Buy Walking VideosMovie Review: Disfigured
I saw Disfigured a few months ago and it messed me up. It’s the story of a friendship between an obese woman, Lydia, and an anorexic woman, Darcy. They meet when Darcy attends a Fat Acceptance group only to encounter the kind of prejudice and rejection that overweight people receive every day. Lydia is the only one willing to give Darcy a chance at friendship and healing. Their friendship takes a strange turn, however, when Lydia asks Darcy for “anorexia lessons.”
You can see the trailer for Disfigured here:
Anyone who has ever wished they could get anorexia has thought about it. When Lydia asked Darcy for “anorexia lessons,” I sat there in awe of it. Yes! I had always wanted someone to teach me how to get anorexia. If I had to have an eating disorder, why couldn’t it be the popular one?
Lydia and Darcy’s experiment goes wrong, of course, because it’s a story about loving yourself at any size, but that isn’t what messed me up. What really screwed me up and set my healthy eating back for at least a month was Darcy’s view of the world.
There is a scene when Darcy is giving Lydia anorexia lessons. They are sitting in the park, watching girls walk by and Darcy is ruthlessly commenting on their bodies. Any little flaws, whether they be muffin tops or minor bulges, are pointed out and criticized by Darcy in order to get Lydia into the anorexic frame of mind.
This is how it is. This is blood sport.
It made me think that if I were to get to my goal weight, I might become one of those skinny people who hate fat people. I didn’t want to be that judgmental person that Darcy was and it took me a while to realize that I wouldn’t become that person, but I have to tell you there was a lot of bingeing before I got to that point.
It was a good movie and it had a great message, but it messed me up when I saw it.
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December 21st, 2009 at 9:03 am
I also recently saw the film. Although Darcy does come across as bitchy in the scene you mentioned, it is a scene that it very hard to fully understand unless you have suffered from anorexia or bulimia.
I am exactly like that all day every day. It doesn’t mean I think everyone looks horrible and ugly but it does magnify any tiny part that is less than perfect.
However, what is perhaps worse is that they all look thinner/smaller/better than I do in my head, even if at my current weight/heigh that would be next to impossible.
Can’t say the film inspired me to binge but I can see why it would.