Alanis Morissette is a multiple Grammy-award-winning singer and songwriter, famous for the albums Jagged Little Pill, Under Rug Swept, and So-Called Chaos, among others. She also has many acting credits, including the role of God in the film Dogma and a starring role in the play The Vagina Monologues.
Morissette recalls pressure from a recording studio. In a meeting that was entirely about her weight, she was told, "You can't be successful if you're fat."
Morissette was also pressured about her weight by an early boyfriend (see Quotes below).
- "My brain had really been programmed, and it has been a long process to un-program it."
- "I try to remember, whatever my body is, it's perfect the way it is."
- (recounting her reaction to a much older boyfriend's statement, whe she was 14, that he might marry her if she stayed thin) "[S]ome of [the struggle] was just because of magazines and society and messages and family and school and everything. It's not one singular person that can be pointed at."
Morissette's language is not the language of a person who has put her eating problems entirely in her past. This is realistic. Most survivors continue to have occasional issues with food, but these are problems they can handle without going back to disordered eating. There is no evidence that Morissette has experienced relapse.
Unfortunately, Morissette's memory about being told she was too "fat" for success is all too common. She may have been vulnerable to eating disorders for other reasons, but triggering events like the comments she received frequently bring eating disorders fully into being.
Sources:
EDReferral.com. "Celebrities with eating disorders." Accessed 1 July 2008.
McQueen AM. "Alanis battled anorexia, bulimia." Ottawa Sun. June 29, 2005. Accessed 1 July 2008.
Vineyard J. "Alanis Morissette: The silence is over." At mtv.com. 2007. Accessed 2 July 2008.
