God she's fat.

MOO!

The headline of this post should have really been....

Anorexic Ad Causes Vomiting

Seriously, she should just lay off the breath mints.

The headline of this post should have really been....

Alcoholics Anonymous Curriculum Vitae

WOW! Finally a girl thin enough to satisfy my completely fucked up vision of female sexuality!

I've never understood the hubbub around skinny girls.

Did they deliberately get her to make that facial expression or does she always look like that?

I think it's really cool that she was willing to do the ad, but it's confusing. She knows she's appearing in this ad to show people how scary and deadly anorexia looks, but she will continue to be an anorexic tomorrow. I'm sure there's an explanation for that mental disconnect but I honestly can't imagine what that would be like.

Gollum wasn't available?

“caused in most cases by the stereotypes imposed by the world of fashion,” the company said in a statement.

It seems a little too convenient to believe that putting fewer skinny girls on magazine covers would somehow magically stamp out eating disorders. I haven't heard of research that convincingly demonstrates that kind of link, while I have seen some studies that suggest genetic indicators for anorexia.

"I'm sure there's an explanation for that mental disconnect but I honestly can't imagine what that would be like."

I would guess that she was paid nicely.
It's all about the advertising designers these days. Anybody who has read Lolita wouldn't denigrate themselves to some cute pink script.

I'm not sure I'm ready to make the leap of logic that fashion promotes anorexia. Models have traditionally been slender. They had to be. Designers do fall and spring couture shows in one size only.

Now we see ultra-slender models to be sure, but this isn't new. Twiggy was famously skinny and Penelope Tree was a stick figure. When did anorexia nervosa leap out of medical books and become a common pathology?

If there is a connection between the two, it seems to me that it must be indirect. It isn't the fashion industry that promotes anorexia, but rather it may promote - as several thing do - an abhorrence and disgust of fat which in turn makes young girls (and increasingly young men) gag at the thought of eating.

What may be more of an influence is TV and movies. Actors (who in the majority have mostly been on the short and thin side - they're easier to frame that way) now keep themselves spooky-thin because they think (and other people think) they look better on camera that way. Carson Daly - who has never been anywhere near overweight - changed his rather buff body as soon as he hit network TV - by losing 60 pounds. Suits hang on him now. And look what happens when it begins to look like Oprah is putting weight back on. She becomes the target of jokes. It becomes the talk of gossip town.

tsm- you're right that the sudden removal of ultra-thin models from all media would not immediately end all eating disorders.
however, i can tell you those images are doing their share of harm.
woman after woman (and man) who tells their story of battling with ED cites the images they thought they were expected to live up to and how competition with these ideals (and the idea that their peers and potential partners were also aware of these images) drove them in their spiral downward.
while the pencil thin runway look may not be the catalyst for ED, it serves as an incessant reminder to sufferers that they're not working hard enough at melting away into oblivion.

bauhaus- the biggest societal correlates to the rise of ED are:

1. economic booms- the more money (and food available), the more likely women will have ED

2. times of feminist progress- images of thin, almost androgynous beauties pop up after waves of political success in women's rights. women got the vote, then came flappers; 60s feminism in the wave of civil rights, then came twiggy, etc

For more bulimia/anorexia social satire visit http://bulimiaresources.org

clitical update timaree-

michael jackson is not the best role model to promote...
well maybe for Erectile Dysfunction

For someone like me, curvier but still idealized models on newsstand magazines -- titles like Maxim, FHM, etc. -- do my self-esteem more harm than the ultra-thin models of fashion runways. Models are too boyish and extreme; the danger of magazine models is that they look like women I can recognize, but still can never emulate in appearance. Moreover, I'd say the focus on the runway is on clothes, not bodies.

Besides, the men I want to attract are almost certainly not watching couture shows.

There are no credible studies that show a link between fashion and anorexia. Anorexia is an obsessive/compulsive disorder. Most anorectics are highly intelligent women who have have strong control issues. Very few of them focus on fashion, believe me, I've seen the way they dress. Now bulimics, they're another matter. They are piggies who want to look good.

Some poor sap who only scans the thread until the bottom is surely going to be confused with the apparent correlation between skinny/anorexic women and erectile dysfunction.

Haha QuimbyMcF
i'm glad bonehead doesn't have an eating disorder, naughty!
alright, time to get lunch or better yet, serve!

I have done zero research, but I wonder if there's a hint of truth to what @19 said. Anorexia is a psychological disorder, while bulimia could be brought on by societal pressures.

It certainly rings true to me -- that people would enjoy eating and want to eat, but would want to look like models, so turn to purging.

Giorgio is just lying to himself.

@ 14 - Most interesting, Timaree!

@ 18 - True. Fashion shows aren't for straight men. Is it true that most women dress for each other and only hooker wannabees and showgirls dress for men? Victoria's Secret aside. By the way, I've always wondered what would happen is a woman dragged her BF/hubby to a Victoria's Secret store and told HIM
she wanted him to wear the lacy purple garter belt.

@ 19 - A very good point, Inkweary. There is a marked difference between anorexia and bulimia. Don't know if I'd call someone on the binge/purge cycle a piggy, though. More like really, really hungry and then guilty about over-satisfying the hunger?

Armani is a greedy pig - the ads are GREAT - an attempt to bring attention to a problem - hence, more understanding of the problem and some solutions.

Fuck you House of Greedy Armani.

The theory that as the status of women changes so do the image expectations is interesting.

Fat peasant farm ladies are not in vogue after these changes. Not urban, not well dressed, no status.
Good theory.

@24: I dress for both. I like being stylish, which mainly concerns women, but I like looking good while I'm stylish too, which concerns men.

It might be easy to believe women dress solely for each other, but I'm having a hard time believing most women would care about having to wear heels and tight jeans if looking good and attracting men didn't come into it somehow. I care about besting other women, but the ultimate aim is being more attractive in the eyes of men. So, yes, both.

Man, I sound so shallow.

I hear ya, Gloria. It all works. I always liked women best that were of one prettiness from center to surface. Naturals.

@13: "Designers do fall and spring couture shows in one size only."

But why does that one size have to be 0?

Women (and men, but to a much lesser extent) dress not for other women, not for men, but for society: study after study confirms that the better-looking you are by the standards of the day, the better your job and social prospects. For men, looking better involves mostly weight and grooming. For women, it's a big, complex, ongoing daily project.

All the time spent posing her (her?) could have been better spent inserting a feeding tube...

@ 28 - I know. Size 0! You know, it used to be size 10. I think Suzi Parker was either an 8 or a 10. Jean Shrimpton was an 8. In the 50s, size 12 used to be considered perfect. In fact, it was an idiom: a perfect size 12. Marilyn Monroe was a size 12. That was when having a womanly butt was considered an asset, of course.

It's not "impressionable women" I worry about, it is the models themselves. They have to STARVE themselves to work-And I don't want to hear the bullsh*t that some girls are naturally skinny. Noone is THAT skinny without some serious dieting.

Fat people look gross naked too. And fat can be really unhealthy. At least the lady in the picture probably looks decent in clothes.

I'm not sure if the fashion industry causes clinical anorexia. But it tries to make every woman fatter than this woman feel like crap about her body at least once a day.

Back in hs, when we saw chicks like that in the Dachau documentary, we felt sorry for them.

I'm skipping to the end of these comments, so forgive my redundancies. Thank you, Erica. In case you missed Isabelle's external yeast infection:

http://www.spiegel.de/videoplayer/0,6298,22000,00.html

According to this report, a model recently died of hunger, causing somebody or other (Italy?) to legislate against models under 16, or something.

Remember when they used to link the stock market to hemlines? In my lifetime, it's been Republican Presidents to female, uh, lack-of-a-good-time.

Anybody else realize that the anorexics out there are going to take one look at this ad and think to themselves...

"Damn, that's what *I* want to look like! What a lucky bitch!"