I do feel sympathy for extremely
skinny entertainers (or any other skinny people) who are labeled
anorexic when they are in fact
healthy. But would an
entertainment industry filled with healthy people who are naturally super-slim really be any better? We'd still have huge numbers of people
anchoring their
self-perception on a tiny
subpopulation with the
genetic programming to have this unusual
body type, as well as the time to work developing it. Most people would still have to be anorexic to look like that, and so the damage would be nearly the same.
note: I don't mean to place all blame for
eating disorders on the
media; there are obviously
biochemical and
evolutionary factors as well, and the media only represent a portion of the
social contributions in play.