Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_21wWPHQZI
“Please don’t hurl too much, because if you get any thinner I’m gonna start looking fat,” Brooke, the head cheerleader in the show One Tree Hill, nonchalantly says to her best friend in an early episode. It’s unclear if her friend really is bulimic, but regardless, viewers learn that purging isn’t the issue — making your best friend look “fat” is.
Even young viewers are targeted: The seventh episode of the Disney Channel show Shake It Up portrays a model who, in awe of the two thirteen-year-old main characters, declares that she “could just eat you guys up! You know, if I ate.” The entire cast laughs. Refusing to eat is normalized, not raised as a point of concern or serious issue.
The truth of the matter is that it is an issue. There are currently seventy million people worldwide who have eating disorders, ninety-five per cent of whom are between the ages of twelve and twenty-five. Most assume that thin models on the runway and covers of magazines are the primary images driving this phenomenon. This may be a significant factor, but the television industry is another, under-discussed force encouraging such disorders.
Television shows and the messages they transmit influence their viewers. Studies show that there is a relationship between watching television featuring “thin ideals” and eating disorders and/or negative body image among young viewers. Instead of reinforcing this damaging message, why can’t shows use their power for good and teach adolescents that there is nothing glamorous or right about eating disorders?
Full House, a popular sitcom in the late 80s and early 90s, accomplished this well. In one episode, the oldest daughter of the Tanner family, DJ, begins to starve herself and exercise excessively. Her father sits her down for a heartfelt talk, telling her that “people come in all different shapes and sizes.” He asks her why she likes her friends, and she responds that they are nice and have fun together. He point out that she failed to include their looks in her answer. “How a person looks on the outside isn’t nearly as important as who they are on the inside,” he concludes, ultimately managing to acknowledge that teenage insecurity is normal, but disordered eating and exercising unhealthy in a single episode, undoubtedly influencing countless viewers.
Shows currently on the air would do well to follow this example. Recent shows like Skins and Pretty Little Liars normalize eating disorders, treating them as a relatively unremarkable character trait or mild inconvenience. It’s no surprise, therefore, that as shows continue to broadcast these sorts of messages, rates for eating disorders continue to increase. TV shows must consider their influence to be not only a privilege, but also a responsibility. The television industry needs to take charge and recognize that eating disorders must not be considered a social norm, but the damaging disorder they truly are.
