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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think ok magazine glamourising anorexia is sick

20 replies

Mrswhiskerson · 21/04/2011 01:00

I know it's a crap magazine anyway but I am quite shocked at the level they have sunk too.
Their is a Interview with z list celeb nicola McLean , the front page has the title how I almost starved myself to death and underneath is a airbrushed topless photo .
In the In terview she says she doesn't eat every day starves herself for more than half a week and lives on coke a cola , coffee and pro plus to keep her going. Accompanying the article are yet
more airbrushed fully made up glamour shots , she looks very very thin but because of airbrushing etc still looks ok. I think this is sending out such a bad message to young women and teens , basically it is saying if you don't eat you too will look this nice , so many girls have such distorted views on beauty and their own bodies . Articles like this really don't help .
If they had wanted to really help they could have done a photo of the real effects of her disorder.

OP posts:

Original poster

Mrswhiskerson · 21/04/2011 01:03

Please excuse the really bad gRammer , iPhone rose and tiredness do not make for a well written post .

OP posts:

helibee · 21/04/2011 01:08

I thought the same thing. It sends out a dreadful message, not only to young girls but to Nicola herself she'll see those pictures and delude herself into thinking that she looks fine.

Also I'm pretty convinced that she weighs less than 7 1/2 stone. Also all her 'friends' responses were pretty much along the lines of "well we all have a hard time and she's in a bad place but she'll get there" actually no, without professional help she'll probably starve herself to death. They shouldn't be writing the article, they should be trying to get her help. Its so very sad :(

flamegirl77 · 21/04/2011 07:03

Horrible rag. Let's vote with our purses and not buy it. Purse power!

Jennytailia · 21/04/2011 07:10

Oh that's awful, I haven't seen the magazine myself but it sounds horrid.

As you have already bought it you should write a letter/email of complaint.

How irresponsible of them.

handsoffmycake · 21/04/2011 07:21

Its sick. I never ever buy any of these crappy self indulgent rags! They annoy me!!! Agree with Jennytailia write them a letter or email complaining. Dont buy it again!

meliesmummy · 21/04/2011 07:44

There are unfortunately people in this country with very warped views, I actually overheard someone earlier in the week saying that anorexics are just 'manipulative'. Ummm...no, they are ill! Magazines like this just add to this weird perception that it's ok to be thin at all costs, good even! I haven't seen it but it sounds horrific and if my dd was older I wouldn't want her to go anywhere near...she's only 3 but I worry about her seeing articles like this as she grows up, haven't these magazines got a social responsibility to promote a healthy attitude to food??!!!

Original poster

Mrswhiskerson · 21/04/2011 11:59

I am going to write a letter of complaint as I really do think it is disgusting .
I feel very sorry for nicola McLean too , not only is she in the grasp of a terrible illness I don't think she has a good support network behind her.
What she does have is a crap mag glamming her up and airbrushing her so she will think she looks good or worse think she doesn't look thin enough and go even more extreme .
I don't buy this magazine as I am too skint to afford them but a very nice relative does keep all the ones she buys and passes them on to me however I will not read ok ever again or have it in the house ,my dsis is sixteen and my neices are all
coming into their teens I don't want them to be influenced by this crap
.

OP posts:

FriedEggyAndSlippery · 21/04/2011 12:07

don't ever read magazines but from what you describe that is fucking horrible. YANBU but I have no faith that it'll ever change tbh.

I actually overheard someone earlier in the week saying that anorexics are just 'manipulative'.

That makes me SO angry. I've had no experience of eating disorders but I was a self harmer and was hospitalised for 6 months for it. I have heard the above quote said in reference to self harmers.

Guess who said it?

The head of the psychiatric unit

FriedEggyAndSlippery · 21/04/2011 12:10

Oh I forgot to add the rest of the quote - he also said they were Attention seeking, and a waste of space

Sorry. It's been 8 years, I'm fully recovered, but that still angers me. And it is relevant - eating disorders are a form of self harm, as it doesn't always start with a desire to be thin.

darleneconnor · 21/04/2011 12:13

I stopped buying ok when i found out the profits go to a porn empire.

LaWeasel · 21/04/2011 12:15

FriedEgg Yes, I think people get very caught up in anorexia being about wanting to be thin - which sometimes it is, and articles like this don't help at all. (Please do complain OP it sounds awful, and they might print your letter which will help get the other side across at least) but of the 4 anorexic's from my year at school 2 had body dismorphia - but 2 started with needing desperately to be in control, and what you eat is control at it's most basic.

jojowest · 21/04/2011 12:32

you are being extremely unreasonable spending real spending money on crap like OK Magazine

if people didnt buy them, they wouldnt have the money to pay the zelebs for ridiculous interviews

Original poster

Mrswhiskerson · 21/04/2011 15:07

Jojowest , I don't buy any magazines as I have no spare money for them , a relative of mine buys them herslef and passes them on when she is finished.
I know what you mean though , I think people are starting to stop buying it as they have put the price right down which is a sure sign .

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superv1xen · 21/04/2011 15:42

thats disgusting. but ok magazine is horrid vacuous trash anyway, so doesnt surprise me :(

Original poster

Mrswhiskerson · 21/04/2011 17:39

What gets me most is did anyone at the magazine stop to think hang on this girl is really ill and so are thousands like her this is really irresponsible or did they just see pound signs?
I am quite worried for her , b the interview it is obvious she is still very much in the grip of it and has no intentions to stop .

I am definately going to write a letter, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should write? I have never done ths before.

OP posts:

helibee · 21/04/2011 17:42

I didn't buy it, I read it at the drs but I will still write and complain.

tvoffnowplease · 21/04/2011 17:42

How horrendous.. DSD's mother eads the relgiously so it will end up on the coffe table for DSD to flick through... makes me incredibly and

tvoffnowplease · 21/04/2011 17:43

reads

unsurevalentine · 21/04/2011 18:32

Wouldn't be so bad if she had done something about it and was now healthy and the pictures were post anorexia.

She needs help no exploiting, shes has a mental illness

donnie · 21/04/2011 18:38

I like how she looks although her fake boobs are awful. I was anorexic between about 18 and my late 20s and it is still work in progress for me. I still yearn to be thinner. I can't help it.

Oh and btw anorexia is an incredibly manipulative condition, just to clarify. I should know. I was incredibly manipulative and cunning and still can be.

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