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!

Beauty Isn't a Pretty Picture..

Heidi Montag doesn't annoy me per se. She does, though, make me a little sad.. for her, or her character.. so her?

Heidi nee-Montag-now-Pratt is a starlet on the MTV reality series, The Hills, which is now in its supposed final sixth season and in which Heidi is juicier than ever, literally. Healthy, though, she is a far cry from. Between this season and the last, Heidi played transformers with her self and returns with a new body.

Last November, Heidi underwent 10 (yes, TEN) cosmetic procedures, all in one (anesthetic) shot, which included:

1. Mini brow lift.
2. Botox in forehead and frown area.
3. Nose job revision. ('revision'='take two')
4. Fat (re)injections in cheeks, nasolabial folds and lips. (from #9)
5. Chin reduction. (for the 'Jay Leno chin')
6. Neck liposuction.
7. Ears pinned back. (for the 'Dumbo ears')
8. Breast augmentation revision. (3Ds, literally)
9. Lipsuction on waist, hips, inner and outer thighs.
10. Buttock augmentation. (Butt lift? Butt lift.)

It’s sad (both depressing and pathetic) to watch her become a plastic toy— her doctor, hu$band, media and rest of the world has and continues to play with and use as nothing but fodder. In the end, after all, she is a real person and not just a character of 'reality' tv.

But aside from her fictitiously voluptuous and svelte body, transformer that she is, I really do think she is more than meets the eye. More confident? Anything butt, I mean but. Fame hungry, perhaps..

True, she documented the whole experience and got front cover of People Magazine. Yes, she’s booked interviews (GMA, Ryan Seacrest) and earned herself about 1/3 (=$10,000) of her op(ted) expenses back from her first bikini debut post-op. And yes, she probably is seeking a reality show of her own with video footage of the experience and, I wouldn’t be surprised, a book deal for the diary she kept.

But, despite her (media) claims of wanting more, she also publicly admits..

• Why she did it: ‘I was flat and insecure..the biggest reason is to feel better, to feel perfect.. I had [had? or have?] insecurities.. I was an ugly duckling before.. For the past three years, I’ve thought about what to have done. I’m absolutely beyond obsessed.. I’ve become obsessed, photo by photo, with how I look. When I was shopping for my boobs, I wanted the best, so I sat down and flipped through a bunch of Playboys.’


• How she felt after: 'The pain was everywhere—my head felt like it had a jackhammer on it. I couldn't talk because of my jaw and chin... I was like, "I wanna die right now. I'm in so much pain. I don't know what to do".. I almost felt like I was gone.. I looked like I had been hit by a bus. I was a purple, swollen mush—I didn’t look human! It was so scary. I could hardly move.. It was more traumatizing just seeing it than even feeling it really.’


• And that..: She said she needed help going to the bathroom and was scared of water the when it was time to bathe—scared of water. Water.


• How some things have changed: She can’t jog anymore and said, ‘I'm very weird about hugging people now.’


• How she now feels: ‘Fragile’. [Claims popping up of prescription pill addiction, which wouldn’t be surprising, though wouldn’t help the situation.]


• And if she's satisfied and done: 'I’m already planning my next surgery—I’m determind to get bigger ones! [referring to DDD breasts, which means she’d need to go international as they are at their FDA max—800cc].. 'Nobody ages perfectly, so I plan to keep using surgery to make me as perfect as I can be.’

The girl shows tell-tale signs of abnormal psychology, including perfectionism, self-conscious, and obsession, to name a few, [plus ridiculousness, aka. irrational thoughts and behavior]. She explains: ‘Think about the industry I’m trying to go into. My ultimate dream is to be a pop star.. it was [Britney Spears’] sex appeal that sold. Obviously, looks matter; it’s a superficial industry.’ By ‘pop star’, I’m guessing she was hoping to shine with her chest? I think it worked too because I’m blinded already.

Even so, I am unsure whether she totally fits the DSM-IV criteria for BDD—Body Dysmorphic Disorder—which is what readily springs to mind.

Whatever the case, though, I will never be able to understand why women continue to mutilate themselves in pursuit of beauty and in these so-called modern times no less. Granted, this comes from one who still grapples with the face-painting industry and women’s *willing* daily rituals, but still..

I’m not a historian by any means but we [the female race] have worked so hard and have gotten this far, why are we choosing to regress and remain weak and fragile? How have we succumbed to the foot-binding mentality?

Whilst I’m an advocate of ‘to each his/her own’, one of my greatest concerns is how this will (and already does) affect future generations. It’s been reported that Christie Brinkley and daughter Alexa Ray Joel— who overdosed just last December in her battle with depression, mind you— have recently had what seems like a mother-daughter bonding moment.. in a hospital with knives. Christie lifted her face, Alexa got her nose done (and used the lame excuse of correcting a deviated septum).

Even scarier, which I didn’t know until doing research for this piece, is that the cosmetic industry has teamed up with travel. 'Medical tourism', they call it. The trend these days is all-inclusive vacation package deals, with a buffet of procedures to choose from. As if life-altering (and possibly threatening) changes weren’t enough, why not do it on foreign territory to save a few extra bucks!

Even more scary, or sick?. Industry, of course, capitalizing on the insanity and the numbers that $how it. A look of how insane it is here in the US, bloody capital of the world..

12.5 million: number of cosmetic procedures performed in 2009.
10 Billon (with a capital 'B'): amount spent on cosmetic procedures in 2009.

Top 5 surgical cosmetic procedures (in 2009):

1. Breast augmentation (289,000)
2. Nose reshaping (256,000)
3. Eyelid surgery (203,000)
4. Liposuction (198,000)
5. Tummy tuck (115,000)

Top 5 'minimally-invasive' procedures (in 2009):

1. Botulinum toxin type A (4.8 million)
2. Soft tissue fillers (1.7 million)
3. Chemical peel (1.1 million)
4. Microdermabrasion (910,000)
5. Laser hair removal (893,000)

2009 compared to 2000..

• Total cosmetic procedures is up 69%
  
• Botulinum Toxin Type A isup 509%
  
• Tummy Tuck is up 84%
  
• Breast augmentation is up 36%
  
• In sum: "More people [have] turned towards body contouring and minimally-invasive treatments for facial rejuvenation."

American Society of Plastic Surgeons


I leave you with this..

Does this look like a girl that is happy.. or sane?..


..or healthy and truly loved?..


Was it worth it?..


Would you ever wish this upon your sister, daughter, mother, girl friend, wife, or any other person you did or did not know?


To my understanding, Heidi thought of this as an investment in her career.
If only she could have found some other way to stand out and be unique. Perhaps by *like* getting an education vs. surgery. Maybe then she would have discovered the wonders of things like Photoshop and spared herself the pain and suffering. Maybe then she would have gotten a clue and could wow us with the beauty of her mind and not the Superficial her album and body have flopped to be.

But what's done is done. As for the millions exposed and contemplating, men and women alike: Embrace the ugly (completely) NON-invasively. It's only subjective anyway. Diet, exercise, love, laughter, and hugs—lots of them—are what will lead you to your HealthyButJuicy and help unleash the celestial being you dream to be (not nip/tuck!), duh.