This is not a pretty post, and I am afraid if you do not like graphic pictures then you must not read or go any further.
I like many others probably, watched extreme skinny celebrities last night on Living TV, I have watched it before it doesn't interest me what the rich do with their bodies.
However I was doing research for an article I was doing on eating disorders, and yes I know it is an old topic, but, it is one that is once again becoming the centre of attention.
When this is classed as beautiful
This is the consequence
The top picture is Mary Kate Olsen, one half of the famous Olsen twins that teenagers the world over wish to emulate. Mary Kates, once lovely teenage face is now nothing but cheek bones covered in a thin skin, the bones all down her spine can plainly be seen, her arms are like sticks. And this is what young girls are emulating all over the world. As the second picture clearly shows, the face has been removed to protect the young lady.
It isn't bad enough that the females and males that our young, and our not so young wish to be like are killing themselves in the name of Fame, but that these young people that believe they are ugly if they are bigger than a british size eight, are joining sites that actively promote thier eating disorders, sites that actually tell them they are ugly, if they are a size 10.
Sites that believe this
Is what beauty looks like.
I read the comments from girls of twelve and thirteen, threatening to kill themselves if they could not lose weight and get down to the perfect size 6, thats an American size six, which is a size less than our british one.
My heart goes out to these girls and boys, I have been there, I have friends who are Bulimic and Anorexic. It is a daily battle to disregard what we see when we look in the mirror, it is a battle to make sure that you eat, the correct amounts, but it is a battle I am glad I found the strength to fight. Had I not I would not be here now.
I have lingering effects from the illness, Osteoporosis is one, I am one of the lucky ones that recognised what was happening to me and did something about it, despite being told I was a fat cow, when I reached a size 10. I battled on and though like alcoholism, you have to resist that temtation to slide, I am finding the battle is not as hard as it was at the beginning.
But, the young do not want to listen because beauty is being a size zero, with death just around the corner, is it really worth it?