They are the butt of countless jibes and satirical pop culture references, but there's no doubt that a lot of celebrities, especially the females one, find their dieting practices fueled by the same driven personality traits that enable them to rise to the top of their craft.
It's common to blame the glitz of the lifestyle and the superficial and sexist attitudes of the general public who consume the mass media images. However, such glib and politically correct assessments too easily gloss over the fact that everything in the lives of successful actors, musicians and other media personalities is colored by the driven personalities that allow them to succeed.
Can it really be surprising then to discover that turning those personality traits to a determination to control their weight would unleash the same kind of obsessive focus? Christina Ricci, in her irreverent way, illustrated this hard driven personality feature of celebrity eating disorders when she remarked to the Guardian newspaper, in 2004, on how her own eating disorder experience began with an odd introspection while watching trash television. "At the time that I was starting to diet and stuff, I saw this TV movie, and I thought, 'Ooh - anorexia. I could probably do that.'"
Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell, in a different way and tone, likewise helped dispel the PC myth machine when she acknowledged that the cause of eating disorders, even among celebrities, can be the simple challenges of coping with the roller coaster like ups and downs of everyday life. Celebrity status surely has unique pressures, but is their careers so much more stressful than many jobs and professions? Whatever the stresses of celebrity life, they do not dictate the coping strategy adopted.
A flash point for the politically correct game of media blame was the backlash against the innocent, ironic tweet of Lady Gaga, in 2012. It was typical of the victimizing strategy employed by the self-appointed morality squad. For never doubt or forget, young girls everywhere are at perpetual risk of the corrupting pressures of mass media messages. So it happened that poor Lady Gaga, who was already on the public record, urging her young fans to strive for healthier body images, couldn't innocently joke about the challenges of resisting her craving for a cheese burger without the busy bodies' morals police turning it into a federal offense. (And this is to entirely ignore the odd operative assumption that a cheese burger was somehow a better meal choice than a salad.)
If Lady Gaga, who had already bowed and scraped in front of the these morals police cannot joke about her own freely chosen adult dietary choices without being persecuted, what in the heck is really going on? Why does there seem to be such an effort to deny celebrities like Lady Gaga the freedom to take responsibility for their adult choices. Why must they be treated like victims? What is the agenda at work here? Could it be that the unremitting victimization of the celebrity has a residual benefit in making so much easier the victimization of their fans? Does this victimization though actually help the fans of celebrities with eating disorders?
The lesson from all this is certainly not to be misconstrued as implying that eating disorders are unique to celebrities. What is true, though, is that in the case of such celebrities, it is valid to regard those disorders as a product of the determination and strength that they already had to draw upon to achieve their professional success. This is not a denial of environmental pressures and stresses, in the end though, celebrity or otherwise, the bulimic or anorectic are making their choices.
If this seems unfair, blaming the victim, maybe this is seeing it in the wrong light. If the cause of celebrity eating disorders really was the Hollywood glamour machine, the only solution would be to leave Hollywood. The great number of success stories, of celebrities who overcame their eating disorders, without needing to retire from their careers, shows that just as the cause of the eating disorders lies in the celebrity, so too does the solution. This should be encouraging to everyone who suffers eating disorders: however difficult your own circumstances may be, the very strength and determination that holds you to the strict regime that leads to your eating disorder, is also there in you, that same strength and determination, to draw upon, to change your life.
That should be encouraging, even exciting. You can be the celebrity of your own life. It's in your hands to choose how to live. Don't accept easy excuses about social pressures and expectations. Take responsibility for your own life. Be the star of your own story.
It's common to blame the glitz of the lifestyle and the superficial and sexist attitudes of the general public who consume the mass media images. However, such glib and politically correct assessments too easily gloss over the fact that everything in the lives of successful actors, musicians and other media personalities is colored by the driven personalities that allow them to succeed.
Can it really be surprising then to discover that turning those personality traits to a determination to control their weight would unleash the same kind of obsessive focus? Christina Ricci, in her irreverent way, illustrated this hard driven personality feature of celebrity eating disorders when she remarked to the Guardian newspaper, in 2004, on how her own eating disorder experience began with an odd introspection while watching trash television. "At the time that I was starting to diet and stuff, I saw this TV movie, and I thought, 'Ooh - anorexia. I could probably do that.'"
Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell, in a different way and tone, likewise helped dispel the PC myth machine when she acknowledged that the cause of eating disorders, even among celebrities, can be the simple challenges of coping with the roller coaster like ups and downs of everyday life. Celebrity status surely has unique pressures, but is their careers so much more stressful than many jobs and professions? Whatever the stresses of celebrity life, they do not dictate the coping strategy adopted.
A flash point for the politically correct game of media blame was the backlash against the innocent, ironic tweet of Lady Gaga, in 2012. It was typical of the victimizing strategy employed by the self-appointed morality squad. For never doubt or forget, young girls everywhere are at perpetual risk of the corrupting pressures of mass media messages. So it happened that poor Lady Gaga, who was already on the public record, urging her young fans to strive for healthier body images, couldn't innocently joke about the challenges of resisting her craving for a cheese burger without the busy bodies' morals police turning it into a federal offense. (And this is to entirely ignore the odd operative assumption that a cheese burger was somehow a better meal choice than a salad.)
If Lady Gaga, who had already bowed and scraped in front of the these morals police cannot joke about her own freely chosen adult dietary choices without being persecuted, what in the heck is really going on? Why does there seem to be such an effort to deny celebrities like Lady Gaga the freedom to take responsibility for their adult choices. Why must they be treated like victims? What is the agenda at work here? Could it be that the unremitting victimization of the celebrity has a residual benefit in making so much easier the victimization of their fans? Does this victimization though actually help the fans of celebrities with eating disorders?
The lesson from all this is certainly not to be misconstrued as implying that eating disorders are unique to celebrities. What is true, though, is that in the case of such celebrities, it is valid to regard those disorders as a product of the determination and strength that they already had to draw upon to achieve their professional success. This is not a denial of environmental pressures and stresses, in the end though, celebrity or otherwise, the bulimic or anorectic are making their choices.
If this seems unfair, blaming the victim, maybe this is seeing it in the wrong light. If the cause of celebrity eating disorders really was the Hollywood glamour machine, the only solution would be to leave Hollywood. The great number of success stories, of celebrities who overcame their eating disorders, without needing to retire from their careers, shows that just as the cause of the eating disorders lies in the celebrity, so too does the solution. This should be encouraging to everyone who suffers eating disorders: however difficult your own circumstances may be, the very strength and determination that holds you to the strict regime that leads to your eating disorder, is also there in you, that same strength and determination, to draw upon, to change your life.
That should be encouraging, even exciting. You can be the celebrity of your own life. It's in your hands to choose how to live. Don't accept easy excuses about social pressures and expectations. Take responsibility for your own life. Be the star of your own story.
About the Author:
Check out Mickey Jhonny's other great work at the Celebrities with Eating Disorders blog.
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