Food For Thought

There’s an epidemic that is sweeping the world. And it’s not obesity. It’s not even swine flu. It doesn’t even have one of those ‘scientific’ sounding names.

Anyone who watches the television news, reads the newspaper, or browses the Internet would no doubt have heard of the death of Amy Winehouse.

Tragic though this singer’s death may be, and her life may have been equally tragic, what could be of greater concern is how many young women have or are attempting to emulate this girl.

Not having known Amy Winehouse personally, it would not be appropriate to sit in moral judgment of this girl, despite there having been stories of drunkenness, drug use and other issues.

The point of this is, how did this girl become such a role model for thousands of girls who followed her given this alleged behaviour.

Which brings us back to the point of the epidemic, and that is bad self-image.
Hollywood sells perfection.

It sells stories of great adventures, beautiful people, and most of the time, happy endings.

What it doesn’t do is provide an accurate representation of reality.

It is the same with the music world, or the modelling world.

After all, these are worlds which ensure that the most successful people are the ones who have a ‘certain look’.

They place high expectations on those who do climb the ladder of success, but as in Amy’s case, it comes at a price.

Amy isn’t the only one who has paid such a high price.

Back in the seventies, there was a young singer who had an incredible voice.

But Karen Carpenter’s image did not suit the music industry and she became anorexic and bulimic in order to attempt to become that ‘perfect image’.

At least, that is what a television movie tried to portray.

Karen Carpenter was just 32 years old when she died of heart failure – a direct result of her illness placing strain on her heart.

Actor John Candy was always known as ‘roly-poly’, but at one point he must have been so unhappy with his image that he tried to lose weight.

He also died of heart failure.

We hear stories of celebrities, mostly in Hollywood and the UK, ‘acting up’, misbehaving, getting arrested for one thing or another.

And yet these are the people we hold up as role models for children.

It begs the question.

How do we expect children to grow up healthy and happy to become successful adults if the only examples they have of success are people who have it but are clearly so unhappy with that success they choose to sabotage it, and themselves, with, in some cases, fatal results.

Food for thought.