Weight Maker

Tylah Fortson, Editor/Writer

Due to the request of the interviewer, his or her identity will remain anonymous and will be referred to as Pheonix. Thank you.

When it comes to matters of “right” or “wrong”, nothing is absolute. While, as a culture, people agree on what’s morally right or wrong, those matters are futile when it comes to people as a whole. One main reason that is because everyone has a different perspective about things. Experiences influence different people’s way of thinking.

An example would be people with eating disorders. Eating disorders mentally affect a person’s thinking. They will truly believe that they are too big even though they are probably the smallest people out of the bunch. To them, not eating, is something acceptable to the manner in which they want to live.

At Fraser High School, there are people with eating disorders. It is just one of those under-the-table-known things. They are in our classes and participants of sport electives where they have to be conscious of their weight and their bodies.

But the question of right and wrong becomes imperative when it comes to sports and weight and those super conscious of their own.

Ex-anorexia patient, Phoenix,  stated that for the sport in which he or she is involved in, Phoenix stated that, “I didn’t eat at all. I took a lot of laxative pills to help me lose weight. But I don’t think it triggered anything because it was a reason for why I was doing it. It was a better reason than me just being anorexic.”

That statement brings on a whole new way of thinking about anorexia or the idea of losing weight for a sport. If a person believes that he or she is doing it for a reason, does it make it okay, even if it is for a sport? Most people would say it isn’t. Obviously, Phoenix has had problems with weight control in the past but would this current thing will put him or her back in that same state.

The interviewee stated that, “[I don’t still struggle with anorexia] because when I was in the hospital they helped me overcome it.”

Phoenix truly believes that he or she is no longer a product of that experience and therefore is not presently influenced by it. Phoenix stated that it’s not a problem because, although his or her parent’s didn’t know about the abnormal eating for the sport, Phoenix said, “[It’s not a problem] because I’m not hurting anybody. I don’t feel like it’s affecting anybody.Then when you loose all that weight, you can eat, and you feel more shaped and clean.”

Now, it is known that people do make body changes for sports. Track stars have to gain endurance and that requires a lot of working out, along with people on the swim team, wrestling team, volleyball team, gymnastics team, and really most sports. But if anyone in those teams have gone through some type of eating disorder, how can one change the thought that using an eating disorder will not be conducive to them if it feels affective to them?