Are Eating disorders contagious?
model behavior?
I’ve heard a lot of people expressing concern lately about the growing number of books, TV shows, magazines and other media outlets that prominently feature people with eating disorders. Several online forums have added their two cents to the issue with a number of insightful discussions: “Momlogic,” a website whose tagline is “Real stories. Real advice. Real moms”, recently ran a piece debating the wisdom in having an openly anorexic contestant on “Britain’s Next Top Model,” while the New York Times addressed the topic in a discussion about the merits behind the new young adult novel “Wintergirls.”
From what I can discern, certain people out there are afraid that showcasing characters with eating disorders or featuring pictures of them will cause huge hordes of hapless victims to come down with anorexia or bulimia as though they were the flu (H1N1 anybody?).– Whip out the face masks people! Who knows what would happen if you inhaled the same air as these waifs! Wash your hands frequently lest you brush up against a skeletal figure on the sidewalk!
Forgive me. I exaggerate.
But while I can certainly understand a parent’s natural instinct to protect his/her child from the ravages of something as devastating as an eating disorder, I find such concerns to be missing the point entirely. To be honest, I think they greatly minimize the seriousness of an eating disorder and grossly overlook how complicated they truly are. A person cannot “catch” anorexia from reading about it or watching a TV show about it anymore than they can instantly become gay upon listening to a duet by George Michael and Elton John.
Admittedly, I have never watched “Britain’s Next Top Model” (or America’s or Timbuktu’s for that matter) or had the chance to pick up my signed copy of “Wintergirls,” but I seriously doubt either of them will significantly change the eating disorder landscape. Rather, I think putting eating disorders in a more prominent light where they can be discussed openly and addressed head on might actually help. Featuring them in high-profile places puts them out in the open and gives these parents an opportunity to discuss how dangerous unhealthy eating is and the chance to promote a positive attitude around food and body image instead.
Because the truth is, while books and television shows might spark an idea or set off a short-lived fad, they can’t set off a full-blown eating disorder. (Oh, how I wish it were so simple!) Eating disorders are much more complicated than that. They are full of underlying issues and a whole set of bio-chemical malfunctions that we don’t even fully understand yet. True, negative information can be harmful to someone who is already predisposed to eating disorders, just like a gun can be dangerous if put in the hands of someone who has a history of violence. But for the rest of the population, watching an episode of “Next Top Model,” picking up an issue of Glamour or reading a few chapters from “Wintergreen” isn’t going to make much difference.
The best thing parents can do is not to censor every potentially eating-disordered form of media that comes into the house (though there are certainly better choices than Top Model and those trashy glamour magazines…), but to engage in open conversations with their children about what is healthy and what is not, and to model that healthy behavior themselves. Because children who are brought up with that knowledge in their arsenal are going to be that much better off when they’re inevitably confronted with any absurd information to the contrary.
