Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Feed Me Seymour

In junior high school we used to have what were called health assemblies where a topic was chosen that was a serious concern, we would watch a movie related to it then listen to a spoken presentation. There was never discussion, just the nurse or another teacher who would stand up at the front of the class and drone on to a classroom full of kids that were happy they didn’t have to do any class work, but who were not really listening. The movie was always done in the spirit of those after school specials -- it lasted about twenty minutes and way over dramafied whatever topic they were drawing attention to with some of the worst acting ever witnessed. There were ones on teen pregnancy, teen suicide and sex in general but my least favorite of all was the one about eating disorders.

Never did I understand the propensity towards eating disorders but especially not anorexia. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t especially thrill me to look down at my now moderately out of shape bod consisting of a semi bubble butt and little pot belly but that is not exactly going to stop me from tossing back a toasted ham and cheese sub with mayo, lettuce and extra pickles; all it means is I have to do a little extra time on the bike that week. I simply could never fathom not eating at all.

When they would show the anorexia movie there would always be a girl who was too thin standing in the middle of a kitchen full of food and she would break off this teeny piece of a cookie and that would be her lunch. Say what? I always thought it was so very sad that she could not understand what a wondrous thing she had going for her there. Anything she could ever want to eat, right there at her fingertips and all she ate was one tenth of a tiny little cookie? My stomach always growled in hopes that my mom might have actually bought some chocolate chip cookies and snuck them into my lunchbox so I could chomp on all of them while I watched the flick.

I was never the girl who went out on a date and got a tiny little salad and only ate half of it. No, if you were taking me out you better bring a fist full of cash because I will most definitely be eating a meal thank you very much. Probably desert too. If by some strange twist of fate I happened to go out with a guy who cared about women who eat then I never knew it. Frankly it would have made no difference, if the guy could not understand that I was unafraid to chow down then I probably would not have been dating them for very long anyway.

Then there was bulimia. Yeah, what is up with that? Eat as much as possible, so much awesome yumminess, and then just get rid of it like ten seconds later? Seriously? How is that fun for anyone? Don’t those people know there are (as my mom used to say) “starving people in China”? And they aren’t exactly doing it on purpose. The nights I used to get too drunk and introduced myself to the well known porcelain God were the worst and it was not due to the drunkenness, it was because throwing up is possibly one of the worst bodily functions ever. Couple that with the fact that it takes the meal itself completely for granted. Shame.

So I guess what it all comes down to is I really think that food is good. And I certainly do not attribute that attitude to any badly acted movie I saw when I was twelve.

8 comments:

TERI REES WANG said...

Too many girls I grew up with were one or the other; not me.

Miss Anorexic: is the quiet angry girl who feels she absolutely no control over anything in her life. Some how she finds a way to punish the world in her own delusional I'll-show-them-who's-boss sorta way.
> One of these girls was on major medication of Epilepsy!

Miss Bulimia: is the brighter, wilder one who does not want to miss out on tall the fun but, harbors shame for what she has done...so she purges her sins, to make room for more.
> One of these girls was a swim suit model who had a heart attack while driving herself home from school!...her twin did not suffer her same affliction and had found a friend to hang play with that day.


I once asked my mother (who was at work)...If someone wanted to throw-up ...what could they do?
She gave me a list of milk+lemon juice+ pickle juice+..any other item that sat inside the refrigerator door, followed by the finger choke. I downed all I could gather, and called her back.
No luck!
'Woman'..you steered me wrong.
No, she said. You never get sick, you never give it up, unless you have the Flu!...I didn't know it was for you.

Damn that Woman!...she's always tripping me up.

Chris said...

Food is good. Don't let anyone tell you different.

pastrywitch said...

Food is definitely good. There's subgroupings of bulimia too, for those who don't want to puke there's laxative abuse and/or extreme exercise.
Really not my thing.

ginger said...

my oldest half sister was anorexic and i used to be bulimic...neither one of those descriptions by teri are accurate.

they're diseases that have nothing to do with food...nothing at all. they're ugly and they are really symptoms of even uglier, scary things going on within a person and if anyone not in those shoes could feel that kind of ugliness for five seconds they'd puke just thinking about it.

with that said, nobody loves food more than i do...i'm food's biggest fan. :)

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

I hope I didn't offend you Ginger & that you know this is not meant to be hurtful.

Chris Stone said...

One of my best friends in HS was anorexic. Her family situation was screwed up. I'd second Ginger, those conditions have nothing to do with food. I found out later that another girl I knew in HS, quiet girl and an excellent student, was bulimic. No one realized until she had to have all her teeth capped at age 26.

My main problem with food is.... I love salads! If I could afford to just live at the Whole Foods salad bar...

KC McAuley said...

If you really want to understand eating disorders - and by extension other compulsive behaviors that are predominantly female, read APPETITES - WHY WOMEN WANT by Caroline Knapp. As one who suffered with eating disorders in my youth and now has a constant love/hate relationship with food, this was the first book that made me say YES!!! Someone knows what I'm feeling. She addresses "the culture of No." that many women of my generation grew up in. I'm ever so grateful that I didn't pass on this particular weirdness to my daughter.

Judi FitzPatrick said...

Sadly you didn't have much chance of not having the butt/tummy issues, as you know they come from my side of the family, and some from the other side as well.

I love the new look, beachy and summery. Did you create this one or is it an available template? Nice work if you did it.

I think it's time to go buy, and eat, some chocolate chip cookies!

Love, Mum