Is Snooki Fighting Too Hard for Fame?

I don't know what The Situation is or what everyone thinks is so Woww, as I have yet to witness respectable-enough media coverage of the Jersey Shore cast for me to actually check out their MTV reality hit.

Case and point: Snooki on the cover of OK! mag, plastered with the words: 'My Battle with Anorexia'.

I commend the editors over there for doing their job, as the cover lured me into picking up a copy to check out the story with such a powerful title. That's not to say, though, I condone them for turning a serious issue into what seems to be fodder.

So what does the beehived tanning queen have to share about her experiences?

'In high school, my weight was a very big deal, but when I went to college, it wasn't as big of a deal to me, and I got over it pretty quick, which is pretty surprising to me...

You know, how in college you're eating all kinds of crappy food? That's when I started eating bagels again. I was like, '"Eh, screw it, I'll just eat." I wasn't, like, downing cheeseburgers. I just started eating like a regular person again. And I started to gain the weight back. I really didn't have any problems in college because I was too busy worrying about my studies.'

Worrying about her studies, I'm sure..


We throw around the term 'depressed' when we're bummed out about something. But depression, in the actual clinical sense, is more than being just bummed out— it's long[er] term, affects daily life, and is seriously debilitating. The same goes for anorexia. Usage of the word is sometimes [or often] thrown around as if it's nothing and without understanding of what it actually means or is.

According to the DSM-IV— the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the US— anorexia nervosa is classified using the following criteria:

1. Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height (e.g., weight loss leading to maintenance of body weight less than 85% of that expected; or failure to make expected weight gain during period of growth, leading to body weight less than 85% of that expected).
   
   
2. Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight.
   
   
3. Disturbance in the way in which one's body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight.
   
   
4. In postmenarcheal females, amenorrhea, i.e., the absence of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles.

Snooki claims to have gotten down to 80 pounds in high school, which does sound low, but, note, today, she's only 4' 9''. Moreover, eating disorders, whether it be anorexia, bulimia, or EDNOS [eating disorder not otherwise specified], typically [typically] is NOT something you just get over by saying 'screw it' and then eating bagels. If it were only that simple..

If reality is what you're after, chew on this:

• Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.
  
  
• The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate associated with all causes of death for females 15-24 years old.
  
  
• 20% of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems.
  
  
• Five to ten percent of anorexics die within ten years of onset, 18-20 percent die within twenty years of onset, and only 50 percent report ever being cured.

Stats taken from The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness

Ergo, the point isn't did she/didn't she [have an eating disorder] or was she/wasn't she [anorexic], though it is two-fold:

1. Whether she was sick or not, if she's going to take the responsibility of addressing the issue—which she did by agreeing to give a highly publicized exclusive interview and don the cover of a popular magazine— then she better own up to it and do it with extra care— it comes with the territory of fame, where one is no longer responsible just for oneself.
   
2. Ditto for the magazine/publisher. Though what they're publishing is 'trash', still, it's national, and social responsibility is in order. It's not like they're talking about a trivial thing such as her hair. For some, this really is a reality and really is a matter of life or death [..to be as dramatic as the bold yellow cap-sized font..]

Happy Healthy Juicy Being Responsible, and Knowing What's Appropriate & What's Snot!