Demi Lovato Blasts Disney for Eating Disorder Joke
Inappropriate comments and suggestive jokes are becoming more and more commonplace on Disney's tween shows. But Demi Lovato, a former Disney star took to Twitter to call Disney out on them.
Lovato who left the show So Random, to enter rehab for bulimia and self-injury, blasted a tweet to the Disney PR team after a hearing a joke making light of eating disorders. A character on the dance show Shake It Up said: "I could just eat you up, well if I ate."
She tweeted: "I find it really funny how a company can lose one of their actress' from the pressures of an EATING DISORDER and yet still make joke about.."
Disney PR responded quickly saying: we hear you & are pulling both episodes as quickly as possible & reevaluating them (1 of 2 messages)
It’s NEVER our intention to make light of eating disorders! (2 of 2 messages)
Which is great -- I'm so happy that Disney pulled one episode with a one joke in it. But as Demi said in a tweet: And is it just me or are the actresses getting THINNER AND THINNER.... I miss the days of RAVEN, and LIZZIE MCGUIRE.
Because the girls are getting thinner and thinner. I had recently tweeted that the girls on Shake It Up, Pair of Kings and of course, Selena Gomez are getting tinier and tinier and look like human bobbleheads. The number one show on Disney for 6-11 year olds is A.N.T. farm, and the main character is teeny, tiny, scrawny.
My daughter sees those characters and I don't want her to think that tiny stick arms and lollipop heads are normal and beautiful. Because they are not. I'm hazarding a guess that those girls do not eat enough -- they are under tremendous pressure and their looks are on public display.(Yes, I know people have different metabolisms etc. but the incidence of eating disorders in celebrities is very high. And no, I don't think Disney is telling these girls to be super-skinny, I think it is an unfortunate part of the business.) So, we have taken those shows off our rotation.
It's nice that Disney responded to a public castigation by a public personality who has been very open about her own battles with eating disorders. It would be even nicer if Disney (and other producers of kid TV) looked at the role models they are showing and instead of making fat jokes or food jokes all the time, they actually made some changes. One thing is they could just make sure that they employed various body types without comment or criticisms of them.
I wonder how many stars with eating disorders it will take before they make some changes?
Do you think the characters on the TV shows are too thin? Are they setting a bad example? Do you think they make too many fat jokes?
Want more chaos? Last year, I gave my rules for tobaganning fun.
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