Thirty-two kilos

I don’t even remember how I ran across this article today: Pro-anorexia websites inspire controversial photo exhibit

A controversial new photo exhibits opens tonight in Washington D.C. that has many people grimacing in disgust. The exhibit features a collection of work by German photographer Ivonne Thein and is titled ‘Thirty-Two Kilos.’ If your math is rusty, thirty-two kilos is roughly seventy pounds. Why is that important? The collection of photographs features extremely emaciated models.

I really think the only unique part about this exhibit is the title (while very sick, it is at least creative).  But as for the rest of it?  I don’t see what’s so special….

1. It’s a “collection of photographs [that] features extremely emaciated models.”  …and that’s new how?  I walked by Victoria Secrets this evening and found the same.
2. “None of the models are truly that thin.  They were digitally manipulated to look anorexic.”  Right, I bet 95% of all magazine photos out there are Photoshopped.  Heck, I know how to Photoshop photos!
3. “…a few pro-anorexia sites are rather fond of Thein’s latest work.”  Well yeah, these are photos of emaciated women!  I swear, you could put up pictures of underweight animals and they would reappear on some pro-ana site.

I guess what irks me a little bit about this exhibit is Thein’s intention to raise awareness about eating disorders and alarm about pro-ana websites.  I feel like putting out another exhibit of sick girls just feeds the disorder and the obsession with thinness.  While maybe she meant for the models to look so ridiculously thin that no one would want to look like that… to someone with a serious eating disorder, he/she is going to look at those photos and find something attractive about them.  I’m sure that she doesn’t think she is glamorizing anorexia… but the only people she is scaring are those who do not have eating disorders.  Plus, she’s perpetuating the stereotype that someone with an eating disorder weighs thirty-two kilos (when most fall into the EDNOS category).

I just hate to see media like this in the name of “eating disorder awareness.”  That might be true… but it’s the wrong kind of awareness.