The Glamorisation of Eating Disorders in Television
Recently, I re-watched one of my favourite TV shows, Glee.
The first three seasons are absolutely iconic to my teenage self, and although it is difficult to re-watch due to the tragic passing of Cory Monteith in 2013, I still have a great appreciation for Ryan Murphy and the messages he conveyed through Glee— well, mostly.
The series follows Spanish teacher Will Schuester, who decides to take over the school’s glee club (the New Directions). Maybe it’s to ease that burning sensation he has to rap Sisqo or perhaps the itch driving him to dance with underage kids to Britney Spears’ Toxic, but I digress. Although it starts off with only a small number of ‘losers’ and ‘geeks’, eventually this club exceeds expectations and becomes somewhat of a safe haven for kids to come to and express their feelings via song.
From tackling issues of bullying and homophobia to encouraging people to follow their dreams, Glee is one of the sweetest and most wholesome shows I’ve seen. Except for that school shooting episode, which, in my opinion, was in really poor taste and painful to watch.
At the end of season 3, we see a number of the New Directions members graduate; this leaves vacancies to be filled in season 4, and we are introduced to Marley Rose, Kitty Wilde, Jake Puckerman, and Ryder Lynn.
For the time being, let’s just focus on Marley. Marley Rose is a sophomore who lives in poverty with her mother, Millie. Her mother works as the school’s lunch lady, makes all of Marley’s clothes, and is morbidly obese. I don’t like describing someone by their weight, but in this case, it is relevant.
When mean girl Kitty ‘befriends’ Marley, she convinces Marley that in order to avoid becoming overweight like her mother, she should force herself to purge. Kitty even goes to great lengths to make Marley think she’s dramatically gaining weight and that the “fat gene” is creeping its way into her life — yep, it’s a whole thing.
I know teenagers can be susceptible and easily influenced by their peers, so the thought of Marley being introduced to purging by Kitty seems plausible, and I didn’t find this to be problematic.
Let’s jump forward to episode 6 of season 4 — Glease. For the school musical, the Glee kids decide to perform Grease, and yes, it’s as fabulous as it sounds. The sets, the costumes, the music — everything! Although Rachel Berry still looks like a sad clown hooker in that costume four years later, I can admit it still plucks a little nostalgic string in my heart.
Before going on stage, Marley is seen in the bathroom throwing up (I think) when her love interest, Ryder, walks in and tells her a story of his cousin who struggled with laxative abuse and then shat himself in front of the entire school. I actually liked this part. I know a couple of people who have had something similar happen to them as a result of laxatives.
He proceeds to state, ‘I don’t want to kiss a girl who’s got puke on her breath.’ Then Ryder kisses her.
A few things I found off-putting about this scene and Marley’s storyline.
First, the reason I dropped the somewhat passive-aggressive ‘I think’ is because once Marley puts her head up from the toilet, she looks fine — actually, if anything, she looks beautiful. No running mascara because of the involuntary tears; no bloodshot eyes; no swollen face; no saliva-soaked hands from the continued effort to get the content of your stomach back to zero. Nope, none of the gritty realism of bulimia.
Fun fact: no one looks hot after they’ve purged.
Second, if you’re a person with Borderline Personality Disorder, or even tendencies or traits, it almost feels like you’re waiting for someone to come into your life to ‘fix’ you. My word isn’t gospel, so this might not be true for everyone, but it is something I found true for myself at times.
Having Ryder come in and drop the butt-clenching, cringe-worthy line of “I don’t want to kiss a girl who’s got puke on her breath.” and playing the role of a “saviour” somewhat implies that your problems can be cured or lessened if you have someone else there, and that’s just not the reality of things. I love Murphy and a lot of his creative choices, but this one fell flat.
And third, after this, Marley continues to purge and restrict, eventually causing her to pass out on stage. The issue isn’t her passing out; it’s the after-effects that feel insensitive. The glee club is mad at her because she ‘cost them’ the competition, which to an extent is understandable; they’re kids, they lost, and they’re angry. But it seems like Marley stops her disordered behaviours almost immediately. There’s no relapse; there’s just a ‘wake-up call’, some therapy, and it all seems okay.
If it were real life,
The effects of bulimia don’t just come and go with a boy and a bit of therapy. Yes, you can argue that Marley’s behaviours were caught early, thus preventing a larger impact on her life. But I expect more from Glee. If you want to know what an eating disorder really looks like, we can rewrite this storyline.
Due to excessive purging, Marley could pull a muscle out of her back and wake up in the middle of the night in excruciating pain, as I did once. Or perhaps she threw up blood or purged so hard it caused the blood vessels in her eyes to burst, leaving the sclera completely red — yes, it’s a thing, and it’s terrifying.
Tooth decay and stains from the acid in the stomach constantly coming up, scarring on the knuckles, dry skin, hair loss, hospital admissions, and being forced to leave your school because you are a liability. These are the things eating disorders cause and can lead to.
I’m not here to bag out Glee; I love that show. It changed my life and taught me to follow my dreams while loving myself the way I am. But I am disappointed with the portrayal of eating disorders. The show had an opportunity to shine a light on the truly horrible realities of a mental illness that can consume your entire life, and it just didn’t — if anything, it was simplified and glamorised.
