My pal Denise (Hej Denise!) pointed out a really sad story in the current issue of US magazine. On pg 16, there's a report about Ana Carolina Reston, 21, who died at 88 pounds. Apparently, her parents and family tried to get her help, but she ended up wanting to eat only apples and tomatoes and died of kidney failure.
I'm saddened to hear of this young women's death, but I'm even more saddened at the fact that it doesn't seem to be drawing much press attention (raising the red flag! Sounding the alarm!) given all the skinny model hoopla and concern that was exhibited over this issue throughout the fall. I mean, this should be all over the place. I should be invited back on CNN to talk about this... and how it relates to things like Kirstie Alley's comments about hating her fat body and being applauded for being thin now.
AND ANOTHER THING: If you can believe it, US magazine decided to run the report of Ana Carolina's death FACING and ad for the upcoming Victoria's Secret fashion show TV
special. I'm not even kidding. So on the left side of the spread, we've got a subdued death notice that doesn't
explore the reasons for a model's battle with anorexia etc (BIG journalistic oversight, people)...while on the right, we've got a color, probably-digitally enhanced muy gorgeous
photo of Gisele, the highest paid supermodel in the world making her life and world and existence all
look pretty damn seductive. So , uh, which do you think has more of an impact?
And this whole sad story makes me think of how some of the fashionistas quoted in the USA Today article, "Do Thin Models Warp Girls' Body Image?", with me said things like "girls totally know the difference between fantasy and reality"?. Oh yeah? Well, apparently models don't. So in my opinion, that makes it time to make some changes.....
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