Taking Halloween Just a Little Too Far

While out with The Mr. the other day, we stopped at a Halloween store to pick up a few last minute details for his "Google Programmer Nerd" costume (hey, we're not 30 yet...we'll grow up then).

Typically, I am not easily offended and have a pretty liberal (if not sick) sense of humor. In the past, I may have even laughed about this, but given the extreme emotional dispair, physical side effects, and hopelessness I have experienced firsthand thanks to the onset of an eating disorder, I was taken aback when I saw this Halloween costume on the rack:

"Anna Rexia" Halloween Costume

Anna Rexia. For $14.99, any attention-seeking college girl can dress up as a horrible disorder that destroys the mental and physical well-being of millions of girls year after year. The Mr. quickly pulled me away from the display, sensing one hell of a rant coming on from his quick-tempered, redheaded, outspoken Taurus of a wife.

Even though it has been several days since I walked away from that display in digust, I keep thinking about this costume. Many tasteless and offensive Halloween costumes exist out there, yet they still provoke laughter in me and I have always had the "it's all in good fun" attitude. Anna Rexia hits a certain nerve with me, and I know it is because of my close proximity to a complicated issue that has been reduced down to such simplistic parody.

The costume represents the inaccurate yet widespread belief that eating disorders are nothing more than selfish, attention-seeking, over-indulgent obsessions with weight and size. A sexy, skeletal girl with a measuring tape...it's the picture many imagine when they hear the term "anorexia". But what cannot be portrayed is what lies underneath: the self-loathing, the punishment, the guilt, the blame, the deep depression, the perfectionist tendencies...THAT is the real anorexia. It's the anorexia I've come to know as I've fallen victim to it.

Listen in on any therapy session (not that we would ever allow such a thing) or meeting between an ED client and her dietitian and it will become immediately evident that there is much more to this disorder than what meets the eye. Food and weight is not the obsession, rather it is a means to self-destruct, to inflict pain, to disappear emotionally and physically. For the perfectionist, control over weight and food is a means  by which self-worth and achievement is measured.

What are your thoughts on the Anna Rexia costume? All in good fun, or pushing the limits?

I'll gracefully step off my soapbox now :)