Industry | 2009.11.20
Moss's motto comforts 'pro-anorexics'
• Interview comments criticised as dangerous
• Agent says words were taken out of context
When the supermodel Kate Moss, in a rare online interview this week, told readers that one of her mottos was "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels", the fallout was instant, vitriolic and damning.
Susan Ringwood, chief executive of Beat, an eating disorder charity, said Moss\'s words were "potentially very dangerous" because they were strongly associated with pro-anorexia websites. "This phrase is often used as one of their 10 commandments or mantras. And it is young women between the age of 12-20 who are the most at risk from anorexia, which is unfortunately the same group that could be influenced by celebrity culture."
There is already evidence that Moss\'s comments have found some sympathetic ears within the "pro-ana" community. One blogger wrote: "Its kinda true, nothing tastes as good as skinny feels – exactly. But that\'s not gonna make me anorexic! At least I don\'t think so. I just ate 700 cals …Thank goodness for [the] encouragement, or i swear i was on my way to the toilet bowl."
One user of Twitter said Moss should be able to say what she wanted. "Did it really come as such a shock? C\'mon," she wrote, adding: "Anyways, she\'s right."
According to Ringwood, anorexia – which accounts for 10% of eating disorders in the UK – has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, with 20% of cases resulting in death. A recent comparison of young women in recovery from anorexia and those who continued to resist help found very little difference between them, she added. "One day they could feel strong enough to ask for help, the next they may feel too worthless. Anything that might encourage them to take a more negative view could stop them getting the help they need."
Pro-anorexia websites, which often display pictures of emaciated looking women to provide "thinspiration" to users and tips on how to fool doctors and falsify weight, outnumbered recovery sites five to one, she said.
"These sites are toxic and very dangerous. While some are run by girls with anorexia there is a clear link to pornography and evidence that there are people who get sexual gratification from grooming young girls and getting them to post pictures of themselves online."
Moss\'s words, which appeared on fashion news website WWD, have also provoked a fierce backlash from eating disorder survivors as well as several figures public figures. Television presenter Denise Van Outen, said the model was "talking out of her size zero backside", adding "Having been in the industry for so long, she knows the impact her comments will have on vulnerable young women."
The vast majority of people tweeting about the subject were critical of Moss\'s comments, with one user wondering whether "Kate Moss\'s skinny tastes like chocolate?", while MrsGerrard wrote: "HATE kate moss. perfect example to teenagers? ha! BS! she doesnt even know the meaning of beatiful! (sic)"
Some recovering anorexics were dismayed at her choice of the heavily-loaded phrase. One blogger, who according to her profile is a eating disorder survivor, wrote: "Seriously, Kate Moss has saddened, frustrated and annoyed me. Like the pro-ana mvmt needs more spokespeople."
Another regular user of pro-anorexia websites, who did not want to be named, called the comments irresponsible. "She\'s making unhealthy attitudes and behaviours seem somehow attractive," she said. "A lot of young girls see her as some kind of an icon so promoting these kinds of attitudes is really inappropriate. It really made me angry when I heard about it."
A spokeswoman for Moss\'s model agency Storm said her comments had been taken out of context, and there was little suggestion that the model would apologise. "This was part of a longer answer Kate gave during a wider ranging interview which has unfortunately been taken out of context and misrepresented," she said. "For the record, Kate does not support this as a lifestyle choice."
The Liberal Democrats are calling for a "traffic light" system on advertisements that use air-brushing, and a ban on airbrushing in adverts aimed at children. Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone said the storm created by Moss\'s comments reflected a desire for change in society.
"We have to find some way of making this a fair battle," she said. "One the one hand you have the giants of the fashion, beauty and diet industries who make people feel bad about themselves in order to sell things to them, and on the other you have normal people who want change."
But while she welcomed debate around the issue, she feared the consequences would be far from positive. "Kate Moss is such an icon that I worry that it is her words that will stick in their minds."
\'I never went anywhere without this slogan written on my hand. It was my mantra\'
As an anorexic teenager, I never went anywhere without the slogan "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" written in a notebook or on my hand.
I had found the words in a women\'s magazine, along with yet another editorial designed to persuade women readers that shrinking our bodies would improve our lives, and I adopted them as a mantra to help diminish the terrible hunger I felt inside. I was ferociously hungry, not just for the food I was avoiding, but for love, learning and adventure – all the good things in life that felt out of my reach.
Like most anorexics, my eating disorder was not a girlish fad or a diet gone wrong but a private, violent strategy for exerting control on the body when life felt beyond my control. Eating disorders can strike people of all ages and both genders, but for young women like me, growing up in a society which demands impossible perfection and peddles airbrushed beauty, eating disorders pose a particular threat.
I soon discovered that skinny tastes of nothing at all. Living with an eating disorder is a bland, cold, joyless experience. But it took me five years to let go of the idea that in order to be loved, I had to take up as little space as possible. Discovering feminism was the turning point for me – meeting inspirational women made me brave enough to risk imperfection, to speak with my own voice. As I put on weight, my confidence grew, and I became desperate to taste all the flavours of life and learning that I had denied myself for so long.
Now that I am recovered, I keep a different notebook in my desk drawer. On the inside cover, I\'ve written in bold red letters: "Things that taste better than skinny feels." Whenever something new and exciting happens in my life – a life that is immeasurably more whole than the half-life I lived as an anorexic – I add it to the list. All sorts of things turned out to taste better than skinny feels: graduating from university, having the energy to dance all night in grunge clubs, having sex without physical shame, getting my first commission as a freelance journalist. Whenever I feel frightened, whenever I\'m overwhelmed by messages that I can\'t be happy or successful at a normal weight, I look at that list and remember the sweeter taste of freedom.
Laurie Penny
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2[...]0/kate-moss-motto-pro-anorexic
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