Beckinsale’s Anorexia Comments Enrage Sufferers’ Parents
Actress Kate Beckinsale has been branded “irresponsible” by parents of anorexic sufferers, after she claimed the eating disorder was the result of an unhealthy home life.
The “Underworld” star — a former anorexic herself — sparked controversy Tuesday when she likened sufferers of “anorexia, alcoholism and drug abuse in teens” to “crack whores.”
While Beckinsale, who was brought up by her mother following the death of her father when she was 5, was partly referring to her own childhood experiences, the 33-year-old’s comments have enraged relatives of anorexia sufferers.
Ros Ponomarenko-Jones, whose 19-year-old daughter Sophie died last year from the condition, says, “(Beckinsale) has been totally flippant and does not really know what she is talking about. She is not giving anorexia the status it deserves as a mental illness.
“I think she needs to go to an eating disorder unit and speak to some of the girls there, where she would find out it is not always about what is happening in the home.
“They look up to celebrities and if they are thin, the girls take that on board and think if they look skinnier, they will have friends and live better lives. She has been completely irresponsible.”
Via SFGate
Speaking as a recovering anorexic/bulimic, I would first need to read Beckinsale’s comments in context with what else she said, but I do think a correlation can be made between “crack whores” and those with eating disorders.
Beckinsale might not have said it so crassly, but both drugs and eating disorders are addictions, and become a modus of coping and survival. And I do think one’s home life situation and relationships with parents and relatives deeply influences the formation of one’s disorder. One isn’t born with an eating disorder, one develops it. There is a genetic predisposition there, but there has to be a trigger for it to flourish.
Comment by Rachel — April 26, 2007 @ 9:20 pm
I agree with the above comment, I also find it interesting that ‘relatives’ of sufferers and not the sufferers themselves were enraged by such comment, it seems that although there may have been certain unfairness in Beckinsales comment there could be a high level of denial. Although eating disorders are complex and they do not develop overnight there are many reasons why we are led to suffer from these illnesses as Rachel said like with drugs or alcohol they are a coping mechanism there are also a way of control power success and achievements and so much more. The whole obsessive nature behind anorexia is driven by a need for perfection and often we feel imperfect if we or others are too hard on ourselves or we’re not praised in the way we feel we should be, eventually it’s like we don’t deserve it. People do play a role and as loving and supportive as family members can be, often they don’t understand it and overlook the problem. It’s not to say parents are a direct blame, sometimes they’re so self-centred they fail to notice the obvious and sometimes we are so self-centred all we see is ourselves othertimes we are difficult or our parents don’t know what to do, and feel ashamed. It’s not that easy of a categorisation it’s more complex than that, and it’s unfair to make such a harsh and ignorant statement, but there does seem to be a high level of denial, and as Rachel said, I’d have to see what she said exactly and not just go by what someone took from context. I myself never understood how as a teenager I could eat so little and sometimes nothing at all in a day and barely anyone would batter an eyelid, acceptance is powerful destructive and scary.
Comment by Denial — December 15, 2007 @ 5:23 pm
Beckinsale is absolutely correct.
In almost every case of anorexia, if you dig beneath the surface, you will indeed find an unhealthy home life. In bulimia, statistics show there may also have been sexual abuse. Every ED victim has low self-esteem.
To outsiders, the family with an anorexic may seem regular and happy. These are typically educated, informed, middle-class families, so there is usually no physical abuse. However, for the same reason, there appears to be mental, psychological and emotional abuse. A controlling, overbearing atmosphere at home is a known factor in cases of anorexia. I believe it is the dominant parent at home who is the cause of the psychological damage on the victim.
I have seen this happen with the children of two close friends. From young, the children were scolded, nagged, berated, insulted, dictated to and put down by their mothers, constantly, even in front of strangers and in public. There is pressure to live up to their parents’ expectations. I have never seen the mothers praise, encourage or give moral support to them.
I watched these children grow into very emotionally-insecure teens, which perhaps opened the door for mental illness to take hold. Each of these friends has an anorexic daughter. One of the girls appeared to have recovered recently but is now back to active anorexia. The other girl also has an obese brother.
It takes years and years of relentless, subtle abuse before anorexia shows up, and by then it may be too late. It will take just as long for the victim to return to normality, and many never fully recover.
The sad thing is that the families themselves will deny there is anything wrong, asserting they are normal families. They can’t seem to bring themeselves to admit their parenting skills may be lacking. They blame the media, fashion and entertainment industries, society, magazines, their children’s peers, any scapegoat to cover up their inadequacies, anything except themselves.
There is even a movement going on saying that it is a myth that parents cause EDs, that it is a physiological disorder of the brain. Which is all nice and neat, because if it is a brain disorder, then the next step is to invent a proprietory, synthetc drug to block off this or that brain chemical. Isn’t that just treating the symptoms?
Without looking at the causes honestly, how can these victims be helped? It will get worse and will soon be called an ‘epidemic’, if it is not already, as long as people continue to be in denial and the real causes are not addressed.
Comment by LPF — January 20, 2008 @ 9:08 pm