I SPENT A WEEK WATCHING B-GRADE EATING DISORDER FILMS

…and lived to tell the tale – just!

Starving in Suburbia (2014)

Emotional, enjoyable and outrageously exhausting, this movie marathon was the closest I’ll ever come to engaging in extreme sports! You can read the full account of my hardcore adventures here.

Exaggerations aside, I was determined to conduct this experiment because I believe (from lived experience and my feminist leanings) that anorexia and bulimia reveal something very troubling about the state of our materialistic, media-saturated culture. And what better measure of the cultural mood than made-for-TV movies?

In the wonderful words of writer/kick-ass lady Roxane Gay:

“…the need for feminism and advocacy also applies to seemingly less serious issues like a Top 40 song or a comedian’s puerile humour. The existence of these lesser artefacts of our popular culture is made possible by the far graver issues we are facing.”

So, if you’ve ever wondered about the connections between eating disorders and popular culture, this article’s for you. And if you haven’t wondered..?

Now’s the very best time to start. Enjoy!

*I can’t end this post without a shout-out to Hayley Gleeson, the Founding Editor of Birdee. She’s an incredible egg, the kind that eggs others on too, and I’m proud to share my work via the positive, powerful platform she has created.