On the mommy blog, Stoller Derby, Paula Bernstein wrote yesterday about how excited she was to take her daughter to the New York City Ballet’s performance of the Nutcracker at the Lincoln Center. Her excitement was tempered, however, by Alistair Macauley’s review in the New York Times which took an unnecessary jab at the lead dancer’s body: “Jenifer Ringer, as the Sugar Plum Fairy, looked as if she’d eaten one sugar plum too many,” Macauley cracked.
Jenifer Ringer is a ballet dancer who has struggled with her weight and left professional dancing for a time because her self-esteem had plummeted due to the unrealistic demands she put upon herself. With the encouragement of her teacher she returned to ballet and wound up being handpicked by Twyla Tharp to portray the lead in The Beethoven Seventh. Having battled her demons already, one hopes Jenifer Ringer is equipped to deal with insensitive comments like these and that they won’t send her spiraling into a life-threatening eating disorder as they might someone less experienced than herself.
Dancing and modelling are both professions that seem to expect rare thinness in their subjects but most of the time these states are not natural but ruthlessly self-imposed. When Canadian prima ballerina Karen Kain was asked about her favourite part of retirement, she replied “being able to eat more than one meal a day.”
Much has also been written on body dysmorphia and eating disorders among fashion models. In this space, I have explored the cases of Crystal Renn, and Sara Ziff whose insider interviews among her fellow models reveal anorexia to be more the norm in modelling than the exception.
In many of these cases, what started the descent into a life-threatening disorder was a simple comment, not unlike the one weilded by the arts critic in the New York Times. In Sara’s interview above, one model confessed that her anorexia was triggered when a photographer tapped her on the ass and suggested “you need to lose a little weight.”
For actress Portia de Rossi, her anorexia climaxed with the actress weighing 82 pounds and contracting osteoperosis (brittle bones usually seen in elderly women), and was set off when a costume designer huffed, “nobody told me she was a size 8!” when she couldn’t fit into the size four suits provided for a photo shoot.
America prides itself on being a free country and freedom of the press must remain paramount. To me Macauley’s comment borders on slanderous, however, because the remark has nothing to do with Ringer’s performance. The fact that it’s a man making the judgment brings out the “how dare he?” in me. How dare anyone scrutinize a woman’s body that way? Let’s put Alastair up on stage in a pair of tights and see how he feels about himself. Stick to critiquing the performance, in other words… Be professional. If these critics, both men and women knew the potentially life-threatening harm they could be causing with a callous comment, I’m fairly certain they’d exercise more restraint. Irreparable physical and psychic damage notwithstanding, these critics should stick to the topic and provide information on a need-to-know basis and be held accountable to such standards by their editors and publishers.
The fact that dancers have to dance in a mirrored room clad only in skin-tight leotards is a determining factor in the prevalence of eating disorders within the trade. I used to dance as a child and when I returned as an adult to take some recreational classes, the school had a policy about comfort in clothing and it was clear that comfort in one’s own skin (avoiding physical self-criticism) as well as in the choice of garments was a leading factor in their decision. They had seen too many girls lose their self-esteem when faced with the unforgiving image of their changing bodies encased in tights which hid nothing.
The Endangered Species Summit in March of which I’ve written previously, seeks to provide solutions to this societal issue of women being taught to hate their own bodies. In a contest called Loved Bodies, Big Ideas the question is posed:
What is one bold action that could make the world truly value the diversity of women and girls’ bodies?
If you feel you have the answer and are willing to present it in front of a panel of experts at the Summit in New York, today is the last day to enter! Submit your most original and thrilling idea in 500 words or less to Contest Manager, Shirley Kailas (shirley.kailas@gmail.com) with your age, contact details, and any organizational affiliation. If the judges choose your entry as one of the top 3, all of your travel expenses will be covered. Be aware that, due to cost, geographical limitations are in place.
Let’s take some action and help cure society of its sickness and obsession with judging women’s bodies. I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments section, too.
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If we truly value body diversity, we would not only be talking about weight (or rather “heavier weight” issues). We would include height as well as individuals who are naturally smaller framed. However, that is never the case with most body image websites. Most won’t even acknowledge other issues and only concentrate on promoting the inclusion of “larger” people. Some even go as far as to say that anything under a certain size should be “banned” (I want to ask them whether they want an actual ban or whether they want to slap on a larger number (say a 6 on something that is currently marked as size 2). If it is the former, then where would someone like me shop?) To me, these are rants that seem to be repeated over and over, and I am very sick of it. These activists don’t seem to realize that their version of body diversity is not that diverse at all! They are also going the wrong way by wanting already-established designers to use larger models rather than encouraging people to go into exclusively specialty size designs (more on this in a future post on my site). I have weighed less than 100 lb since I was about 22 when I lost the last of my childhood “baby fat.” In any case, weight isn’t as much of an issue as one’s measurements when it comes to dress size. I know people who are around my height with my exact dress size/measurements but weigh anywhere between 90 lb and 115 lb.
(my other site is http://blog.shorty-stories.com. If you go to http://www.wearerealtoo.com, it will redirect to the former url).
I can only speak for myself. I’m also thin but I can say I value diversity because it breaks my heart to hear story after story about girls starving themselves and hating themselves just because they’re not (and even when they are!). In the past I was also unsympathetic and now I know it’s because I didn’t comprehend the psychological torture these girls inflict on themselves. A series of autobiographies which I covered here made me see the truth about the almost epidemic level of self-loathing that goes on among women which is promoted by unrealistic images.
But using only, say, size 12 and size 2 models does not make it diverse, especially if they’re all the same (or similar) height. It’s called two different sizes.
First of all, if that ballerina is fat then I don’t know what I am. Good thing I’ll probably never meet the reviewer in person. I’d hate to hear what he’d say about me.
I was just reading an article in the LA times about the upcoming “Swan Lake” movie. Both actresses lost 20 pounds before the movie started, and were encouraged to loose as much weight as possible to play the rolls of ballerinas. The actresses were fine with doing it, because they felt it was an honest reflection of dance community. There was a time when ballerinas were not expected to be anorexic skinny, but those times were gone long ago.
Interesting story. Things will change when actresses and ballerinas alike finally say, Forget it! I’m not losing 20 pounds! It has to start grassroots in my opinion.
I am so glad that I don’t have a job that affects my health in this way. I think the agencies and companies that employ models and dancers should take more responsibility for those working for them. In the UK you cannot discriminate someone at work because of age so why not size?
I agree about agencies being responsible. More often, they are the worst culprits openly advocating anorexia. Also, women with eating disorders are called “sick” but really its society that has the sickness. We need to start calling it out.
Except some people, including body image activists, call anyone under a certain size, “sick” regardless of whether they really are or not. Many think “under 100 lb” or “under size 2″ is “sick” even if the individual is 4’10. They also think size 10 is a good size on everyone and isn’t a “fat” size. Size 10 can be “fat” on some people. If you’re small framed and 4’11″ then size 10 probably is “fat” while someone a foot taller is skinny at size 10.
Sadly, I’ve been there. I used to be an anorexic, and I used to do ballet. I thought I was too chubby and large framed to be a ballerina, so I quit and stopped eating. It really didn’t make me happy being so thin, and it just made me sick. I’ve never been happier now being healthy with the right weight for my frame. I think that some places, professions, and activities just cannot help imposing a certain body type for acceptance, and I’ve just learned not to be around them. It’s prejudice that goes deeper than racism because a lot of people seem to readily accept these standards and think that nothing is wrong with them. Realistically, I don’t think the media’s expectation for body types will go away anytime soon. What is beautiful may be subjective, but it is also run by commercial bullies that polarize everybody’s beliefs. I may still be caught up in the fashion world, but I’ve learned to ignore the world’s standards and to start my own. It must be so hard to be a celebrity or a professional who has to bare these unrealistic standards daily. That is a huge reason why I don’t even dare come close to having aspirations to be like them.
Such a well-written comment! Thank you; I’m sorry you had to go through that…now you get to be an example to other young women. Promoting modesty in dress is a good way to help women see they don’t have to be “perfect” to enjoy wearing beautiful clothes.
Thank you for writing about this– it’s not news, yet still seems to be the elephant in the room somehow.
Also, I LOVE the name of your blog.
Thanks, honey! I sometimes think the name is too long although I like the spirit of it. I checked out your site and when I saw the Chanel quote I had to subscribe. She’s me hero.
really so sad to read about ridiculous pressure on young talented girls. I love Portia de Rossi and the latest interview she did on The Ellen Show and I think also on Oprah about her autobiography were very inspiring and moving.
I really enjoyed this article, not just a blog post, but a proper article
Well written and though-provoking xxx
Thank you so much. Portia’s story impressed upon me in a big way. I’m kind of obsessed with the issue because of her. I just finished her book and it is unflinchingly honest. I, too, watched her appearances on Oprah and Ellen via youtube and she is also incredibly well-spoken and frank. When she met Ellen, she was at her most heavy (168 pounds) which is a poignant irony. She says in the book she always wanted people to love her for who she was but she never showed them her true self so how could they? Ellen was lucky enough to get to see the real Portia and fall in love with her. It’s a really nice ending.
I could not agree more with everything you have written here, I think his comment was disgusting and as you said totally unprofessional. It makes me angry when critics out there feel they have to needlessly bash peoples images in order to get readers. Ive no respect for that kind of thing. I think we should all send in complaints!
That’s the truth: if readers complained then editors would sit up and take notice.