Friday, November 17, 2006
'Thin' Line
In a new documentary, director Lauren Greenfield explores the “girl culture” around being stick-skinny and its devastating mental and physical effects.
By Bob Condor for MSN Health & Fitness
Find More
Anorexia
Binge Eating
Bulimia
As a self-described cultural observer, Lauren Greenfield doesn’t see any dry land for young girls in the sea of media messages about the ideal female body type. In fact, she says today’s preteen and teenage girls are in the deepest waters yet.
“Everything is so much more focused on the external every year,” Greenfield says. “They see and hear about the ability to transform themselves, to do a total makeover.”
Somewhere along the way, the idea of simply being yourself, liking and loving yourself, can get lost.
“It all makes it hard for girls to figure out who they really are,” she says.
In the HBO documentary film Thin (watch the preview), which debuts Tuesday, Nov. 14, Greenfield examines that struggle for self-identity among four women who are undergoing treatment for eating disorders at Renfrew Center’s Coconut Creek, Fla., location. The documentary is undeniably compelling as it follows the four through the ups, downs and way-downs of being dangerously thin. In a conversation with MSN Health & Fitness, Greenfield talks about her goal of connecting eating disorders and mental health.
MSN Health & Fitness: The public perception about eating disorders tends to lump them into more of a socialization issue rather than medical condition. You have talked about the glamorization factor when it is reported a celebrity is facing a disorder.
Greenfield: Definitely. My hope for this film is that people take eating disorders for the serious mental illnesses and life-threatening conditions that they are. There are devastating physical outcomes.
MSN Health & Fitness: One of the most effective parts of the film is when one of the women facing a disorder brings her own food to Thanksgiving dinner. That shows how the disorder can separate a person, even from loved ones.
Greenfield: It’s so easy for us to think that you can get yourself out of an eating disorder. It’s all around these women. That’s why in the film I kept the footage of one woman’s father coming to visit. He basically was saying, “Please snap out of it.” It is difficult to understand how someone reaches that point [of feeling that consuming any food is eating too much]. It is an instinctual, basic part of life, to feed ourselves and have a meal.
MSN Health & Fitness: Your film holds little back. There are parts that almost hard to watch.
Greenfield: I’m lucky to be working with HBO on this project. I got the support that I didn’t have to pander to someone’s weak stomach. My feeling is if these women are brave enough to show their reality in all of its harshness, then we would keep the camera rolling.
MSN Health & Fitness: The camera follows some deep story lines over a good amount of time.
Greenfield: We worked over six months, up to 10 to 12 to 14 hours a day. But my approach is not to worry about being quiet with the camera, or, say, avoiding using a flash with my photography. It’s all about building relationships. Being there day to day for the emotional journey of these women is a big part of it.
MSN Health & Fitness: You mentioned photography. Your previous work rests squarely in photo exhibits and books reporting through images and words what you have called the “girl culture” in America. This Thin project has an accompanying book. Your Girl Culture book was turned into a traveling museum photo exhibit that has been on tour for four years. How does film work compare to photography for you?
Greenfield: It’s my first time directing a film. The Thin project feels more complete because there are parts of the story that the film tells best. You get deeper into the women’s stories. I made a conscious decision to keep experts out of the film to keep the strong narrative, but the book has couple of essays from people who can speak to how to treat the eating disorders. The photos in the book connect people more tangibly.
MSN Health & Fitness: How did you connect to this work in the first place?
Greenfield: I haven’t had an eating disorder. Yet as teen I was worried about designer jeans, the right clique and I dieted. Part of the reason why I have focused my work on this girl culture in our country is because I grew up in a family where that sort of physical obsessing was not encouraged. My mother was a professor of psychology and my father was a professor of medicine. They were careful to protect me. In fact, my mom told me when I was little that the doctor said I had a higher percentage weight for my height. But she never told me that. Yet I still obsessed about clothes.
MSN Health & Fitness:Thin is that obsessed girl culture taken to a more disturbing level.
Greenfield: Yes, it is the offshoot to the most extreme, the most pathological, the most self-destructive. An eating disorder is not about the food, but the emotional illness. It shows how intelligent women go to any lengths to be thin, even risking dying to get there.
Join the Discussions in Message Boards:
"Anorexic Who Needs Help"
"It Felt So Good After Throwing Up"
"What Do You Do When You're Accused of Having an Eating Disorder?"
Nutrition Message Board
Mental Health Message Board
Read More About Eating Disorders on MSN Health & Fitness:
Eating Disorders at Midlife
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Eating Disorders
Anorexia Treatment: When Less Is More
Bob Condor is the managing editor of MSN Health & Fitness.
I think this is all for today. Well, girls out there see what is the side effect when you do too much on diet?
with l0v3, The only tame shark
9:07 AM
