The Disorder Is In the Details: Remembering Anorexia

The recent “Joan Colins: I’d crack down on Immigration” Telegraph interview with Joan Colins was an eventful distraction from serious matters. It was about celebrities and public desensitization. After all, she’s in show business.

Immigration was featured to rouse readers. Joan comments on it, but in fact, Joan was interviewed about many subjects, from ‘kids today’ to ‘Hollywood celebrities’. The 78-year-old English legend expressed the common woe over child access to porn and violence desensitizing a generation. Alas! I passed the paragraph and skimmed down the page. I don’t argue. Who wouldn’t agree? Then she said something that sparked a chain reaction of dormant neurons.

Article snippet:

I wonder what she makes of modern-day celebrities. She once said that the only person she could think of with true star quality was Angelina Jolie, so I decide to throw some names at her. What does she think of Gwyneth Paltrow? …  Kiera Knightley? “Well, she’s thin,” is all Joan will say. Carey Mulligan?….

The interview continued. My eyes haulted in their tracks. “Well, she’s thin,” is all Joan will say. The sentence rang in my head. I had to see how thin Keira Knightly was.

I did a Google image search for Keira Knightly and found nothing abnormal. Actually, she was as thin as many celebrities of her age and ‘glamour’. She looked normal. As I scrolled down the search results, I was aghast to find Kiera Knightly posing in a white strap outfit:

Uploaded 29.07.2008 on YourCelebSource.com by VCS

What spooked me? The striking resemblance to the photoshopped models in German photographer Ivonne Thein’s “Thirty-Two Kilos” exhibit.

05.2009 ‘Thirty-Two Kilos’ exhibit image. (Ivonne Thein)

Suddenly my eyes were opened. Or was I made to think?

It’s hard to know which photograph was actually shot first, or if either photographer was inspired by the other, if at all. Was Ivonne Thein’s  particularly disguisted by Keira’s snap-shop? Was Keira’s photographer oblivious to the Anti-Anorexia exhibit or directly insinuating that Keira Knightly was too thin? Personally, I recognize that no creative idea is ever truly original. Moreover, overtime, some visual ideas are repeated simply because they are ingrained in our natural psychology. That ‘sexy’ pose of Keira is probably just coincidence. Nonetheless, like all artistic works – yes, this shot of Keira is more than sex; there was craft involved – this photograph in relation to Ivonne Thein’s “Thirty-Two Kilos” exhibit does incite critical discussion about modern celebrities and the desensitization of people today.

Our society is undoubtedly sold twiggy women on cover spreads on a constant basis. Is Kiera Knightly too thin? For modern models, I don’t think so. I’m probably desensitized. Compared to classic models from Hollywood’s Golden Days, yes, I’d say Keira is very thin. Check out this iconic 1942 image of Betty Grable in a pin up shot for the Army overseas.

1942. Betty Grable's assets made the Great War seem a little more bearable.

The blonde bombshell had lots of curves selling in that pose.

Naila is the Editor and Creative Director of a publications company in Istanbul. Let’s Get Naila! is an independent brand providing original material to businesses, governments and non-profit groups internationally. For more information or to connect visit Let’s Get Naila! Online.