Beckinsale: Anorexics are like crack whores
Former anorexic Kate Beckinsale has been accused of insensitivity after she likened anorexic girls to ‘crack whores’ and said family problems were often to blame for the condition.
Kate, whose weight once plummeted to five stones, said: ‘I believe anorexia, alcoholism and drug abuse in teens are more about what is happening in the home than a problem with images in the media.
‘It is the nice girl’s way of becoming a crack whore.’
Kate, 33, was brought up by her mother Judy Loe after her actor father Richard Beckinsale died of a heart attack when she was five.
When she was nine, her mother married director Roy Battersby – a relationship the actress said contributed to her problems in her teens, which culminated in her developing anorexia at 15.
She has previously said: ‘I was convinced I was going to be relegated, that he would sell the house where I had always lived and it would be awful.’
She added: ‘I got to the stage where I think I was about to die. I had no energy and my main goal was to be able to stand up.
‘Finally I realised I had to choose between being a person or a professional anorexic.’
Ros Ponomarenko-Jones, whose daughter Sophie Mazurek starved herself to four stones before dying last year of heart failure at 19, said she felt ‘completely insulted’.
‘She (Beckinsale) has been totally flippant and does not really know what she is talking about,’ she said. ‘She is not giving anorexia the status it deserves as a mental illness.’
Eating disorder charity Beat warned that anorexia resulted from more deep-rooted problems than the family circumstances and images surrounding teenage girls.
A spokesman said: ‘Anorexia stems from low self-esteem and an inability to cope safely with worries and problems. It is not a diet gone wrong.’
April 25th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I think each person’s story and ‘use’ of anorexia is different, and nobody’s ideas about it are “right” or wrong- not even professionals’. People do things for different reasons and get different rewards from it; so basically the only mistake possibly in her words are that she shouldn;t speak for more people than herself regarding that condition. It CAN be a diet gone wrong, it CAN be a self-esteem issue, it IS a professional “alter-personality” that you become (its life-engrossing) and it IS a mental thing in that it takes over your mind and behaviors…. so there is no right or wrong side here….
April 25th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Every instance I’ve seen of anorexia has been because of personal issues (normally in the family) where they feel life is out of control. Denying themselves food is something they can control. It is a mental issue for sure but it’s a mental issue tied to how they feel about their lives. Every parent of an anorexic or any child or family member with depression has to start accepting the fact that they may be part of the problem and decide if they love that person enough to help them solve the problem by looking hard at themselves.
April 25th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I completely agree with Pecarrie. I was anorexic for many years and it started out as a diet since I was a little chubby…and then it turned into something much worse. People can only speak to their experiences. Kate wasn’t trying to insult anyone.
April 25th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
A) 5 stones? This must be a British site. B) That is the stupidest pose I’ve ever seen and C) The skinny bitch is right. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for anorexic girls, or even crack whores. Low self-esteem? Please. Name a woman in this country or any other who has high self esteem. We’re all given adversities in life and we all have the power to overcome them in a positive way. But some people just take the easy, non-thinking way out. It’s weakness, and for women to be afraid to have a snack anywhere in the Western world when the rest of the Earth is starving INvoluntarily, is a disgrace.
Modern feminism is all about enabling so-called victims, the old school feminists like Betty Friedan would tell ya to pull up your big girl pants and fucking deal with it!
April 25th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
um, fuck you kate.
April 26th, 2007 at 1:06 am
Like the Scholar George Carlin once said:
“RICH CUNT, DON’T WANNA EAT? FUCK HER, GO DIE”
How come no poor girls, or girls in Africa have anorexia? They get all the other mental diseases. It’s a fucking made up disease for silly rich cunts who can either eat or fucking die….
April 26th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
when she looks that good she can say what the hell she wants about anything i dont care