Friday 3 October 2008

The 8-year-old anorexic

My uni has a new timetabling computer system. Tasty. Sadly, it's *completely fucking incomprehensible*, so I now have even less idea where I'm supposed to be when. It's reached new heights of incomprehensibility. It's like... a po-mo theoretical archaeology book, THAT'S what it's like.

Ha, mildly damning insult.

We've got a new telly, and I'm still ill. Channel 4 is my friend.

I watched "Dana: The 8-Year-Old Anorexic". Here is a comprehensive list of all the people I now want to stab in the eyes:

1) The child's dimwit mother, who managed to learn absolutely nothing about anorexia despite having an anorexic child. Ah, the child has said she is better and there's nothing to worry about. That's OK then, I can go back to ignoring her. Anorexics? Devious? ...oh, never mind.

She also moaned about how hard it would be for her to constantly watch what Dana ate, and to constantly ensure she was getting enough. Oh, she's 8 and has a debilitating often-fatal psychological disorder, how hard for meeeee! (And don't most parents pay attention to their 8-year-olds' food?)

2) We didn't see much of the father, but apparently both parents blamed the (non-anorexic) teenage sister, because "teenagers go on diets". Apparently, a lot of shouting at the sister went on.

Yes, because anorexia is *just like* a fad diet. Though I'd be surprised if the older girl didn't have a psychological problem of similar severity, with parents like that.

3)EVERYONE in the programme who gave a variation on "How horrible, a child has an adult illness!" as if an adult woman having anorexia was practically fine, because adult women are supposed to be skinny, don'tcherknow.

Children will always copy adults. We've had about 150 years, out of several million, with this "childhood innocence" concept - and, frankly, children anywhere but the privileged West have never had carefree, innocent childhoods.

How about we work for a society where women don't feel they have to starve themselves? That would have the nice effect that fewer 8-year-olds would do the same. But, y'know, the adult women are just as important as the 8-year-olds.

7 comments:

Sarah said...

*sigh* I've just watched it. It's really quite sad that the mother thinks, "Dana eats chocolate cake in front of me once to get home, therefore, she is perfectly fine with food forever."

I think that parents really have no idea about what effect they have on their kids sometimes.

Sadness.

Kim said...

thank the gods it wasn't just me who thought the mother was a selfish b**ch who couldnt be arsed with her daughter, who was anorexic and needed her the most, she still couldnt be bothered, poor kid, i hope social services look into it.

Anonymous said...

Well guess what..I'd like to poke you in the eye too. Trouble is your head is so far up your rear end its physically impossible.
The mother never said she couldn't be bothered, she was simply pointing out that following the rules of Rhodes farm was difficult. It seemed to me that little girl came from a very loving family and you lot need to understand you were only seeing a small portion of edited clips. it was not Big brother, you didn't see the whole story, just a mere 50 minutes of what was probably months of hell for that family.

Oliver A. FP said...

Trolls are anonymous, real people leave names.

Aren't you saying, Nony, that incredibly sub-standard parenting is OK sometimes? If your excuse is that they only showed the dodgy parts?

And yes, they were very dodgy.

jack james said...

hi there...
I am new comer for this site...
I am very happy to post my comment in this site. I gathered lot of
information from this site. Nice site.
This site are really different and so informative...
I am enjoy to post here...

I agreed to your points...you made your points clearly......

Find the latest Bulimia news and discuss the latest topics with members of the Bulimia and Eating Disorders Community.

jack
__________________________________
Bulimia News and Discussion Forum

Cialis said...

It's so sad to hear that the mother didn't do much to help her child. Anorexia is such a tragedy.

Elliott Broidy said...

That's awful