It seems there is a certain cache associated with being psychologically impaired. Unlike a physical deformity, psychological shortcomings seem rather to enhance our credibility than interfere with it, and a certain admiration loiters, unspoken, for those whose daily life is tarred with madness. Or perhaps this occurs only when the psychological intersects neatly with the physical, when illness creates a physical form that is simply at the height of fashion.

Whoever said that big is beautiful was, it seems, speaking wistfully, if today’s trends are anything to go by. Anorexia used to be a celebrity fad, like drug use, or alcoholism, but more and more, it has drifted into the mainstream of the entertainment world, creating a world of female icons who are shrinking by the year.

I have suffered with anorexia for many years, and despite the glamorous look it might produce, it remains an illness, and one that is far from pretty. I’m sure that there exist women who are naturally that slender, who eat as they wish and remain that tiny, but I am not one of them, and I know that I am not alone.

Anorexia is a complex psychological illness, and there is no doubt that the ever shrinking celebrity form can not be held accountable for its blossoming. But I think that even the most empirically bound of scientists would agree with this anecdotal evidence: those images of wafer-thin models surely don’t help.

But it seems that no one’s prepared to say it: this is not okay. So celebrities might not be the inevitable role model for the common man, but come on, they are people too. And a large proportion of them are clearly killing themselves to be thin.

Being smaller is better; it is powerful, it is masterful, it is what almost every woman wants. But I have been there, and it is nothing. It is defecating in your underpants, and it is passing out in public.

Is this fashionable, desirable? If this is what the masses want, then let them eat cake. It’s time we learned the price of fashion, and stopped idolising pain.

Fiona Condron is a former eating disorder sufferer and freelance writer. Trying to use her experiences to help others in some way, she has set up an eating disorders website at http://eat2live.proboards25.com/index.cgi Though primarily established for Irish sufferers of eating disorders, all are welcome. We offer a safe and friendly place for sufferers to talk about the challenges they face, and to support their victories.

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