Update on "Beautiful Madness"

[nancylebov]

Remember that totally infuriating article about a beautiful (i.e. thin) schizophrenic young woman and how awful it was that she gained weight on the only drug which restored her sanity?

Paul McAleer of Big Fat Blog contacted the magazine about the truth of the article, and here's the follow-up. The article is probably pretty much fiction.

I recommend reading the rest of the letters to Prospect (the magazine that published the original artical)--it's quite reassuring that all of them were about the article being outrageous.

Comments

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

At least they didn't whine about how they were mis-interpreted. So they aimed for one target, didn't have the writing skill to pull it off, but the point they make is a good one. Better luck next time, guys.

[redbird]

I also note that the only source they're willing to identify is male, but the "oh, the patient gained weight, isn't it terrible?" was recast as a teenage girl. I wonder if that's because the author cares more about female appearance, expects the readers to, or doesn't want to be seen as finding boys attractive.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Okay. I didn't say anything last time, but I do not get it. I was not outraged. Maybe it is because I have actually faced such trade offs, but I found the story sad. All the big and little things we have to give up for the "oh so precious gift" of being around for everyone who wants to hold onto us no matter what the cost.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for everyone else who was angry at the article, but I'll take a crack at it.

Part of it is that the demand to be thin (with thinness being taken to equal beauty) is crazy-making (usually in the colloquial sense) for a lot of people, especially women. Having thinness balanced off against actual insanity is the cherry on the Sunday.

You're talking about the trade-offs you've faced, but we hear very little about the girl's point of view, and that little is considered to probably indicate there's something wrong with her because she isn't invested in being beautiful.

By the time she was institutionalized, her beauty wasn't doing her any good, and may have been putting her at risk. Nonetheless, the author and
her doctor (at least as the doctor was described/invented) are still placing a very high value on it.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I'm a gay man, trust me I know about the pressure to be physically perfect. I exercise a lot more than I'm inclined to do by my nature because without beauty I've not got much to offer to entice a guy.

But the thing is that a person can be happy and healthy and over what is considered ideal in women (personally I think women look better with more weight than Hollywood standard, at least size 8 or 9, not the unreal 1s of the runway). On the other hand she was gaining a stone (14 pounds) a week and rapidly headed for being morbidly obese. I would be disturbed as well for the health implications if not the loss of physical attractiveness. And being physically attractive is worth preserving. If a person has gained 42 pounds in just three weeks there is a clear trend towards unhealthy obesity (if it were me that would be adding a third to my weight) in a very short period of time and if I were a doctor I would want to cut that off quickly because once a person has doubled his or her weight it is nearly impossible to get it off again without dangerous surgery.

In my case Olanzapine made me slow and unable to follow conversations, it is not a fun drug to be on. Thankfully I get a choice and I choose not to take it and deal with my problems without drugs.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

In re pressure to be physically perfect: It might be even worse for women because the whole weight of the culture is behind it, but I don't know whether that can be proven.

In re not having anything to offer besides your looks: I only know you as a writer, but you're at least intelligent and interesting. At this point, what I believe about relationships is that there's an ethical minimum needed for a good relationship but beyond that, what's needed is a good emotional match--meeting abstract standards isn't the point.

I've read comments about that article--apparently, the weight gain typically stops at not much more than she put on. It's not that she'd keep gaining at that rate for a year.