Frosty Bone Hierarchy in the Media

I’m sitting here at the computer listening to music while I help my newly 13 year old brother arrange music on his iPod. I had, a few years ago, a beautiful pink iPod mini with my last name engraved on the back. (I really love my last name) It started acting funky and at times wouldn’t work at all. When I saved enough money, I bought an iPod…normal? It’s not beautiful like my mini, it’s black and silver and boring as hell. But now I have enough space for all of my music.

Anyway, I gave my mini to my youngest brother. However, it had all my music on it. In the year and a half-ish since I gave it to him, I have been out of state most of it, so I haven’t changed the music. So now he and I are going through the iPod’s library and removing music he doesn’t want. Some of it, he doesn’t know what it is, so we have to listen to some of the artists so he can decide. Right now, I’m listening to “Anywhere Is” by Enya just because I knew he wouldn’t like Enya.

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Now to the points of my post. First is eating disorder hierarchies. What??! Eating disorders have a hierarchy?? Well, yes, actually. I’ve become strangely addicted to reading the blogs of other eating disordered people and this always gets me thinking. This time I was thinking about what I’ve learned in my just north of 2 years being involved in the online eating disorder community. One of those somethings is the eating disorder hierarchy. If you have an eating disorder, you may know what I’m talking about, you may not. But I’m willing to bet you know of it regardless of whether you agree with it.

So what is it? Well, we need to start with the basics. Eating disorders, when simplified, fall into 3 basic categories: anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating disorders. In the eating disorders, the view of oneself and others in terms of self-worth, strength, will power, success, etc is based on the eating disorder hierarchy. The top of the “food chain” as it were are the anorexics. They’re the ones the bulimics and binge-eaters strive to be like. They’re the ones who are strong and successful at their eating disorders.

Then you have the bulimics, right in the middle. (Hey, that’s me in so many ways! [I'm the exact middle of 7 children]) They’re higher up than the binge-eaters but below the anorexics. Moderately successful at their eating disorder, they long for the wispy, porcelain thinness associated with anorexia. Last, and most certainly least are the people with binge-eating disorders. The bottom of the totem pole, the ones who are weak and unsuccessful at their eating disorders. The ones to be viewed with pity, but never to be admired. They themselves often feel shame at being in this category. Shamed by their binging and perceived weakness.

The biggest problems with the eating disorder hierarchy is that the judging isn’t fair and it encourages, whether openly or not (often not), the worsening of eating disorders. I’ll explain why it’s not fair. Let’s say you have 3 children and each only learns one subject in school. It would be unreasonable and unfair to give a geography test to child who only learns math and shame them for flunking. Likewise, if you gave an English test to the child who only learns geography. The 3 subjects are not comparable, each has it’s own rules and usage. It’s the same with eating disorders. They’re each there own disorder with its own set of rules and behaviors and are not comparable. And yet they all compare themselves to each other.

The binge-eaters who binge on food compare themselves to the bulimics who purge after their binges. The bulimics compare themselves to the anorexics who don’t binge (or eat). So who do the anorexics compare themselves to? While the bulimics and binge-eaters take the “anorexia test” and feel shame for failing, the anorexics take the “worse possible case of anorexia ever test” and feel shame for failing that. They compare themselves to the worse cases they’ve heard of and since they haven’t been hospitalized 85 times, don’t weigh 68 pounds, don’t look quite like walking death (just walking disease), they too have failed.

At this point, you probably either think I’m crazy or know exactly what I’m talking about.

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Point number two. Bones! I love bones. You may too. My personal favorites are wrist bones and collar bones. I like my left wrist better because it’s smaller than the right wrist. Probably because I’m left handed. I love to see my wrist bones. I love to run my finger over them as the poke out. I also love my collar bones. I love to trace them with my finger, tap them to feel the bone, move my shoulders so the stick out more, etc.

But did you know that bones has uses beyond keeping your body unjumbled in proper order and upright. It’s true!! So I’ve decided I’m going to start posting their uses as I discover them. The first one is about collar bones.

Practical uses for bones #1 – Collar Bones: cell phone holder! Yes! You see, yesterday, I was trying to refill the gallon jug I use for each day’s water. I needed both hands and I had my cell phone in one. The outfit I was wearing had no pockets so I was frustrated.  But then I realized it! I stuck my phone on my shoulder, resting on my collar bone. It worked magnificently. It stayed right where I wanted it while I finished up the things I needed to do.

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I had planned to talk about Frosties and the media too, but I’ve run out of time. So I’ll have to come back to them.