Well, in my opinion, now is time for the trolls here to be banned. I have read quite many the bloggers here on NS and the only one who really ever comes in for the vitriol is Laurie.And the only real reason for it is that she is young, leftie and (most of all) female.

"...some of the stuff you write is very funny."

like all good comedy, Divine, it's funny cos it's true.

It wasn't worth the journey to the US - an article like this is par for the course in a women's magazine, anywhere. More interesting possibly, might be Penny's inside experience of alcohol. But will she...?

The artist formerly known as John Woods says: my comments were much better, but they got deleted.

thanks for this article laurie.

think a lot of the comments show why we still need to raise awareness.

anonymousthanks - it's the most deadly mental illness because it kills more of its sufferers than other mental illnesses.

good blog :) agree with the points about anorexia, but I think people should talk about other eating disorders and things like comfort eating and binge eating as well, a lot of overweight people have eating disorders or mental health issues, but for some reason this is never talked about, instead people who are overweighted are treated like criminals by society which ironically only amplifies a lot of the issues that cause over eating to begin with.

These smirking cynical commentators with the superiority complexes need to visit a pro-anorexia or pro-bulimia website some time, then they'll realise it's not just a physical or genetic condition it's SO ideological. Just look at the images and the mantras under them 'I will be happy and thin' 'I want people to be jealous of the gap between my thighs' 'I want people to worry about my health'. They want to be the leading ladies in their own lives, who is always thin, rather than the fat friend. They also want to punish themselves, strip away all that makes them sinful or that takes up space. At the end of it, victim or not, it seems they picture themselves as free and comfortable, like these airbrushed pictures on the pro-ana websites, happy and tanned on a beach, laughing in a string bikini; not necessarily in a hospital though that is fetishised in itself.

Pampered! ... we are all pampered in the West. I don't mind her being over pampered. I like the way she speaks. It has become less squeaky! If only I didn't feel so responsible for being the daddy to four kids I would high tail it over to the States and drive her around the place. You know her room mate wrote a piece about her. It was alright but it missed her essential comic fun streak. Anyway I spotted it ages ago.

I don't why but you always seem to have a go at Laurie's background. To me, I'd rather her be a Oxford grad from public school. I dislike thick Northern accent. My own voice has mellowed a lot mainly because I've spent decades overseas. People wonder where I'm from. I'm very clearly spoken, in fact more so than Laurie as I don't have any 'errs, or umms'. I'm like a newsreader most of the time. But I speak in 'chunks' or series of words that I've used before and now put together to formulate longer text. I try not to use words that I can't understand. I like the way Dutch and Swedish speak English. They are almost seamless.

Just look at the images and the mantras under them 'I will be happy and thin' 'I want people to be jealous of the gap between my thighs' 'I want people to worry about my health'. They want to be the leading ladies in their own lives, who is always thin, rather than the fat friend. They also want to punish themselves, strip away all that makes them sinful or that takes up space. http://www.lifeinsurancehq.org/

Anorexia seems to me to be an imaginary condition that over privileged bourgy brats without real problems get in order to have something to talk about.

Thin article.

Fascinating extended analogy, and I wish you weren't right on what ED "awareness" tends to mean.

I'm sure there'll be critiques in the comments of your comparison, some of which will make more sense than others, but I certainly think it's at least worthy of being floated and discussed. At the least, it serves as an explanation for why sufferers are invariably highly driven and successful people (and this transcends gender, but as you imply, women still face significantly more in the way of judgment based on, well, most things, but certainly their ability to conform, including to a ludicrous willowy aesthetic that remains all too prevalent).

"sciopero bianco" è una scelta di vita Laurie, therefore the work-to-rule analogy is an individual collective. Rather than reacting in this way, should not a collaborative approach be employed to create a common good, so that humanity benefits?

I think this article is fuelled by two factors which are entirely extraneous to the subject under discussion.

1) A young woman from a privileged background and expensive education who simply yearns for a state of victimhood...like a pious an overwrought Catholic girl might long for the marks of stigmata.

Laurie can't blame the workings of the market for her own psychological problems. If she wasn't so eat-up in side she may find food more of a joy than a terror. Many suffer psychological problems from time to time, that's what being human is all about. But I do hope Miss Penny gets better: another thing in politics it's advisable not to tell your political opponents your weaknesses.

"it's the most deadly mental illness because it kills more of its sufferers than other mental illnesses."

There are two main problems of this hypothesis, as I see it:

1 - eating disorders are a symptom of a mental illness, rather than the illness itself. This is even stated in the article at the top of this page. An eating disorder cannot simultaneously be a symptom of a mental illness, and the most deadly of mental illnesses. It may be one of the most deadly symptoms, as compared with accidental overdose, addictions to alcohol or other drugs, suicide, accidental deaths caused by recklessness, etc. We'd have to see some research on that, if it is at all relevant in any way other than a pissing contest - "I self harmed bigger than you did cos Im more hardcore".

2 - mental illnesses are massively undiagnosed because so many people suffer in secret, and when they dont, they face massive problems in getting any sort of support or diagnosis. This is true within the NHS, and im sure its also true of somewhere like the US, where an enormous number of people wont have insurance to cover such things. If we dont have any real idea of how many people have mental illnesses of type x, y, or z, how can we really grade them in terms of 'deadliest' or even most pervasive. We cant! Any attempt to do so is engaging in a pissing contest.

This is not to say noone can mention that eating disorders are deadly. A few statistics would help. A bit of research. But what we have here is just an 'accept my word for it, this thing I had is the most hardcore.' Its not enlightening. It doesnt acknowledge that there may be a crossover of symptoms (EDs + addiction, for eg). It doesnt tell us what illnesses eating disorders may be a symptom of. It doesnt tell us how we can support someone with an eating disorder. It doesnt tell us anything!

"A lot of people with eating disorders are fifteen years old. Can you be a successful fifteen-year-old? Don't talk bollocks, old chap."

You can be if you're a coding genius or a literary wunderkind. Or more usually someone very determined to succeed in school or university.

paragraph 1: unbelievable, unverifiable, convenient topic-of-the-day, personal experience. why wd this girl go into a cafe and order a sandwich with mayo just to dismantle it that way in public? why not order a basic salad? or make a packed lunch? I suppose we should be glad she wasn't 'quoted'.

paragraph 2: 'it happened to me! the most deadly of disorders!' personal confession, followed by a stereotyping description of people with eating disorders as spindly limbed, mad eyed, ghosts with blank stares.

paragraph 1: the 'spectacle' of young women who are trembling, 'pool eyed' (??), ritually starving themselves, is routine.

paragraph 3: the stereotype given (when given by other people, presumably) in (1) is histrionic and makes eating disorders seem glamourous and mysterious.

'youthful rebellian cannibalising itself'? hardly. is it not more likely that eating disorders are often a sign of desperation to conform, rather than rebel? if one accepts that the stereotype Ms Penny both makes and denies is in fact just a stereotype. most people with eating disorders, you wouldn't even know it, so successful are they in the appearance of conforming.

but wait, penny later explains, eating disorders are about conformity. or about rebellion against conformity by being conformist to an extreme. or something.

but it doesn't matter. what matters is not awareness, that's a ruse to sell papers. what matters is understanding and fighting. and this article does which?

sorry, but 'it happened to me' confession aside, which wd be better suited to women's weekly or one of those rags, this article offers nothing. no awareness, no real understanding, and most definitely no fight. its just stereotypes, contradiction, and hot air. is this the best new statesman, or even Laurie penny, can offer for 'eating disorder week'? aren't these 'we care about it this week' trivialisations part of the problem?

"The girl at the table opposite me is doing something very strange with her sandwich. She has cut it into exact quarters and is slowly, gingerly dissecting each one as if it were a bomb about to go off, removing the bread, wiping off the mayonnaise with a paper towel, piling the meat and lettuce into precise piles with a tiny scrape of mustard and eating them hurriedly, her hands trembling"

She could be gluten intolerant maybe? Have a stomach that reacts badly to wheat products? You immediately thought "Anorexia nervousa! She has been oppressed by males to believe that being thin is what she needs to be successful!" Or perhaps she just didn't like those other bits?

This part of your article says rather more about you than it does about her unfortunately.

I wonder if maybe the girl in the cafe was trying to recover. "I am going to a cafe and eat a sandwich like a normal person. Oh God it's huge and terrifying. Okay, let's take this a little bit at a time." Or maybe she was on the way down, not the way up, and still permitting herself to eat normal foods in theory, but not so much in practice.

She could be gluten intolerant maybe? Have a stomach that reacts badly to wheat products?

Why would she buy a sandwich in the first place then, Sherlock?

"Well number 2 won't load...which is a shame, cos it's a cracker...a long cracker"

Yea right, just like the fisherman "you should have seen it, it was this big"

andyg please no rude comments.

I take it Laurie your not a fan of the writings of the chain-smoking, alcoholic, misogynist Charles Bukowski. Probably explains why he's my favourite writer.

In case you're not familiar with his work hear is a small sample -

"Whores are natural"

"Many a good man has been put under the bridge by a woman."

"there is always one woman to save you from another and as that woman saves you she makes ready to destroy"

"you boys can keep your virgins
give me hot old women in high heels
with asses that forgot to get old. "

"Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink"

"Jan was a excellent fuck, she had a tight pussy, and she took it like it was a knife killing her.

God bless uncle Buk !

Or, y'know, letting women look however they want and we don't judge them whatever size they are, smaller or bigger?

Agent.. I'm often relieved number 2 won't load. Usually because I'm knackered out by the off-load of number 1. Hope you feel the same sense of relief.