Portrayal of Eating Disorders in the Media

[Rawiyah]

What do you think of how the media portrays eating disorders?

I've seen two different sides of it,
The "let's make it a joke" kind of thing, where TV shows will make light of eating disorders and thereby make it less serious.
Then I've seen the "let's show the WORST possible scenarios" where the characters are suffering the WORST symptoms, in the WORST conditions and they are receiving no help or support whatsoever for their disorder.

And then there's the issue of men with eating disorders.
Why aren't they portrayed in the media as often as women are?

 

[lauren]

Because I think men aren't expected to be insecure about their appearance, they're expected to be big tough men and not have problems which are associated with women wanting to lose weight. Which of course is bullshit.

Also; whenever I see anyone who has an eating disorder on TV they are always almost-dead-anorexic. Not all people with eating disorders suffer for anorexia and simply have the issues with bulimia etc.
Too many people treat this like its a drama story where pathetic young fragile girls want to be thin when that just isn't the case. Anyone and everyone of any gender, size, shape, race, orientation or religion can be insecure about themselves and turn to an eating disorder and its something really, really serious. It's not a pathetic cry for help when it's real, because people don't just stop eating for a fad. If the eating disorder is a real thing going on in someone's life, the last thing they need is to be made to feel like they're doing something dramatised. It may be **** well serious, but girls who do fake it shouldn't be shown how much attention and drama it gets on TV. They should be shown the real struggles these people go through and appreciate it.

I knew someone with bulimia and they were actually a little bit overweight if anything, that's why they said they did it, and it broke my heart that other people could mentally hurt someone so much that they made someone psychically stop eating; killing themselves. I highly dislike how lightly eating disorders can be taken; too many people think its a fake cry for attention when all they want in their mind is to be different, to be *pretty* or to just fit in.