The never-ending imperfection

Pro Ana, Pro Mia and other websites that are glamorizing Anorexia or Bulimia as a lifestyle rather than a disease have recently got a new boom. The first big boom these movements recorded was in 2006 as the 22 year old model Luisel Ramos shortly after a fashion show died; two months later the Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston Macan starved herself to death and a further 6 months later her sister also succumbed to Ana. The most attention-getting, however, was the death of Isabelle Caro in November 2010. The French model suffered from Anorexia since she was 14 years old and attributed her eating disorder to her manic-depressive mother who wanted her to remain a small girl. So, she stopped eating to counteract her physical development. Isabelle got very famous due to a fashion campaign by the world-famous Italian fashion photographer Oliviero Toscani who wanted to point out what twisted imagination our society regards as the idealized man or woman.

Having printed an anorexic woman on an oversized poster throughout the fashion capital Milan during the fashion week aroused a lot of criticism and as a result this campaign was prohibited in Italy and France. Though, after a public outcry the European fashion industry implemented some restrictions to models that are beyond underweight. Several models at the fashion week in Spain, for example, were not allowed to take part and also size 0 has been banned from the Catwalk.

Men, however, are at least as easily ensnared to become exaggeratedly health and fashion-conscious as women. Women are, of course, more inclined to lose weight and get anorexic or bulimic but to the picture of beauty neither women nor men are immune to.

There is this new phenomenon called “Manorexia” which is basically the same as the female version Anorexia. The problem, however, is that Manorexia is far more difficult to diagnose because these men look perfectly fit, with great bodies, still slim but not in an unhealthy way. Strict diets, laxatives and excessive exercising emaciate their bodies until there is nothing left than a heap of muscles on a skeleton. Manorexic men are generally difficult to identify, just their family or friends might notice an exaggerated lifestyle and the propensity to receive a perfect body.

One symptom that have all these diseases in common is the skewed introspection. That means no matter how “perfect” or how close you are at perfection you will never be satisfied with what you have achieved so far.

Having some friends that suffer from Anorexia and after some serious research at these pro-ana websites I think it is kind of ironic that people are starving themselves to death while a whole bunch of people die day by day because they have simply nothing to eat!