Don Winslow makes powerful films and this is another one of them. His thesis is that Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook and Instagram websites contain a lot of pages which trigger bad body image and that in turn creates issues, both mental and physical, for young women. Anorexia is promoted on some websites and Facebook/Instagram pages. They are called “pro-ana” sites and anorexia is portrayed as a life style choice as opposed to what it is, an eating disorder. Thin, thin, thin, that’s the mantra. And if you end up with osteoporosis and other ailments, that’s the price tag that no one talks about.
There are psychological price tags as well, depression and suicidal thoughts being among them. Sometimes the suicidal thoughts get carried out.
NEW VIDEO: #DeleteZuckerberg
How many young women have to die Mark Zuckerberg? pic.twitter.com/CdgJds84Ww
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) October 7, 2021
I didn’t experience the effect of social media on a young person because obviously we weren’t dealing with this in my generation. The internet and Facebook were not around in the 50’s and 60’s. TV certainly was, and I remember Twiggy, the anorexic Carnaby Street model with the white lipstick. A lot of us wanted to be her, and maybe more of us would have tried if we were carrying around 24/7 digital access to her image in our purses.
We live in a culture where physical beauty is idealized and physical beauty is very much defined these days by being rail thin. That’s part of the problem. Not being overweight is a good idea. That’s an intelligent health choice to make. Being 30 pounds or more underweight is not such an intelligent choice but that is a direction a lot of girls and young women go because they’re chasing some impossible ideal, no matter the health risk.
I knew a young anorexic woman who had gotten to the point of missed periods. That’s very anorexic. She actually asked me if I could get her more diet pills, which she pronounced, “am-phet-uh-meenas,” since Spanish was her native tongue. She was dating a guy I worked with and he told me that she was “just joking.” She wasn’t joking but the two of them had a relationship built on the fantasy plane. She was his idea of a goddess and she felt that if she wanted to merit the constant buying of clothes and plane tickets that she needed to stay thin and gorgeous. So the crazy dynamic continued. He even had anorexic leanings himself and would try to go as long as he could without eating at all. He also never kept food in his apartment because he told me that if he did, he would eat every single bite in the house. They were both sick puppies and used to sit at home of an evening and watch “Lifestyles Of The Rich and Famous.” I lost track of them many years ago but I would bet my bottom dollar that they both required medical intervention at some point.
Meanwhile, there are articles out there in the world, “Starving Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have.”
I hope Facebook and Instagram become accountable, but then accountability for Facebook is an issue we’ve been grappling with for some time, merely on other battlefronts. So I don’t hold my breath.
(I was a skinny teen, but that was just my metabolism. I ate normally. And gained weight later.)
When I was young, I plastered my entire bedroom at one point with photos of Twiggy to remind myself that I needed to lost about 35 pounds. I weighted 115. I figured since I was about 5’1″ and Twiggy was 5’6′ and weighted 92 pounds, 80 pounds was my equivalent. Same as it ever was.
I raised a daughter who was both anorexic and bulimic. It’s the scariest disorder I’ve ever dealt with, and I’m a mental health professional with thirty-plus years experience. I missed my daughter’s illness because I wasn’t trained to look for it. I was trained before eating disorders were common, and yes, I remember Twiggy! Fortunately, my daughter married and had four kids, but she still has food hangups. If someone abuses drugs or alcohol, they need to quit using to get better. But kids with eating disorders ALREADY want to quit eating, so it’s MUCH harder to treat. Take it from a mom who almost lost my daughter. I thank God she is healthier today.