"Black Swan" may be inspiring young women to try eating disorders
By Brian FairbanksDecember 8th, 2010, 1:51 pmComments (4)
Black Swan is out in select cities and already the Natalie Portman-Mila Kunis-led Darren Aronofsky-directed low-budget drama is a massive hit. In fact, it could be a surprise dark-horse candidate for the Best Picture Oscar, a compromise between the perfect but bland King's Speech and the intense and not Academy-friendly Inception.
All that means that the media and industry backlash begins... now.
The Frisky correctly points out that a movie in which young girls bust their asses to lose weight and stay slim in order to dance is probably going to inspire eating disorders. Then again, this is Darren Aronofsky we're talking about here, the same guy who did Requiem For A Dream... and we all remember how we felt about drugs after seeing its anti-drug ending.
At a site called “Thinspo Me Baby” [a caption reads] “Get your thinspiration from the upcoming movie Black Swan!!!” Another search brought me to Superskinnyus.blogspot.com... Mydailythinspo.blogspot.com.
Natalie... said, “Darren claims he never said this, but he definitely was like, ‘How thin do you think you can get without being sick?’”
Darren’s memory of this is a little different. He claims, “At a certain point in the middle of the ballet stuff, I thought she was getting way too skinny and I started to make her eat. It started to get scary, and she was starting to look too thin.” [The Frisky]
Have you seen the movie yet? What do you think? (It's out in select cities and will be gaining theaters rapidly.)
Commentarium (4 Comments)
Nonsense. The film is absolutely preoccupied with the bodies of ballet dancers and the lengths to which they go in order to look that way. That's a far cry from an endorsement. The physical transformation of the dancers has a decidedly sinister edge. Black Swan no more encourages eating disorders than The Wrestler encourages steroid abuse.
That those with eating disorders can view this material and cast it as inspirational is a rather interesting reflection of their own condition, however.
I don't know about the rest of the crowd that frequents this dump, but I'm going to start eating more - and guess what it's going to be more of?
Life inspires eating disorders. Instead of worrying how many pictures there are of thin women out there, how about we focus on deeper issues. Like, why is life so empty for so many that this is such a preoccupation? Look to crumbling priorities and the commodification of a generation of young people's sexuality. Name a person you know who is truly happy and fulfilled. Skinny pretty girls aren't the problem.
Glad YOU never suffered from eating disorders that came from Ballet, Namely.
Now you say something