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Getting Thin: teenwire.com Talks to Lauren Greenfield
by Blythe Miller, 04.10.07
"I didn't understand how deep they were, how hard they were to treat." |
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Last fall, Spanish authorities banned models who failed to meet a certain weight to height ratio (body mass index, or BMI) from appearing in a major Madrid fashion event. Why? They wanted to avoid sending the wrong message to young girls about their bodies. Other countries followed suit; in London, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said, "Young girls aspire to look like the catwalk models — when those models are unhealthily underweight it pressurizes girls to starve themselves to look the same."
In the United States, eating disorders affect more then 10 million people, and research shows that 40 percent of newly identified cases of anorexia are in girls between the ages of 15 and 19. Filmmaker and photographer Lauren Greenfield began photographing women suffering from eating disorders while working on an assignment for Time magazine, and continued to explore the subject in her 2002 book Girl Culture. In her first film, Thin, which includes a touring exhibition, Greenfield documents the everyday lives of women fighting eating disorders at the Renfrew Center in Coconut Creek, Florida. From private therapy sessions to mealtimes, Thin is an intimate — and often very difficult — look at how eating disorders are treated in a residential facility.
teenwire.com sat down with Lauren Greenfield to discuss her experience making Thin and get some of her thoughts on eating disorders.
teenwire.com (TW): Why did you choose to make a documentary about eating disorders?
Lauren Greenfield (LG): Eating disorders are a really compelling — and also sad — example of how women use their bodies as their voices.
TW: Eating disorders are very private and shameful. How did you gain the trust of the patients we meet in Thin?
LG: It was a process. We were a small, all-female crew, and we practically lived there when were making the film. So we just developed trust as we went along.
 Everyone could choose to be in the film or not. And if they were, they could say, "I don't want you to film this today," or "I don't want you to film me right now." I think they understood my intention in terms of wanting to show what it's really like to have an eating disorder, and they understood very well that most people don't have any idea.
TW: What was it like to witness the very difficult moments, like when a patient purged? You got that on film. It must have been a challenge not to intervene.
LG: I didn't want to intervene. Renfrew is one of the best facilities in the country with trained professionals and a structure and support system to deal with all that goes with having an eating disorder. And so in any of those situations — purging, or restricting, or crying — I never saw it as my role to intervene. I'm not a therapist; I'm not even an expert on eating disorders. My only expertise comes from spending a lot of time with the women, watching what they went through, and trying to understand. But I'm certainly not qualified to provide help. And they know very well what the channels are for support, and they're going to make that decision to get that or not.
I feel like the important thing is to document it so then other people can learn from that. And the great privilege and the great trust that happened with those women is that they allowed me to be there during these really painful times. There are a lot of misconceptions in popular culture about eating disorders being an illness of choice, of vanity, something they could stop if they really wanted to — something really superficial. And they know that that's not the case. ... This is a mental illness that strikes intelligent, perfectionist, obsessive-compulsive, high achieving women.
TW: What struck you most about the teens you observed in treatment?
 LG: One of the reasons I wanted to film at Renfrew is because it's a facility for a lot of women; it almost feels like a college dorm. One of the things that really interested me was the fact that they are mixed ages. The thing about the adolescents that's a little bit different is, it's a voluntary facility, and you really see when you're watching them go through treatment that they have to want to get better for this to work. ... It's an unusual mental illness; one therapist described it to me as the only mental illness where people don't want to get better. And that's particularly true with the adolescents because, even though in theory it's a voluntary situation, in reality, a lot of adolescents are being sent there by their parents. And so, I think as a generalization, [though] it's hard to generalize, they are not as motivated, sometimes. Like Stephanie, who's 14, says she doesn't understand why she's there and why they're feeding her so much, and feels like they're ruining the "masterpiece" she created. She was someone who started a competitive diet with a friend to see who could get the skinniest and Stephanie ended up in treatment, and her friend was still out there dieting.
TW: Where do you think this pressure to be thin is coming from?
LG: I want to be clear that eating disorders are not really about being thin. It's not about the food. It's a coping mechanism; it's a control thing and a way to numb out their feelings. And so the question about why one gets an eating disorder is complicated, and it's something I tried not to draw any easy answers to in the film because there aren't any. I wanted to make sure that people don't think, "Your parents have a traumatic divorce, so you get an eating disorder," or "You are the victim of sexual abuse, so you get an eating disorder," even though you certainly hear about these things. But it seems like experts agree that it's a mix of different factors.
TW: With so much focus in our culture on dieting, weight, and body image, do you think that people sometimes overlook the seriousness of eating disorders?
LG: What I saw is that it's a really tenacious, serious mental illness with life-threatening consequences. This is a mental illness and not just a diet gone out of control. And I think you see that with these women, it's totally irrational. You have Alisa who's so smart and so successful in so many ways saying, "I just want to be thin. If it takes dying to get there, so be it."
TW: What surprised you most about your experience at Renfrew?
 LG: Even though I had read books about eating disorders and photographed and interviewed women with eating disorders, I really had no idea what they were about. I didn't understand how tenacious they were. Shelly had this beautiful, linear recovery in terms of her body and her weight: she came in very sick, on a feeding tube, and she left at almost her goal weight. And I really thought that she was going to get better. And then to see her six months later almost down to the same weight she started at was a big surprise for me.
I didn't understand how deep they were, how hard they were to treat.
TW: Is there anything else you'd like to say to teens?
LG: Recovery is possible. Sometimes it's just a long process; one expert told me it can take four to seven years. I don't want to candy-coat it, it's a hard road. And it's like any addiction except for this an addiction where you have to face your substance every single day.
But recovery is possible, and early intervention is key. So if you are struggling — if you have a friend that's struggling — get professional help. |
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