Anti-anorexia campaign

[firecat]

The fatosphere is talking about an anti-anorexia campaign started by an Italian clothing company. Here is one discussion about it:

http://kateharding.net/2007/09/25/cheers-and-jeers-anorexia-n-models-edition/
The post contains a potentially distressing, NWS image.

I don't approve.

• The ad encourages judgement of a woman's body to produce its emotional effects. The culture's obsessiveness about judging body shape and its belief that body shape/size can tell you at a glance how healthy a person is—this is a big part of what encourages anorexia and fat-phobia in the first place.
• Plenty of people are going to look at it, say "Ew," and have no understanding that anorexia can also be a serious condition in people who are not skeletally thin. (In fact, if a person is fat, some of the same behaviors that anorexics engage in are often considered healthy and appropriate.)
• People will dismiss it by saying "Well, that's icky, but can't you just eat a sandwich now and then, and still stay thin? I mean, it's not like you can't control what goes in your mouth."
• Pro-ana sites are going to use it as inspiration.
• News articles about the ad come with the more or less explicit message of "See, anorexia is ugly. The women the fashion industry uses as models are beautiful. Therefore, they aren't really anorexic, and the fashion industry has nothing to do with anorexia." (Never mind that if the woman in the ad were wearing clothes and makeup, she would look like a thin fashion industry model.)

I like how sweetmachine put it in a comment on kate's post:

"I have a really really strong aversion to any campaign, anti-ED or no, that says we should look at this woman’s body and feel disgust or horror."