Introduction
There are many ways for people to get their lives complicated, and the desire to follow the established beauty standards is one of them. Being obsessed with fashion, women easily enter the world where anorexia and bulimia rule. They believe these conditions are necessary to achieve some goals and succeed. In her poem, Cassie Beige introduces Ana (anorexia) as her “only friend” who “knows where my secrets lie” and who will “be with me to the end”.
Such types of relationships scare and impress at the same time. Women are in need of friends to talk to, share emotions, and ask for advice. However, it is never too late to remember that, despite the existing attitudes, anorexia is a disease that has to be treated; and when anorexia becomes a friend, a number of problems occur. In the modern world, the perversion of the truth is a dangerous weapon that can beautify a serious health problem, anorexia, and make it the guise of beauty that actually worsens the quality of life.
Waldman Story
Anorexia is a frequently discussed topic in the modern world. People are ready to spend their resources and devote their time to understand its positive and negative aspects to come to one definite conclusion. It is not a secret that anorexia becomes an interesting theme for writing in different parts of the world. Katy Waldman is a famous Slate staff writer, who created the story “There Once Was a Girl”, focusing on the false narratives of the disease. One of her strongest aspects is the desire to share her personal life, emotions, and intentions in order to explain how anorexia may penetrate human bodies and minds.
According to Waldman, this disorder was “implemented by perfectionism, genes, whatever spectral level it is that tilts the cosmic pinball board and then everything changes”. Despite the fact that the author denied the necessity of anorexia in her body, she could not get rid of the influence it had on her life. In addition to a number of literature sources Waldman used in her writing (Francesca Lia Block, Leslie Jamison, and Louise GlĂĽck), she wanted to underline the importance of her vision of anorexia.
In “There Once Was a Girl”, many definitions reveal the truth of the disease. Waldman underlines that “anorexia is an inveterate liar whose grand theme is your identity”. Anorexia may be imposed by society, supported by family members, or treated by medical workers. However, the major choice should be made by a person whose life is under threat from this eating disorder. Unfortunately, the experience of Waldman shows that “anorexia both is and isn’t a choice; the anorexic both is and is not herself”. Relying on Waldman’s ideas as a basis, this research aims at questioning anorexia as the guise of beauty and learning the conditions when the desire to beautify the disease becomes a threat to human health.
Decisions that Lead to Anorexia
Human life consists of multiple decisions that are made intentionally or unintentionally. People like to think that each step is their independent choice that aims at avoiding harm and achieving some benefits. According to Waldman, her sister did not have a chance to choose another way and act out this eating disorder. However, Warin proved that there are specific “anorexic tricks” with the help of which patients are able “to conceal and cloak their real intention, losing weight” (85). It turns out that it is wrong to call anorexia a problem with no solution or a sentence that cannot be avoided.
The growth and potential impact of this problem depend on human decisions. In her poem, Biege developed a line of events with decisions that brought her to Ana, including the condition “just a fat freak”, “sadness, it wont ever end”, “fat, you seem to agree”, and pain. In fact, all these steps show that anorexia usually has some grounds like the desire to be thin or the support of other people. There is always a moment to decide either to allow this disease to develop or not.
Media as a Provocation to Anorexia
One of the recent achievements of modern society is the possibility to have access to anything people may want. It is possible to buy a book from a different part of the world, watch a show that was released some time ago, or find a person who has been lost for several decades. The list of possibilities is impressive, and, again, it is an independent decision of every person what to do with such opportunities. Nettersheim et al. defined media as one of the possible sources of stress and the promotion of anorexic behaviors.
Multiple female competitions, unwanted sexual attention situations, or personal desires provoke fears that are related to the creation of a specific body image and the necessity to change the weight (Nettersheim et al.). Media is an extensive, hard-to-control source of information that may support anorexic behaviors. If millions of people already believe that a disease may be beautified, an opinion of a single person is easy to change and increase the number of supporters considerably.
The Role of a Family
In addition to personal decisions and media impact, human actions can be shaped by beliefs people develop within their families. Waldman paid attention to her family and the way relatives actually contributed to the development of anorexia problems. In her situation, her parents did not accept the decision of her sister to eat less and exercise a lot for a few years and then accepted it as something “normal-ish” (Waldman).
Additionally, they were not satisfied with the author’s behavior when she tried to show how dangerous and unhealthy her sister’s style of life was. The result was dramatic because anorexia was not a problem but a priority. Edwards and Strathern explained that family connection is “intrinsically desirable” when “people take pleasure in making links of logic or narrative” (as cited in Warin 75). However, in this case, anorexic people make their choices to be differentiated, and the task of a family to recognize a problem and try to help. Family involvement in understanding anorexia as the guise of beauty or disease cannot be ignored and has to be rationalized in society.
Medical Perspectives on the Problem
An understanding of anorexia’s impact on human health cannot be full without discussing its medical aspects. Despite the existing literary descriptions of this condition and the decisions to support or prevent it, it is necessary to underline that anorexia is an eating disorder. Like any kind of disorder, it has a number of negative outcomes on human health. Warin explained that “a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa given in a hospital? set in motion a series of placements that designated one as a patient who belonged to psychiatric care and a psychiatric ward” (70). It means that anorexia can never be defined as a positive aspect of life.
It is a disease with a specific care treatment plan that must be developed by an expert. There is a list of medications to be offered to a patient in order to predict complications connected with weight loss. As well as the fashion industry has its standards and rules, human health is also characterized by a number of normal vital signs and deviations. It is against nature to introduce anorexia as a form of beauty when it contradicts a healthy style of life.
Religious Aspects of Anorexia
If people think that medical prescriptions, expert recommendations, and negative personal experiences are not enough to prove the absurdity of the idea to beautify anorexia, religious aspects may be taken into consideration. Polinska stated that, for centuries, many women supported a tendency to change their bodies (fattened, starved, or whipped) not only as of the “quest of beauty” but a possibility to be close to God (569). In the Middle Ages, self-starvation, also known as “holy anorexia”, was a popular means to become a saint, which affected about 50% of women (Bell, as cited in Polinska 570). However, the same “holy anorexia” resulted in increased mortality rates, which provoked new controversies and doubts about the worthiness of this practice. Therefore, the modern church does not find it necessary to promote anorexia but offers alternative methods with respect for human bodies and food.
Change of Life with Anorexia
Nowadays, everything is moving so fast that it becomes hard for people to understand what is right and what is wrong. Multiple opportunities, the lack of control, and the promotion of personal freedoms are usually defined as benefits society has. At the same time, people do not even understand how they are challenged by the necessity to make decisions and evaluate possible outcomes on their health. Anorexia changes human lives, either the decision of a person is intentional or unintentional.
In her story, Waldman said about the inability to control changes that touch personality traits like “introversion, perfectionism, sensitivity to criticism, vigilance, competitiveness, obsessiveness, and risk-aversion”. As well as psychology, the biology of humans changes as soon as first anorexia symptoms are observed. Waldman introduced a strong explanation of anorexia that results in “physical changes to the starving brain”. The ways of how people think, behave, communicate, study, or work may depend on weight changes, and as soon as they begin, a person has fewer chances to control them and avoid complications.
Conclusion
After the evaluation of primary and secondary sources of anorexia and its penetration into human life, the answer to the question about the necessity to beautify the disease in modern society becomes evident. People are responsible for the possibility to consider anorexia as the guise of beauty. They create fashion standards, as well as the developers of treatment plans for anorexic patients. They make decisions either to eat and exercise or to starve.
Finally, people suffer from their own inventions and actions and try to correct their mistakes. Media, church, and family may beautify this disease, but medicine is the field where anorexia can never be a benefit. Unfortunately, anorexia is not only a part of the fashion industry but a disease with fatal outcomes being possible. There are many forms of beauty to be discussed in the modern world, and anorexia should not be one of them.
Works Cited
Biege, Cassie. “My Best Friend Ana(Anorexia).” PoemHunter. 2008. Web.
Nettersheim, Johanna, et al. “Evolutionary Psychology of Eating Disorders: An Explorative Study in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 9, 2108. Web.
Polinska, Wioleta. “Bodies under Siege: Eating Disorders and Self-Mutilation among Women.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 68, no. 3, 2000, pp. 569-589.
Waldman, Katy. “There Once Was a Girl.” Slate. 2015. Web.
Warin, Megan. Abject Relations. Rutgers University Press, 2010.