"There's no such thing as being too thin, as long as you don't pass out

True colours of Anorexia: "there's no such thing as being too thin, as long as you don't pass out.” 

By Timotej Letonja, January 2014 

With each day further there is more and more information and knowledge about anorexia, which is one of the most common eating disorders. Every human being seeks for perfection, but does perfection even exsist? There are plenty of reasons why we should be perfect. For example not being good enough, being unhappy with how you look. Also athletes seek for perfection, gymnasts especially, because if they weigh less, they are able to do more, jump higher etc. So is this disease actually curable and do people who are struggling with it have a chance to ever get completely better? Years ago it was written about manorexia, a growing trend of eating disorders that predominantly only affected women, which were now seeping into the XY chromosome world. Men like Dennis Quaid, an admitted manorexic, admitted to binge eating. In 1990, men made up 10% of the population with an eating disorder. Now they make up 25%.

Vogue's decision to ban images of women who ”appear to have an eating disorder” is a move that should be celebrated, writes Tyra Banks. The supermodel encourages models, girls and mothers everywhere to spring into action. The editors of Vogue's 19 international editions all over the world have pledged to ban models from their pages who ”appear to have an eating disorder” to create healthy backstage working conditions, as well as several other revolutionary initiatives. When I started modeling, I used to see models who seemed unhealthy backstage at fashion shows. They appeared to be abusing their bodies to maintain a certain weight. These girls were booked over and over again for countless fashion shows and photo shoots. Now, real progress is finally on the horizon. Vogue is stepping up, doing the right thing and protecting the models, both male and female. People get upset with you if you're a very thin model. What many don't know is that a certain sample size has been set by the industry and you're doing everything in your power to keep working. At times I feel there's an unspoken rule that says, “There's no such thing as being too thin, as long as you don't pass out.” Isabelle Caro, a French model and actress, who became the international face of anorexia when she allowed her ravaged body to be photographed nude for an Italian advertising campaign to raise awareness about the disease, died on November 17 2010. She was 28.

Though her anorexia was almost certainly a factor in her death, it's exact role was not clear, and her weight at her death was not known. But Ms Caro weighed only about 60 pounds when she posed, reclining and staring balefully over her right shoulder, for an advertising campaign for the Italian fashion label Nolita in 2007. She was 5 feet 4 inches tall and had battled anorexia since the age of 13. The image, displayed on billboards and in newspapers as Fashion Week got under way that year in Milan, was shocking. Ms Caro's face was emaciated, her arms and legs mere sticks, her teeth seemingly too large for her mouth. 

Manorexia is on the rise: Experts blame pressure from male models as more men than ever suffer from eating disorders (One in five eating disorder sufferers is male, number of victims admitted to hospital up 66 per cent in past decade. Experts blame obsession with the 'perfect' body shape). The pressure to look like a male model is driving more men to develop dangerous eating disorders, experts warned today. Medical experts blame the surge on an obsession with looking good by having bulging biceps and a six-pack stomach.

published in: Heartbeat, January-February 2014