It started with Twiggy. At 5-foot-6 and an anorexic 99 pounds, she changed our concept of beauty. No longer was it acceptable to see a female form. The drape of the cloth was what people wanted to see. The body itself was to disappear.
The disease of anorexia is now so bad that three out of every 100 girls between the ages of 15 and 24 have the disease, which is now the most deadly of all the psychiatric diseases. Men are catching up, as well.
The media is promoting bodies that are 20 percent below the ideal weight—and we feel there is something wrong with us because we don’t look like them. So we read about the diets of stars, and we stare at their photos, watching the Oscars, and the television shows, and the magazine covers. What we are seeing—and too often, admiring—are anorexic bodies.
Anorexia is the unspoken disease we are looking at. Is it now to be the unspoken disease of the opera world?
I am looking at the young singers being hired today, and what is being required, and seeing very young, very thin female singers. La Bohème on Broadway has done to opera what Twiggy did to fashion, I’m afraid. It has set a new standard in America. Even before that, however, productions in Europe were using nudity as a matter of course, so bodies had to be lean and buff. We are told that television adds 10 pounds, so you must be leaner then lean, because opera is now on television.
Where does that leave the average person? Average females in America are between a size 14-18—not a size 1! It’s not enough to be a good actress and an excellent singer…one must now look anorexic as well?
The trend isn’t good. There are some things singers should just not agree to do for the sake of “art.” It isn’t art—it is self-annihilation.
What are singers to do? We can fight back with some reality checks.
As inspiration, we can look to the story of model Kate Dillon. You can read her story on the Web, but I’ll tell it to you briefly. Dillon became a top fashion model, going for days without eating to achieve that anorexic look.
During a fashion shoot one day, the people in charge told her that she needed to lose 20 pounds. She was incredibly hungry that day, and had been hungry for years, she felt. Her bones were poking through her skin already—and suddenly, she got angry. There wasn’t 20 pounds to lose, and still they wanted more.
She got furious, and finally decided to walk away. She has created what she calls a plus-size modeling company where the models are sizes 12-18. (I don’t like the term “plus-size.”) The Discovery Channel filmed a fashion show in July and it was beautiful.
Dillon said that she weighs herself every day, to make sure she isn’t losing weight! Check out her photos on the Web and tell me she wouldn’t make a gorgeous diva onstage! She exercises and stays healthy. She doesn’t allow bulges and rolls to accumulate. This is just a healthy weight.
As we launch this issue on fitness, I wanted to be clear that it is not about becoming pencil thin, unless that is what your frame is meant to be. It is about becoming fit and healthy. The business is requiring thinner bodies then it used to. Audiences like thinner singers—but we do not want to let anyone push us past the line of good health.
If you have a question about this article or anything else, please write to Ms. CJ Williamson, the editor of Classical Singer magazine at cjw@classicalsinger.com or P.O. Box 95490, South Jordan, UT 95490. Letters can be used as “Letters to the Editor” if you would like, “Name Withheld” if you’d like, or just meant for the staff only. Just let us know.
