll say, "Cool. Good. You're good now."

Kate became not just thin, but anorexic. And she caught the eye of the fashion world. Weighing 50 pounds less than what she does today, Kate's image before the camera concealed a painful inner struggle.

KATE DILLON: “I looked beautiful. I mean it's not like...you would not look at that picture and see someone who is feeling bad about themselves, or see somebody who hadn't eaten in two weeks. I mean, I look at my face, my face looks so hollow. I look so...my eyes look like they're bulging out. And I just look so weak.
That was the day that they told me to lose like ten or twenty pounds, and I kind of knew that that was crazy. Like I remember thinking, "From where? Like twenty pounds? How am I going to lose twenty pounds?" And I remember thinking, "I don't have to do this. Like what have I been doing the last couple years? What have I been doing my whole life?"

A year later, Kate walked away from modelling. She was in search of a life where starvation was not the price of success. After leaving her life as a supermodel, Kate Dillon spent the next two years searching for a new career to fit the person she has become.

KATE DILLON: “I wanted freedom from this ideal, from these cultural ideals. I wanted freedom to be who I was, whatever that would be. And if I was the biggest dork in the world, well then that was going to have to be okay. And if I was a big mess, then that was going to have to be okay too. And if I was beautiful, that would be fine. And if I was ugly, that would be fine. But that I didn't want to fight myself any more. That I really wanted to just like unzip this suit that I'd been wearing of, "Like me, like me, like me. Think I'm interesting. I want to be perfect." And just take it off and just expose and just be like, "I'm just who I am."”

I think this piece of literature informs my findings and provides a valuable piece of evidence to support my own research from questionnaires, interviews, observations and experiences in relation to body image issues and pressures especially for young dance practitioners and I feel some relief that my inquiry can be worthwhile and important, if it could just stop one more young female dancer from ‘dying to be thin’ and be just accepted for who they really are, to be in some way instrumental in promoting healthy dancers and changing attitudes towards what is perceived as ‘normal’ for a dancer.

References:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/dying-to-be-thin.html

Healthy is the new skinny……………………

As I continue to pull together my findings to complete my research I just happened to travel on the bus to Leeds to go shopping yesterday and I read an article regarding 19 year old Disney starlet, Demi Lovato, entitled ….

“Demi Lovato continues to push for body acceptance with ‘Healthy is the new Skinny’ t shirt” which I wanted to share…………

………………..  of course as my inquiry question is concerned with the body image of female dancers and I have been researching whether the media and the ‘skinny’ portrayal of models and female icons in the entertainment industry has an effect on body image cultures and expectations in the dance profession I was immediately interested and googled to read more.

Something that has concerned me since I blogged a few weeks ago was that a fellow BAPPer had commented that her research had revealed that dancers were perfectly happy with their bodies and had no body issues which was a complete contradiction to my findings, particularly in young dancers and the female practitioners I came into contact with, so this article and Demi Lovato’s story renewed my opinion that there is still a pressure on females in the industry to conform to body ideals and those pressures can manifest themselves into eating disorders and other unhealthy lifestyles.

The article reports :

“After her rehab stint in 2010, Demi Lovato has appointed herself a spokeswoman for healthy body image. Although she’s admitted to experimenting with drugs and alcohol, the Disney star’s problems stemmed largely from her eating disorder.

To keep other impressionable girls from falling into the same self-hatred, she’s championed a healthy body and lifestyle; she recently called out her old employers at Disney for running an episode of Shake It Up where one character joked about not eating. Disney pulled the episode, and a PR rep apologized. Similarly, she was spotted wearing a T-shirt that reads ‘Healthy is the new skinny’ at a recent trip to Disneyland. “There are so many pressures that are put on to you when you’re in this industry to conform to body ideals” she says.”

In a series of interviews to try and inspire others to ‘Stay Strong’ she discusses her personal issues…………………………

In an interview with 20/20 in 2011 she states she had a "really unhealthy relationship with food" since age 8 due to bullying experienced as a child and self-mutilated her wrists to cope with her emotions and depression since age 11. She admits she had an unhealthy obsession with being referred to as ‘fat’. 

Lovato told ‘You’ magazine that she always thought she should diet.  “As long as I can remember I looked in the mirror thinking, 'You're fat, change it'," she said. "I started overeating when I was about eight; I was a binge eater. I would bake a whole plate of cookies and eat them all. Then when I turned 12 I was bullied in school and they called me fat. I went from being an overeater to stopping eating and I lost about 30 pounds. From then on I continued undereating, but my weight plateaued. I started throwing up to lose weight."

To raise awareness about personal issues similar to her own, Lovato became a Contributing Editor to ‘Seventeen’ magazine.

She is also to discuss her personal issues as  part of a larger campaign called "Love is Louder than the Pressure to Be Perfect" directed towards teenage girls and hopes she can inspire others  to “Stay Strong” and accept themselves for who they are and stay away from self harming either through eating disorders or cutting (Lovato has had personal problems with both) .

‘Love is Louder Than the Pressure To Be Perfect’ is a new movement which addresses the pressures that teenage and college-age girls feel to be perfect in everything they do.

The pressure to be thin, pretty, talented, and hardworking came to a dramatic crescendo for Demi Lovato  in November 2010, when in a much-publicized incident she punched a backup dancer before heading to rehab.

The Love is Louder article reports: “While in rehab, Demi learned how to love herself for who she is, and found healthy ways of coping. But she’s not the only girl who’s had to deal with this problem – a 2011 ‘Seventeen/Yahoo! Study’ found that a whopping 80% of young women feel the pressure to be perfect in everything to do. Now, Demi and Seventeen are joining the Love is Louder movement started by The Jed Foundation and MTV to tell teen and college-age girls that “Love is Louder Than the Pressure to Be Perfect.”

Brittany Snow is the actress who is responsible for the campaign and says, "When I strated the Love is Louder movement with the Jed Foundation in 2010 I had no idea it would reach hundreds of thousands of people around the world. I struggled a lot with self-image when I was a teenager and it inspires me to see Demi and so many others joining Love is Louder to support anyone who feels mistreated, misunderstood or alone. Helping other people is one of the ways I deal with the pressure in my life".

In a new video, Demi talks about ways to take control when the pressure gets to be too much. “There's a ton of pressure out there to meet impossible standards," Lovato says sitting before a white backdrop. "To look right, be smart, be thin, talented and popular. And many of us feel like we have to be everything to everyone, but it doesn't have to be that way. When the pressure to be perfect is overwhelming, find an outlet. I love to paint, but there are also other ways to relieve that pressure. You can sing, dance, act, draw, shoot photos, write or run."

Courtney Knowles, executive director of the Jed Foundation, spoke to MTV News about why he believed the teen star was the perfect candidate to represent the Love Is Louder movement, "I think her story really resonates with a lot of girls. I think it already did. There had been a lot of speculation about what she had been through and the fact that she's so brave, that she's willing to talk about these sensitive issues openly is really important, because part of the problem is so many teenagers don't want to seem like they're failing at anything, so they don't talk about this. And without addressing the problem, you can never feel better."

Demi continues on the video, "I have come to realize that just making yourself happy is most important," she continued. "Never be ashamed of what you feel. You have the right to feel any emotion that you want, and to do what makes you happy. That's my life motto."

This article gave me inspiration to complete my inquiry which I felt had lost momentum for me and I’d lost a bit of the fight and spirit I originally felt when I chose this issue to discuss.  Last module I felt really passionate that it was an area of dance that was swept under the carpet and ignored for those who do suffer with ‘self image’ issues, that it was important to address those issues to help young dancers make healthy choices and that in some way my inquiry was important. This module I have even begun to question whether all the research I’d carried out was false because another researcher said all dancers were happy with their bodies. I think it can be accepted from all the research and articles I’ve reviewed and read over the last few months that this is not the case. I’d been criticised of making it a personal campaign because of my own ‘bad’ experiences but reading all these articles involving Demi Lovato, isn’t that exactly what I’m trying to do, to discuss an issue that affected me at college and so through my research try to identify that and how things can improve for the benefit of others in the future. Whilst the Love is Louder campaign is mostly aimed at an American audience at least it shows there is light at the end of the tunnel, that celebrities who have felt those pressures and suffered those body image issues that have caused them the worst kind of health and well-being issues are starting to try and educate others to follow a healthier path, to ‘give back’.  Perhaps we can eventually get the dance industry to adopt the slogan, “Healthy is the new skinny” but if not with improved health education we can improve the health and well-being of the next generation of dance practitioners?! 

References:

http://www.metro.co.uk/music/891531-demi-lovato-my-rehab-stint-inspired-fans-to-deal-with-their-own-issues-too

http://crushable.com/entertainment/demi-lovato-healthy-new-skinny-tshirt-heart-tattoo-349/http

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demi_Lovato

http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/70075/Demi-Lovato-I-Think-I-Was-Born-With-An-Eating-Disorder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_Louder_Than_the_Pressure_to_Be_Perfect

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1662002/demi-lovato-love-is-louder.jhtml