Bulimia Comedy 'The Skinny' Aims to Conquer Television's Last Taboo

[eridani]

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/02/09/bulimia-comedy-the-skinny?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-02-10



No topic is too personal or too embarrassing for Jesse Kahnweiler. The 30-year-old L.A.-based filmmaker is best known for her autobiographical films about coming to terms with her rapist, hiring a boyfriend via a casting call, and finding her G-spot by polling strangers on the street.

But the hardest subject to tackle—both in her own life and on film—was her eating disorder, which she hid from her closest friends, roommates, and boyfriends for years. It's now the subject of her latest project, The Skinny, an episodic series in which she plays a "feisty, free-spirited Jewish girl," also named Jessie, who struggles with an unhealthy relationship—not with another person but with food.

"As someone who's had bulimia, nobody ever talks about it. And that's exactly why The Skinny needs to exist," she says in a video for The Skinny's Kickstarter, which launched Sunday and aims to raise $10,000 to cover the cost of postproduction on the pilot, which is expected to premiere online in the spring.

The Skinny comes at a time when television is increasingly portraying true-to-life characters who take recreational drugs, explore their sexuality, have abortions, and transition from one gender to another—all of which are portrayed by various characters in Transparent, the Amazon show created by Kahnweiler's friend and mentor, Jill Soloway.

[Kalidurga]

1. I am torn on whether this is a good thing or not.

On one hand raising awareness and showing what bulimia is without shaming is a good thing. Because shame drives behavior underground and then it can become deadly in the case of eating disorders. I am all for people saying they have a problem and getting help.

On the other hand a lot of confessions from people who have eating disorders are looked at not as a cautionary tale, but as instructions on how they can improve their own eating disorder and that is something people who already have eating disorders are going to be prone to doing.

[eridani]

4. That's a good point, unfortunately

But still, making fun of idiocy is going to help at least some people IMO

[ismnotwasm]

2. Interesting

She sounds pretty cool

[Warpy]

3. Sorry, I just can't resist posting the great Harvey Fierstein

Bulimia is no laughing matter to anyone who is addicted to it or their friends and family. However, seeing a comedic aspect is not new.