Karen Carpenter was the absolute first well known case?
Was it all considered bizarre, shocking and sensationalistic?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 188 | September 15, 2018 10:08 PM |
LOL. What a bitchy interviewer!
"The slimmer's disease?!"
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | September 5, 2018 6:06 AM |
What a bitch with the EYE ROLLING that one is!
Did she really think she was that much smarter than eyeryone?
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | September 5, 2018 6:06 AM |
This episode of Diff'rent Strokes was enlightening!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 3 | September 5, 2018 6:10 AM |
Susan Dey also battled it back during her Partridge Family years. I dont know if it was as noticable as Karens though.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | September 5, 2018 6:23 AM |
Mama Cass could have used just a little bit of this problem.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | September 5, 2018 6:25 AM |
Jennifer Jason Leigh in "The Best Little Girl in the World" (1981).
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 7 | September 5, 2018 6:30 AM |
R7 that's when I first heard about it and I remember watching that movie on tv. And when Karen died, which ever came first. I was around 9 yrs old at that time tho.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | September 5, 2018 6:33 AM |
Vera Ellen for all us old-timers.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | September 5, 2018 6:47 AM |
You can never be too rich or too thin.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | September 5, 2018 6:56 AM |
When she died, I remember jokes and references to cat food. I could never get an adult to explain it to me. Wtf were they talking about? I was under the impression that she ate it and threw it up.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | September 5, 2018 7:00 AM |
As a kid, I could never understand the problem with bulimia. Anorexia I figured you'd feel weak and tired all the time. But, bulimia you could go on these great binges and then just throw it up, which, while gross, didn't seem crazy bad. I didn't understand all the negative effects of repeatedly throwing up.
Does anyone remember a VERY short-lived TV series, maybe 10 years ago, that was a kind of a comic look at people with eating disorders? It was pretty good.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | September 5, 2018 7:01 AM |
r8 Me too, and I later read that book. Interestingly enough, the author Richard Levenkron is who treated Karen and he was blamed for her death by Richard and others.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | September 5, 2018 7:05 AM |
Anorexia nervosa is one of the hardest things to treat.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | September 5, 2018 7:07 AM |
The Carpenter family were neighbors in Downey, California. Honestly, everyone thought they were great, normal folks.
And yes, her death brought recognition of anorexia nervosa to popular culture, at least in the US.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | September 5, 2018 7:08 AM |
I think it might have caught on in the 60's - this is just a guess, but it was getting lots of national attention, Karen Carpenter, Debbie Boon etc. and lots of really skinny Hollywood people. The 60s were all about youth culture and young people were skinny.
I think the fad peaked. People now seem healthier and more interested in going to the gym ..
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | September 5, 2018 7:09 AM |
The duke and duchess of Windsor were both skinny people - particularly the duchess - jet setters and they certainly were emulated.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 17 | September 5, 2018 7:14 AM |
You can never be too rich, or too thin, or too hung.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | September 5, 2018 7:15 AM |
R12 Yes,was it called "Starved" ? I loved it.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 19 | September 5, 2018 7:30 AM |
Ohh - I hope it's available somewhere ...
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | September 5, 2018 7:35 AM |
I was ultra thin for many years. It was fun - I loved it And it sure didn't take a lot to get me drunk as I always had an empty stomach. But at some point being so thin started making me look older rather than younger. My face started looked drawn and I got tired of not having an ass. I gained weight- not a lot -but I have a little belly now. I live in California I think this explains a lot ...
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | September 5, 2018 7:43 AM |
[quote] You can never be too rich, or too thin, or too hung.
Fortunately for Karen, she was all three!
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | September 5, 2018 7:44 AM |
[quote] but I have a little belly now
We noticed but chose not to say anything.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | September 5, 2018 7:48 AM |
Thanks r13, I'm going to read up on that Levenkron guy, sounds interesting
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | September 5, 2018 7:50 AM |
r25 oh good! "The Best Little Girl in the World" is a good book. Also "Little Girl Blue" about Karen mentions him, obviously, but in a less flattering way. He hospitalized Karen and had her IV fed and gaining so much weight along with her drinking Ipecac so much strained her heart leading to her death. He said she was the first anorexic he had seen who altered her thyroid with synthroid. I think he learned a lot from her and that's why he was able to then treat others.
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | September 5, 2018 8:13 AM |
The interviewer was just doing her job - Karen’s denial was a joke. And pathetic how they had to “redo” the interview their way. I wonder how often that happens.
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | September 5, 2018 8:22 AM |
R12 STARVED? God I miss that show! I was blown away seeing straight men with eating disorders (there was a woman too).
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | September 5, 2018 8:32 AM |
But R21, did you have the slimmer's disease?
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | September 5, 2018 3:51 PM |
I remember the rumors about Princess Di having bulimia back in the 1980s. That was the first I heard about it (I knew about anorexia before that.)
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | September 5, 2018 4:01 PM |
Didn't Karen Carpenter come out with a cookbook at one point?
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | September 5, 2018 4:02 PM |
Most people couldn’t understand it, OP. “Why don’t they just eat?” was a common reaction. I guess the media did sensationalize it, but they did that to everything. They still do. And people still largely don’t understand eating disorders. Not really sure what you’re asking.
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | September 5, 2018 4:24 PM |
What she had they used to call the blues.
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | September 5, 2018 4:30 PM |
Yes, R31.
It was called [italic] Cooking with Karen! [/italic]
Recipes included:
Salad of air, Cucumbers drowned in ipecac syrup, and deconstructed apple pie without crust or filling.
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | September 5, 2018 4:34 PM |
I think Richard was fucking Karen. He has always come off as a creepy asshole, and childhood sex abuse/incest is a common trigger for eating disorders.
The wrong sibling is in the ground; that's for sure.
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | September 5, 2018 4:42 PM |
The Best Little Girl in the World was a Scholastic book sale offering when I was a kid. It was basically a how-to manual for anorexia and bulimia
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | September 5, 2018 5:29 PM |
I can’t be the only 80s gayling to first be let in on the ‘secret’ by Kate
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 37 | September 5, 2018 5:47 PM |
"There's something wrong with Vera Ellen"
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 38 | September 5, 2018 5:49 PM |
Anorexics are spoiled, manipulative ,and narcissistic little wasp brats looking for attention . Trust me I have known a few. They will happily monopolize massive amounts of their families money, time, and resources ,often to the detriment of their siblings, rather than just pop a sandwich in their pampered mouths. I suspect many of them are driven by vindictiveness as well. Google Eugenia Cooney, she is emblematic of these types of girls. Alot of their "emotional trauma " consists of stupid shit that anyone who isn't spoiled rotten could have gotten over. But because they ate affluent and female, the media takes the "disease " of these little cunts oh so seriously.
| by Anonymous | reply 39 | September 5, 2018 5:56 PM |
You seem like a lunatic, R39
| by Anonymous | reply 40 | September 5, 2018 6:01 PM |
As my wise grandmother used to say, you know how you stop being anorexic? You eat something!
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | September 5, 2018 6:03 PM |
R40 all these brats have to do is pop a salad and some bread in their mouth and they would be fine. They and their enablers are the lunatics.
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | September 5, 2018 6:05 PM |
R39 here. I meant because they are affluent and female, not affluent ate female. Stupid auto correct.
| by Anonymous | reply 43 | September 5, 2018 6:07 PM |
What makes you so angry about it?
| by Anonymous | reply 44 | September 5, 2018 6:07 PM |
R44 I'm angry because there are people with legitimate health problems and struggles that don't get an ounce of the support or resources that these attention hungry little dimwits get.
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | September 5, 2018 6:09 PM |
why haven't i ever seen a black anorexic girl?
| by Anonymous | reply 47 | September 5, 2018 6:42 PM |
R47 because they aren't indulged relentlessly by society the way that middle class waspy girls are. I remember during the height of the campus "sex abuse " crisis there were all these suburban chicks dragging around their mattresses wailing. Woe was the person who suggested, even gently, that these beer guzzling little princesses not attend raucous parties and get themselves into an alcohol induced stupor if they were so concerned about unwanted advances. Society will be endlessly indulgent if a problem centers around these types, while being indifferent to problems facing men ( both gay and straight ),as well as less privileged women.
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | September 5, 2018 7:18 PM |
^a agree with you, R49. Mine was a rhetorical question
| by Anonymous | reply 50 | September 5, 2018 7:29 PM |
Mattress Girl was an city living adopted POC jewess, I think. R49. Just saying. You seem to have a chip on your shoulder about wasps.
| by Anonymous | reply 51 | September 5, 2018 7:34 PM |
R51 yeah she was but I saw the most histrionics from wasp suburban girls to be honest. With sexual freedom comes sexual responsibility. Just my opinion.
| by Anonymous | reply 53 | September 5, 2018 7:47 PM |
On ivy campuses, histrionic disorders seem to be color blind.
| by Anonymous | reply 54 | September 5, 2018 7:49 PM |
It is interesting that it tends to be a disease that skews white upper middle class female. Maybe it’s the perfectionism and drive to achieve that is part of the American Dream warped into excessive force self control? I know it exists in men and POC but it seems much rarer - so there does seem to be some correlation with either societal views or social or cultural mores.
| by Anonymous | reply 55 | September 5, 2018 8:20 PM |
Eldergays are obsessed with these diseases because they are sat there like fat cows in their caftans and looking at pics of starved people makes them feel thinner.
| by Anonymous | reply 56 | September 5, 2018 8:31 PM |
No r56 it's because we now have sick shit like Tess Holliday and Chrissy Metz shoved down our throats instead of kept aside as cautionary tales which they should be.
| by Anonymous | reply 57 | September 5, 2018 8:38 PM |
What was Karen Carpenter's favorite dessert?
A tray of ice cubes.
| by Anonymous | reply 58 | September 5, 2018 8:42 PM |
[quote] because they are sat there like fat cows
Oh, dear. I'm not so sure about that, but your poor grammar is making me feel like a skinnier cow!
| by Anonymous | reply 59 | September 5, 2018 8:47 PM |
Karen Carpenter at the end. JFC!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 60 | September 5, 2018 8:51 PM |
[quote] Anorexics are spoiled, manipulative ,and narcissistic little wasp brats looking for attention . Trust me I have known a few. They will happily monopolize massive amounts of their families money, time, and resources ,often to the detriment of their siblings, rather than just pop a sandwich in their pampered mouths. I suspect many of them are driven by vindictiveness as well.
Interesting you say that, R39. My male formerly-anorexic cousin fits that profile to a T. By contrast I'm female LMC with no history of ED whatsoever.
My cousin was a total fucking lunatic in the depths of his disorder, btw (which seemed to be some sort of temporary schizoid breakdown/psychosis). Our family helped his mother (my Aunt) nurse him back to health, and after years of this shit and stints in hospital where he almost died he just...recovered. One day to the next, like clicking his fingers. He never mentioned anything about it thereafter, and certainly didn't thank us for all we did for him nor apologise for all he put us through. It's been years and he has no understanding of the trauma he left his mother, brother and entire extended family (85y.o grandmother included) with. I've written him off completely because I can't stand looking at his smug fucking jock face knowing that he'll always have victim kudos and get away with anything with that. Like he needed yet another goddamn privilege over the rest of us.
| by Anonymous | reply 61 | September 5, 2018 10:08 PM |
Yeah, it's the first I remember hearing about the disease. I remember where I was when I heard she died.
| by Anonymous | reply 62 | September 5, 2018 10:14 PM |
It's a mental disorder. Anorexia nervosa is a very serious condition. It isn't just them looking for attention, it's them trying to find some control in their lives and the only way they feel they can do that is by controlling their food intake.
| by Anonymous | reply 63 | September 5, 2018 10:20 PM |
Isn't it odd how all of humanity remembers where we were and whom we were with the day Karen Carpenter died.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 64 | September 5, 2018 10:25 PM |
R61 r39 here. He sounds awful. One of the un PC realities is that being mentally ill and being a narcissistic pos are not mutually exclusive. You're right to avoid him.
| by Anonymous | reply 65 | September 5, 2018 10:38 PM |
R61 To summarize, you're saying your cousin is now hot, right?
| by Anonymous | reply 67 | September 6, 2018 1:45 AM |
Eating disorders are usually caused by intrusive, controlling, judgmental parents. Dr Drew used to basically say every mother who had her daughter take ballet or gymnastics classes as a little girl was causing an eating disorder.
Don’t 20% of anorexics die of the disease?
| by Anonymous | reply 68 | September 6, 2018 1:57 AM |
Anorexia, like transgenderism, is a form of body dysmorphia. Unlike trans though, anorexics are not ass patted and told that they are fat, just like they thought, and they better lose some more weight.
| by Anonymous | reply 69 | September 6, 2018 2:13 AM |
Edie Sedgewick had bulimia and anorexia when she was a teenager, late 50s early 60s.
| by Anonymous | reply 70 | September 6, 2018 2:27 AM |
Downey has a restaurant named in Karen's honor!
| by Anonymous | reply 72 | September 6, 2018 8:47 PM |
OK. Who the hell is the DLer who uploaded this extremely bitchily named music video of Karen Carpenter: "A Very Sick Karen Carpenter sings live."
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 73 | September 6, 2018 8:55 PM |
Probably Richard Carpenter, R73.
| by Anonymous | reply 74 | September 6, 2018 9:03 PM |
She looks fine in the above video, in the OP on the other hand....
| by Anonymous | reply 75 | September 6, 2018 9:16 PM |
She looks pretty fucking horrible there, R75, but yes she is even worse in the OP!
| by Anonymous | reply 76 | September 6, 2018 9:20 PM |
R70 I never understood the fascination with Edie sedgewick. She always seemed to be the typical Manhattan spoiled trust fund girl.
| by Anonymous | reply 77 | September 6, 2018 9:23 PM |
Edie Sedgwick was a living car crash. We were all rubber necking at the gruesome spectacle, which was delivered with a grimy glamor.
| by Anonymous | reply 78 | September 6, 2018 10:06 PM |
[quote] Edie Sedgwick was a living car crash.
Karen Carpenter was a living skeleton.
| by Anonymous | reply 79 | September 7, 2018 6:42 AM |
Yeah the wrong Carpenter died for sure.
| by Anonymous | reply 80 | September 7, 2018 6:45 AM |
It’s shocking to believe that she was only 32. She looks at least 60 years old in these pics and videos.
| by Anonymous | reply 81 | September 7, 2018 7:14 AM |
You bitches are mean. I can tell you for a fact that Karen was a real ham, the whole enchilada, sweeter than pie!
| by Anonymous | reply 82 | September 7, 2018 3:09 PM |
Karen's mother really wanted to hurt her. Her early death was a bonus for Agnes
| by Anonymous | reply 83 | September 7, 2018 3:58 PM |
And Sue Ann's story in TFOL predated Karen's. Death by nearly four years.
My high school class ('77) had several girls with eating disorders
| by Anonymous | reply 85 | September 7, 2018 4:18 PM |
I'm a fat frau. Years ago I was seeing a female therapist and complaining about my weight and how I was discriminated against because of it. She suggested I take a water aerobics class, which I did sign up for. After the first class I complained to my therapist that the woman who was teaching the class was so thin that it was scary. My therapist rightfully gave me a lecture about what a hypocrite I was.
| by Anonymous | reply 86 | September 7, 2018 4:20 PM |
While she had a point R86, thin people are very fairly treated as shittily as the fat. Calling someone a skinny bitch has a completely different feel than a fat bitch. The first is often derived from envy, the other only from scorn.
| by Anonymous | reply 87 | September 7, 2018 4:27 PM |
OMG! Give Kaia a monocle and top hat and she's a dead ringer for Mr. Peanut!
| by Anonymous | reply 89 | September 7, 2018 10:27 PM |
I remember as a kid watching Saturday Night Live in the late '70s and early '80s and wondering why Laraine Newman and Gilda Radner weren't eating. They were emaciated, Newman especially. It was later revealed that both of them had eating disorders. Anorexic Laraine was down to 80 lbs at one point, and bulimic Gilda boasted of throwing up in every toilet in Rockefeller Center.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 90 | September 7, 2018 10:51 PM |
Oh yeah they were too r90, but I imagine everyone just assumed it was coke fueled, Karen was a total anti drugger so we all knew what her story was.
| by Anonymous | reply 91 | September 7, 2018 10:57 PM |
R73, my mom played Carpenters music all throughout my childhood, and I worked with anorexic patients for a year and that video makes me feel incredibly sad.
| by Anonymous | reply 92 | September 9, 2018 4:45 PM |
Seems to me that only a complete narsicisst would be anorexic, it is a very cruel disease.
| by Anonymous | reply 93 | September 9, 2018 4:51 PM |
R93, I would have thought the same thing, but in fact, the opposite is true. It was a cold day in hell if parents ever visited them.
| by Anonymous | reply 94 | September 9, 2018 4:56 PM |
[quote]I imagine everyone just assumed it was coke fueled, Karen was a total anti drugger so we all knew what her story was.
But Karen Carpenter *was* taking drugs to lose weight.
And there are reports of cocaine use and her brother went to rehab, so their squeaky clean image was just for the fans.
Their entire family is creepy.
| by Anonymous | reply 95 | September 9, 2018 5:00 PM |
Karen definitely didn't see herself as being a drug-using hippie or anything like that. In fact, she was probably disdainful of any drug-user (aside from laxatives).
And, yes, I bet Richard does post on DL.
| by Anonymous | reply 96 | September 9, 2018 5:02 PM |
Richard: Tell us about Karen's pussy.
| by Anonymous | reply 97 | September 9, 2018 5:07 PM |
I was with a guy for several years who had bulimia. I didn't know for years. He was very good at hiding it. I don't even remember how I found out, exactly. But I'm not sure I was super sensitive and caring about it. I think I had the attitude of "just don't do it".
| by Anonymous | reply 98 | September 9, 2018 5:21 PM |
When I was growing up, both of the sisters next door were anorexic.
I remember mowing the grass and one of them came over to say hello. It was really difficult to not look shocked or freaked out.
As I talked to her, I tried not to look at her skeleton.
| by Anonymous | reply 99 | September 9, 2018 5:35 PM |
r90 Gilda also lived on saccharine, nearly everything she ate and drank was full of it. She later wondered how much her chronic saccharine use contributed to her cancer.
| by Anonymous | reply 100 | September 9, 2018 6:35 PM |
[quote]Seems to me that only a complete narsicisst would be anorexic, it is a very cruel disease.
Anorexics are the opposite of narcissists, they have no self-esteem and think they're worthless. Karen Carpenter thought that way about herself.
| by Anonymous | reply 101 | September 9, 2018 6:36 PM |
R101 Well, it's still very inconsiderate to be anorexic.
| by Anonymous | reply 102 | September 9, 2018 6:49 PM |
That bitch needed to eat a burger.
| by Anonymous | reply 103 | September 9, 2018 9:02 PM |
Why do black women never have eating disorders?
Serious question.
| by Anonymous | reply 104 | September 9, 2018 9:10 PM |
Someone upthread mentioned Eugenia Cooney...what a fucking abomination that woman is. She still claims not to have an eating disorder while making a living 'cosplaying' (i.e., showing off her emaciated body) on YouTube.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 105 | September 9, 2018 9:28 PM |
[quote]Why do black women never have eating disorders?
Because they know their men prefer this look:
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 106 | September 9, 2018 9:32 PM |
Interesting the difference in treatment for Anorexia and tranny children, one they get therapy and talked down, the other they get off label untested drugs and irreversible surgeries, such lucky medical experiments now
| by Anonymous | reply 107 | September 9, 2018 9:45 PM |
I make that connection all the time r107, what they do with these kids is tantamount to telling Karen that she's right and that she would be happier if she lost ten more pounds. It's absolutely insane.
| by Anonymous | reply 108 | September 9, 2018 9:52 PM |
I look down on people who are anorexic because their 'disease' depends on people being shocked, enablers. And Munchausen mommies who get attention every time Pumpkin starts barfing again.
Really, if you were stranded on a desert island- would you be counting your calories? Worrying about how you look? It's like a totally suburban white chick thang.
| by Anonymous | reply 109 | September 9, 2018 9:59 PM |
Let them starve. Give their food to the children in Africa.
| by Anonymous | reply 110 | September 9, 2018 10:02 PM |
Ex anorexic here. It's a matter of feeling worthless and the whole body dysmorphia thing.
Myself, along with the other anorexics i knew, actually wanted to be left alone to starve ourselves. Sort of the opposite of being histrionic. "They're on to us." was not something you wanted to hear.
I stopped starving myself when I came to the conclusion that every time I looked in the mirror I was going to see a fat hog. No matter what.
As a aside, I felt nothing but contempt for the bulemics ( sorry, bulemics!) I thought they had no willpower and we're doin' it wrong.
| by Anonymous | reply 111 | September 9, 2018 10:10 PM |
R106 I said serious question!!
| by Anonymous | reply 112 | September 9, 2018 10:47 PM |
r109 answered it r112. They need parents to be shocked and enable them, to beg them to eat, etc. Some no nonsense black woman would tell them to cut that shit out and stop creating problems where there are none. Seriously.
| by Anonymous | reply 113 | September 9, 2018 11:00 PM |
R113, r112 just posted a pic of a big booty - haha. But thanks for at least attempting to give an answer.
| by Anonymous | reply 114 | September 9, 2018 11:39 PM |
George Carlin calls anorexics "Rich Cunts":
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 115 | September 9, 2018 11:41 PM |
no r114, I said r109 answered it, go back and read his post.
| by Anonymous | reply 116 | September 9, 2018 11:57 PM |
R116 what is this the days of slavery? Most women of any color aren’t worried about where their next meal is coming from?
If it were all about that, as black families became more prosperous like white families, we would see eating disorders on the rise among that demo. But we don’t.
| by Anonymous | reply 117 | September 10, 2018 12:02 AM |
Poor Karen Carpenter. If she'd only eaten Mama Cass's ham sandwich, they'd both be alive today.
| by Anonymous | reply 118 | September 10, 2018 12:19 AM |
But she supposedly died from gaining weight too fast r118, Dr. Levenkron had her on a feeding tube that made her gain like 20 pounds, her heart was fucked up from the emetics and it couldn't take the strain.
| by Anonymous | reply 119 | September 10, 2018 12:21 AM |
It's very important to be thin.
| by Anonymous | reply 120 | September 10, 2018 12:25 AM |
[quote]But she supposedly died from gaining weight too fast
She died of emetine, or Ipecac, cardiotoxicity. She was taking this to induce vomiting (after gaining weight back) and it damaged her heart considerably.
She was still mentally ill and thought she was too heavy at 108 pounds (her weight at death). She was desperate to lose weight and couldn’t starve herself as much since her meals were being closely monitored. So she resorted to vomiting.
Cardiotoxicity is a known risk of that drug. Abusing it like she was doing is what caused her death, not “gaining weight too fast”.
| by Anonymous | reply 121 | September 10, 2018 12:40 AM |
Where's that ex husband of hers, and the secrets he knows...?
| by Anonymous | reply 122 | September 10, 2018 12:55 AM |
I think he signed some kind of NDA r122, he got like a million dollars from her which was pretty good back then. I wish he would talk too.
| by Anonymous | reply 123 | September 10, 2018 12:56 AM |
Karen Ramone, the wife of the late producer Phil Ramone, was a very good friend of Karen's and she's given interviews on how fucked up Karen's family situation was. She's obviously no fan of Richard and talked about what an ice-cold bitch the mother was.
| by Anonymous | reply 124 | September 10, 2018 1:28 AM |
I remember wanting thighs just like Vera-Ellen in White Christmas when I was a teenager. Eleanor Powell’s jiggly thighs were disgusting.
| by Anonymous | reply 125 | September 10, 2018 3:20 AM |
Yes r124, and in the therapy session where Levenkron said, "Agnes, I want you to tell Karen you love her. " she got all bent out of shape that he addressed her as Agnes and not Mrs. Carpenter and derailed the whole thing. She seemed truly awful.
| by Anonymous | reply 126 | September 10, 2018 3:23 AM |
r126 Karen Ramone was interviewed for the Karen Carpenter bio "Little Girl Blue" that came out several years ago and she said a lot. One thing I can remember is that she couldn't figure out why Karen lived with her parents until she was in her mid-20s, when of course she had more than enough money to live on her own. Ramone said the entire family dynamic was very weird and unhealthy.
| by Anonymous | reply 127 | September 10, 2018 3:36 AM |
r7 Jennifer Jason Leigh in "The Best Little Girl in the World" (1981).
Jodie Foster was to play this role on break from college...but alas, she'd packed on the Freshman 15.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 128 | September 10, 2018 3:40 AM |
Yes I read it r127. I thought it was great!
| by Anonymous | reply 129 | September 10, 2018 3:41 AM |
Karen's anorexia tricks:
"As Mike Curb had witnessed a year earlier, friends and family began to notice extreme changes in Karen’s eating habits, despite her attempts at subtlety. She rearranged and pushed her food around the plate with a fork as she talked, which gave the appearance of eating.
Another of her strategies involved offering samples of her food to others around the table. She would rave on and on about her delicious meal and then insist that everyone at the table try it for themselves. “Here, you have some,” she would say as she enthusiastically scooped heaps of her own meal onto others’ plates. “Would you like to taste this?” By the time dinner was over, Karen’s plate was clean, but she had dispersed her entire meal to everyone else.
Agnes caught on to this ploy and began to do the same in return. “Well, this is good, too,” she would say as she put more food onto her daughter’s plate. This infuriated Karen, who realized she would have to nd other ways to successfully avoid eating.
| by Anonymous | reply 130 | September 10, 2018 4:06 AM |
[quote]r10 You can never be too rich or too thin.
Oh, I agree!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 131 | September 10, 2018 4:13 AM |
Karen also took laxatives constantly, and hid them the way an alcoholic hides bottles.
| by Anonymous | reply 132 | September 10, 2018 4:20 AM |
Yes r132, I can't even imagine that nightmare. Cherry Boone said that when she was anorexic she took about 30 or 60 laxatives a day because that's how many came in the box and she wanted to hide the evidence. The Barbi twins too said how they couldn't date or go out because of all their laxative use. Ugh, I shudder to think of their bathrooms.
| by Anonymous | reply 133 | September 10, 2018 4:25 AM |
Black women have eating disorders. Maybe not as much as whites, but they certainly have them. And, often, like mental health issues in the Black community, there's resistance to acknowledging it and seeking help.
| by Anonymous | reply 134 | September 10, 2018 4:39 AM |
These wackos must shit constantly from all the laxatives.
But then again, they don’t eat anything... so what do the laxatives really do?
| by Anonymous | reply 135 | September 10, 2018 4:48 AM |
R111. Were your parents controlling perfectionists is that just a cliche?
| by Anonymous | reply 136 | September 10, 2018 4:50 AM |
Is constantly obsessing about food, always being on some diet for show (while still eating bad and drinking) an eating disorder? My sister isn't anorexic or bulimic, but she's insanely food-obsessive. It's like a fiction in her mind. Other than through the age of 25, she's never lost a lot of weight. She eats and drinks too much. Yet, she freaks out if our parents want to go to a place that doesn't have enough healthy options . We'll go out for pizza and she'll pick at a slice and have a salad, but then eat bad out of the presence of other people. She's always just about to start getting serious about her diet and CONSTANTLY talks about food and diet and how she was "bad today" so she has to be good tomorrow. Is food obsession an eating disorder?
| by Anonymous | reply 137 | September 10, 2018 5:04 AM |
Orthorexia, r137? Or binge eating disorder, possibly.
| by Anonymous | reply 138 | September 10, 2018 7:16 PM |
[quote] Karen rearranged and pushed her food around the plate with a fork as she talked, which gave the appearance of eating. Another of her strategies involved offering samples of her food to others around the table. She would rave on and on about her delicious meal and then insist that everyone at the table try it for themselves. “Here, you have some,” she would say as she enthusiastically scooped heaps of her own meal onto others’ plates. “Would you like to taste this?” By the time dinner was over, Karen’s plate was clean, but she had dispersed her entire meal to everyone else.
Cassie Ainsworth from the tv show SKINS had a monologue in one episode where she ran down some of her main ED tactics, and they were these exactly.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 139 | September 10, 2018 7:30 PM |
Lifestories Families in Crisis (HBO) The Secret Life of Mary Margaret was the first 'piece' I'd ever seen on EDs. Loved that series in all its cliched cheesy trope glory.
| by Anonymous | reply 140 | September 11, 2018 5:49 PM |
A realistic portrayal came from a British soap of all places. In 1995 the weekly drama BROOKSIDE featured a young teen character Katie Rogers who had bulimia and a fairly serious case of dysmorphia. Apparently it arose from her ambition to become an actress/dancer and anxiety about that.
For '90s teatime telly it was graphic, airing indiscreet shots of the poor girl sticking her fingers down her throat and vomiting. Kids & families saw this, which I suppose was the point of a 'very special storyline'.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 141 | September 11, 2018 6:01 PM |
^^forget to add; this same character also considered/attempted suicide at the end of her arc.
| by Anonymous | reply 142 | September 11, 2018 6:03 PM |
I knew two anorexic girls in the 1970s, but there wasn't a word for it, so they were just weirdos who atestrange things, puked, and were too skinny. One girl ate with her too long fingernails like chopsticks, and the other girl only licked food. Both girls were from privileged families. What's funny is that we just considered it eccentric, which is how all difference was handled back then.
| by Anonymous | reply 143 | September 11, 2018 6:05 PM |
I know black guys who fetishise cankles. Part of anorexia really is cultural.
| by Anonymous | reply 144 | September 11, 2018 8:07 PM |
R137 - see orthorexia.
There used to be these running blogger fraus who would post intricate and expensive recipes for cookies and cakes. They would eat one serving and douse the remains in bleach or detergent before throwing it out.
Fetishising and ritualising food and meals and obsessing about it rather than, you know, just eating, is a form of mental illness.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 145 | September 11, 2018 8:12 PM |
[quote]Didn't Karen Carpenter come out with a cookbook at one point?
No. The publishing deal unfortunately fell through when she submitted chapters 1-7 on a Post-It note.
| by Anonymous | reply 146 | September 11, 2018 8:59 PM |
One of my friends went anorectic in high school in the late seventies. She'd been a bit plump and dropped from a medium to an XXS, and nobody talked about getting treatment for her. Instead the Mean Girls started being nicer to her, she dropped most of her nerdy friends and became "popular", and her parents started buying her much nicer clothes. I have no idea what happened to her after graduation.
Anyway, my personal theory about anorexia is that it's related to perfectionism, which IMHO ought to be considered a form of mental illness or personality disorder. You know how a perfectionist will throw out something if it's scratched or is found to have some kind of minor flaw, because they think that if a thing isn't perfect it's worthless and not worth owning? Well, part of the mindset that leads to anorexia is firmly believing that if there's a flaw then you're worthless, and it's absolutely NOT OKAY to have a flaw such as being fat. Of course there's no such thing as a human being without a bajillion flaws, and if the person becomes obsessed with eliminating the flaw of fatness, it's because that's a flaw that can be controlled. So much easier to concentrate on the flaw that can't be controlled such as weight, rather than ones that can't, such as your fucked-up parents.
| by Anonymous | reply 147 | September 11, 2018 9:19 PM |
Karen Carpenter is the Gold Standard to which all modern day anorexics are compared:
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 148 | September 11, 2018 9:21 PM |
Then, it was an illness.
Now, it's one of the job qualifications for an entry-level position in the fashion industry.
| by Anonymous | reply 150 | September 11, 2018 10:00 PM |
Today, though, there is a lot more experience with treating it and a lot more knowledge about it among the public and ways to seek help.
Today there are a lot of success stories of people who have recovered... and you don’t hear about many deaths from eating disorders today.
| by Anonymous | reply 151 | September 11, 2018 10:04 PM |
This thread has made me really hungry.
| by Anonymous | reply 152 | September 11, 2018 10:05 PM |
I always wondered if Joan Van Arkham an eating disorder. She was possessed with running but I attributed that due to being anorexia.
Being anorexia or bulimic is usually something the person can be in full control.
| by Anonymous | reply 153 | September 11, 2018 10:14 PM |
R153, some anorexics use excercise as a governor. I would think after a while they would be too weak though.
| by Anonymous | reply 154 | September 11, 2018 10:23 PM |
I first encountered anorexia via one of my favorite bands growing up. Daniel Johns of Australian grunge band Silverchair was the first man in popular music to openly admit that he suffered with the disorder, and even wrote a hit song about his experiences with ED titled 'Ana's Song' ('Ana' being a pet-name for anorexia, as 'Mia' is for bulimia). In the music video for the song, Daniel appears as himself undergoing treatment in hospital (and is quite thin/gaunt).
[quote] In 1999, Johns announced that he had developed the eating disorder anorexia nervosa due to anxiety. Johns noted that the lyrics to "Ana's Song (Open Fire)" dealt with his disorder ("And Ana wrecks your life/like an anorexia life"), where he would "eat what he needed [...] to stay awake." He revealed that his eating problems developed from when the album NEON BALLROOM was written, and that at the time he "hated music, really everything about it" but felt that he "couldn't stop doing it; like a slave to it." Johns sought therapy and medication.
'Ana's Song' was a strong cut from Silverchair (though 'Is ra el's Son' is a better song on their better album, FROGSTOMP).
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 155 | September 11, 2018 11:46 PM |
R149 Which cunt added Terry Schiavo to the list of celebrity anorexics?!? That is hilarious!
| by Anonymous | reply 156 | September 11, 2018 11:56 PM |
Silly girls, they should go REALLY old school and get a tape worm.
| by Anonymous | reply 157 | September 12, 2018 12:01 AM |
R137 There’s also something in the DSM-5 called Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder (OSFED, previously known as EDNOS). It’s sort of a blanket category for those who don’t fit into the specific criteria for Anorexia or Bulimia. It is also possible for someone to not meet all the criteria for a full-fledged eating disorder, but still have habits around food that can be considered “disordered eating.”
| by Anonymous | reply 159 | September 12, 2018 12:31 AM |
R136 My mother was completely and totally controlling. A narcissist too.
But she died when I was ten and from then on I was pretty much on my own. My father was aspies and not exactly an ideal parent. I was half feral after a few years with him at the helm.
I felt like I couldn't control anything, but it wasn't because somebody else was controlling me. It was more like I felt like I was too incompetent and ineffectual to accomplish anything.
I was really good at starving though.
| by Anonymous | reply 160 | September 12, 2018 12:40 AM |
R159 R137 The answer may be more simple than that. When you starve yourself, you obsess about food constantly. It's like the starving is making you nutty and obsessive in ways totally unrelated to whatever caused you to starve yourself in the first place.
That's why anorexics love to cook for other people, or make weird elaborate recipes for themselves, or impose all sorts of strange rules on themselves about what they eat and how.
| by Anonymous | reply 161 | September 12, 2018 12:46 AM |
[quote][R149] Which cunt added Terry Schiavo to the list of celebrity anorexics?!? That is hilarious!
That’s not a joke. Terry was really an anorexic. That’s what caused her cardiac arrest, much like Karen Carpenter, at a young age... and left her in a Persistent Vegetative State after she was resuscitated.
It was just a cruel irony that she ended up dying of starvation after years of court battles over whether or not she should be fed via a tube.
| by Anonymous | reply 162 | September 12, 2018 1:20 AM |
No she was bulimic r162, that's why her potassium levels were so off.
| by Anonymous | reply 163 | September 12, 2018 1:23 AM |
[quote] Agnes caught on to this ploy and began to do the same in return. “Well, this is good, too,” she would say as she put more food onto her daughter’s plate. This infuriated Karen
I am bigger, I am stronger, and I will always beat you!
| by Anonymous | reply 164 | September 12, 2018 1:36 AM |
I first heard of it in junior high. A girl named Nancy had both. She was 6 ft tall, and thought she was ugly and fat. She was actually gorgeous and thin.
Anyhow, she’s make herself vomit right before class, and right after lunch. She talked about it quite openly with us girls, and she thought it was normal behavior, and a good technique to achieve her ultra thin goal.
Years later, I reconnected with her briefly on Facebook, as I had with other classmates. She was bigger than a house, and had married a dwarf. The wedding photos on FB were something out of a circus program. She even had photos of the little guy sitting on her lap and gazing at her lovingly.
I’m sorry, but I laughed REALLY hard for about a week looking at her FB posts. I’m even cracking up now, as I recall laughing about it back then.
I no longer have FB, and have surprisingly become a SLIGHTLY better person, as a result.
| by Anonymous | reply 165 | September 12, 2018 1:50 AM |
Terry Schiavo certainly fit the profile for having an eating disorder. Her parents seemed like enormous, over-controlling cunts who wouldn’t even allow her to die peacefully according to her own wishes.
The decision to remove her feeding tube legally belonged to her husband, but the parents fought it and took their bullshit all the way to the Governor of Florida (Jeb Bush) and the US Congress.
Unbelievable.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 166 | September 12, 2018 1:51 AM |
I think the biggest thing that Terri would have hated was that her parents fucking showed her off constantly in this unrecognizable and fucked up state she was living in. For someone who was so image conscious, I doubt she would have wanted to be showcased like that. And yeah, Michael made sure to let Jeb Bush know that he would fucking do all he could to not let him become president after that shit show.
| by Anonymous | reply 167 | September 12, 2018 1:56 AM |
[quote]That's why anorexics love to cook for other people, or make weird elaborate recipes for themselves
That's preposterous!
| by Anonymous | reply 168 | September 12, 2018 2:10 AM |
[quote]That's why anorexics love to cook for other people, or make weird elaborate recipes for themselves
I love to cook for others... and I ain’t no anorexic!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 169 | September 12, 2018 2:16 AM |
Jane Fonda admitted in her memoir she actually enjoyed the act of purging. She felt a rush and it was like a drug to her.
She purged up to 8 times a day for decades, but always looked much healthier and more fit than Karen.
| by Anonymous | reply 170 | September 12, 2018 3:13 AM |
[quote] I reconnected with her briefly on Facebook, as I had with other classmates. She was bigger than a house, and had married a dwarf. The wedding photos on FB were something out of a circus program. She even had photos of the little guy sitting on her lap and gazing at her lovingly.
R165 interesting you mention this; the most extreme anorexic I knew in school (and I knew a ton, it was a girls' highschool) is now almost thirty and engaged to marry a short chairbound man with severe disabilities (not sure what he suffers from, only that he has a device to help him speak and eat and that he has learning difficulties).
Since her illness she has also become a very devout Christian woman (she has learned to speak/read Hebrew and is best friends with a Rabbi and is more or less obsessed with animals, keeping rats & chickens & big scary hound-dogs running around her tiny house to keep her fiancée company. She flies cross-country routinely to showjump horses, too. This is totally different to how I knew her in school, where she was a virginal lesbian atheist dancer with her focus poured into her arts/academic education (particularly classical music) and into starving/purging.
If she's truly happy and "living her truth" (as much as I hate that phrase) then good luck to her. She's eating and I guess her life is better now with Jesus/a menagerie in it instead of the demon ED, but talk about a personality 180. We had a falling out just after she got sick (at the time I didn't know how bad it would get) and haven't spoken for like a decade so I'm praying I don't get suddenly invited to the wedding out the blue. It would be very uncomfortable.
| by Anonymous | reply 171 | September 12, 2018 8:25 AM |
^^ Not as well as you might think, because your body starts sucking nutrients and calories and fat etc. right out of what you've eaten as soon as it enters your system. So, even if you throw up, it's not like you never ate it.
(Or, so I read...)
I used to occassionally throw up if I came back from somewhere and had regrets about what I'd eaten. Reading that's what put Terri Schiavo in the hospital made me realize those days were over. It's not worth your brain exploding.
| by Anonymous | reply 173 | September 12, 2018 10:50 AM |
A person who claimed to know Eugenia Cooney said that she really isn't anorexic in the classic sense but that she is severly autistic and repulsed by the act of eating because of her autism.
| by Anonymous | reply 174 | September 12, 2018 4:10 PM |
Charles Schulz ran two cartoons in 1981 about Joan of Arc being anorexic.
| by Anonymous | reply 175 | September 12, 2018 4:29 PM |
The only time I’ve been dangerously thin, was when I used cocaine regularly. And it didn’t look good.
Being underweight (not anorexic) never looks good, and is very unhealthy. Women who seek out this look, and men who seek out women who seek to look like that, are under a delusion caused by decades of advertising designed to make us unhappy with our authentic selves.
It’s all silly bullshit, that is absolutely meaningless in the now, and certainly in the end. And please allow me to reiterate, I’m not discussing anorexia or bulimia, which are actual mental illnesses. I’m talking about this constant search for perfection in ourselves, and others. It a burdensome way to live. I’m glad I’m over all of that crap.
I’d rather be healthy and fit at a normal weight , than look like a walking string of spaghetti.
| by Anonymous | reply 176 | September 13, 2018 2:06 AM |
CHILD star Lena zavaroni was another early example in the 80s.
Buster crabbe’s daughter died of anorexia in the 50s.
| by Anonymous | reply 177 | September 13, 2018 2:23 AM |
I had never heard of Zavaroni r177, thanks. That's so sad and she was quite talented. It's usually fatal and I guess that's why she chose to get the operation that then later led to her getting pneumonia and dying. This case was sad too but they're so intent on destruction.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 178 | September 13, 2018 5:55 AM |
r166 But Terri's parents weren't all that controlling until she was in that vegetative state. I remember when all this happened I bought the book her mom wrote when they had it at the dollar store. I guess Terri was pretty blimpy her whole life and she was cross eyed too until her eye finally straightened out. Her mom said that growing up she "hated exercise and being outdoors and reading and liked to watch tv and play with the family cat" or something, and it stuck me as so sad that even her mom couldn't make her sound like she was particularly interesting person. Anyhow, she finally decided to lose weight when she was 19 I think and did it with some water diet. My point is, if her parents had been on top of her shit and made her do stuff when she was young, this all could have been averted. Maybe that's why they were so controlling after she collapsed. Like Jahi McMath's mom.
| by Anonymous | reply 179 | September 13, 2018 7:09 AM |
[quote]r177 Lena Zavaroni was another early example in the 80s.
How apt that one of her songs was [italic]"All I Need is the Air That I Breathe"
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 180 | September 13, 2018 7:31 AM |
I can't even breath right now!
| by Anonymous | reply 181 | September 13, 2018 7:39 AM |
No mention of Giuliana Rancic in this thread?
I saw her not long ago on a rerun of the Donny Osmond "Pyramid" and she was normal looking and came off as intelligent.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 182 | September 13, 2018 7:51 AM |
[quote] Men who seek out women who seek to look like that, are under a delusion caused by decades of advertising designed to make us unhappy with our authentic selves.
IME straight men who seek out women partners with these disorders are looking for an impressionable female they can prey upon and easily exert control over, then show off as a status symbol.
| by Anonymous | reply 183 | September 13, 2018 8:58 AM |
independent medical examination (?)
| by Anonymous | reply 184 | September 13, 2018 9:02 AM |
R182 is being sarcastic, right?
| by Anonymous | reply 185 | September 15, 2018 1:05 PM |
R183, I agree with that as well.
A friend of mine posited that these men are actually pedos. She worked as a stripper, and said that the very skinny girls with no boobs often made more money when they dressed like little girls on stage and during lap dances. Seriously gross theory, but she stood by her theory.
A male friend of mine’s theory was that men who sought these women out, had small cocks.
| by Anonymous | reply 186 | September 15, 2018 8:58 PM |
R165, I’m a good person & you’re post made me lol
I’ll go to hell with you.
| by Anonymous | reply 187 | September 15, 2018 9:27 PM |
R165, is it wrong of me to ask you to post a link to her FB page?
| by Anonymous | reply 188 | September 15, 2018 10:08 PM |
