The Eating Dilemma: How Representation Shapes Perception
By Girish Coomar Greedharry
As the sun’s guest appearances become more permanent and the flowers start to blossom, the much-coveted summer months could not come soon enough. Everyone cannot wait to pull out their new wardrobe of linen and floral prints to replace the bulky oversized winter coats. What a wonderful feeling it is to be sun-kissed, while lying on a sandy beach somewhere where your daily troubles are out of reach. But that respite is not the only thing that summer brings along with it. As the layers of clothing come off, they are being replaced by anxiety surrounding body image, weight and diet. While ideas of physical fitness to get that summer body ready could arguably be beneficial in terms of healthier lifestyles, they are often driven by more malicious motivators. I find that there is nothing more human than shaping our perception of ourselves based on what we think others will perceive us as. We prepare ourselves to be judged and then judge others the same way, but why is that? What has brought about and contributed to such a cuture? That brings me to what role representation, or rather misrepresentation, of those issues play and the culture that it breeds.
The term eating disorder (ED) is quite broad in what it describes, from binge eating to restrictive eating. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) groups and characterises eating and feeding disorders as ‘a persistent disturbance of eating or eating-related behaviour that results in the altered consumption or absorption of food and that significantly impairs physical health or psychosocial functioning.’ [1] Yet, despite their ubiquity, I think that eating disorders are not recognised unless they become serious enough to explicitly interfere with our day-to-day functioning.
Typically, eating disorders have been portrayed as a first world problem on our screens that can only happen to rich heterosexual white women who are under thirty. The cultural reference that comes to mind is Blair Waldorf (played by Leighton Meester) from the TV series Gossip Girl (2007-2012), who struggled with bulimia nervosa in Upper East Side, Manhattan. The show did a decent job depicting how her illness would manifest itself following triggers such as familial disputes, which would then lead to episodes of binge-eating and self-induced purging to make her feel better about herself. However, it did nothing to address the stereotypes regarding the ‘typical’ eating disorder demographic. A 2023 American study looked at the media portrayal of these illnesses since the 1980s and compared that to the actual populations who are suffering. They found that there is a significant imbalance in their representation, with the vast majority of the characters fitting Blair’s profile - 75.56% being heterosexual, 84.85% being white, 89.39% being women and 84.85% being under the age of thirty.[2] This not only perpetuates existing stereotypes but also makes it harder for patients to realise that there might be an issue and ask for help because they are not young skinny white women.
Netflix’s Insatiable (2018-2019) had a rather atypical take on Binge Eating Disorder (BED), which some viewers found terribly triggering. Intended to be a dark comedy, the series follows the story of high school student Patty Bladell (played by Debby Ryan), a formerly obese girl who had become ‘skinny’. Patty was on a warpath to exact revenge on all those who bullied her and wronged her. She does so by capitalising on her newfound ‘thinness’ and competing in beauty pageants, with the occasional gruesome murder. While the show sparked a lot of controversy before it even premiered, namely for disseminating fatphobic propaganda equating being skinny to being powerful, I found Patty’s character arc to be quite honest. She embodied those negative feelings that a lack of compassion and understanding fuels. She never asked to be shunned or scrutinised, and food became a welcome companion in her solitude. The show did not shy away from exploring how lonely navigating an eating disorder can be, even though Patty was well surrounded and often in the limelight. I found the focus on her mental state to be a very accurate reflection of how we can so easily become prisoner to our impulses because maybe no one can or has tried to understand us.
Acting as a double-edged sword in eating disorder discourse is, of course, social media. It is a universal experience for our social media algorithm to start generating content about something that we had just been talking about. The power of targeted advertising is quite remarkable in its impact. Unsurprisingly, as soon as I started researching eating disorders, I started getting a lot of posts about them on my social media platforms. Needless to say, there is a veritable cornucopia of information out there to learn from, sadly not all of which is meant to be positively consumed. At the epicentre lies diet culture, more so as a viral trend instead of a health necessity. All of a sudden, everyone is an expert on weight loss, giving advice on what to eat and what to avoid, typically from an individual showcasing their amazing physique. Stick to what they say and we too can impress our friends and family with our corporal transformation. This social media trend has contributed to the fostering of an unhealthy obsession with healthy and ‘clean’ eating - orthorexia nervosa - amongst many people.[3] There is a tendency to excessively fixate on the quality of the food and cutting out harmful groups which can lead to added pressure and stress as well as malnourishment. The condition has yet to be recognised by the DSM. Evidently, the hard way is not always the preferred way and that is how the vulnerable can be easily manipulated. Originally intended for treatment of Type 2 diabetes, drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro have faced increased marketability on the private market as a shortcut weight-loss drug - especially amongst people who do not meet the criteria to be prescribed them. Indeed, it does not stop there. The desperation to fit in with the ‘thin’ crowd acts as a beacon for predatory creativity and suddenly, we find ourselves drinking concoctions of pink gelatin everyday before bed, wearing waist slimming belts and on a stringent personalised diet and workout plan, for the low, low price of £10 a month.
Another aspect that contributes to the stigma around EDs is ethnic culture. Having grown up in a primarily Asian entourage, I can attest that weight is a practically an inevitable subject of conversation. Let me paint a quintessential picture. Our grandmother’s cousin has come to visit and we, being the well-mannered and admirable grandkids that we are, go to greet her and ask her how she has been. Her response: “I’m doing good. How are you? You’ve put on a couple of pounds since last time. I can see that you’re eating well.” Another equally probable response would be: “I’m well, thank you. How are you? Look how skinny you’ve become. Is your mother not feeding you enough?” Then we laugh it off awkwardly, not really knowing what to do with those comments. Such comments have been normalised and accepted to such an extent that the idea of eating even being an issue is preposterous. Instead, we will be told to stop being such a picky eater or be called ungrateful because we are wasting food and we do not know the value of hard work and money. Consequently, with no room for any conversation about EDs, it does become much easier to crawl back into our dark headspace, festering with even more negative thoughts and a more inferior image of ourselves. This is where a lack of contextual representation can be very detrimental, especially for cultures where food is supposed to be an indispensable unifying factor.
Obviously, we cannot talk about representation and not talk about the music industry. Music speaks as a global platform for advocacy and several artists have used this creative outlet to spread awareness about issues near and dear to their hearts, even as a way to process it themselves. Demi Lovato is one such artist who has been very open about her struggles with bulimia in the past and in her 2011 song Skyscraper, she addresses her ongoing battle with her recovery. She acknowledges the fragile state of mind that an ED is conducive to, equating it to glass and paper which can be easily torn down but also refuses to give up in the face of adversity. I think that her lyrics: “I will be rising from the ground like a skyscraper ,” send a very potent and necessary message that although getting better is a long, challenging and taxing process, it is very much possible and most importantly, it tells us that we are not alone. Truly enough, there are so many more artists, even big names like Sir Elton John, Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift, who have spoken about their declining eating habits due to the pressure and expectations in show business to be perfect idols.[4] We are all human and if they can be afflicted by EDs, then so can we. If they can talk about it, then so can we. And if they can be helped with it, then so can we.
My research also yielded the works of artist and researcher, Dr. Ally Zlater, also founder of The Starving Artist, an organisation that promotes and explores representation of lived-experiences of marginalised communities through art and culture. Now, I am in no capacity an art connoisseur, but I would absolutely recommend having a look at her portfolio. Her series ‘dinner for one/dinner for all but one,’ comprising 20 pieces, portrays the contrast in her relationship with food in public and in private in a genuinely crude and vulnerable way.[5] That is what I think makes her stand out as well; she does not cower away from the truth and instead embraces it, regardless of how morbid it is. Eating disorders are complex and severely misunderstood psychological illnesses and I do not think we are anywhere close to making them a global dialogue. But what I do see is that contextual representation is a prerequisite for that discussion to begin.
Read the rest of the edition here.
References
[2]
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10506274/
[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666323000752?via%3Dihub