To The Bone: Why Netflix's portrayal of eating disorders has got it all wrong
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Su Holmes, University of East Anglia
Not many films come with a health warning. But the recent Netflix film To The Bone, which tells the story of 20-year-old Ellen – played by Lily Collins – and her journey through treatment for anorexia, has received just that. The UK’s national eating disorder charity Beat said in a statement:
We would strongly urge anyone that might be at risk of an eating disorder to think very carefully before watching this film.
There have also been calls to ban the film because of fears the film might incite eating disorders, or make someone’s problem worse.
Eating disorder sufferers – particularly young girls – have long been presented as especially “vulnerable” to the power of media images and messages. The “anorexic” is often shown as not simply vain, but also unable to separate image from “reality”. And research has shown that people diagnosed with anorexia are routinely presented as being “suggestively vulnerable” – that is more likely to be influen...
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