For Better or For Eating Disorder
With today's reprint in For Better or For Worse, we have a strip which is very much drawn in the Peanuts' style, up to, and including, the crinkly mouth of indecision which typified a lot of Charles Schulz's artwork. It tries to capture the same sense of desperation of decision-making as, let's say, Linus trying to give up his beloved blanket. However, in this case, we have a subject near and dear to Lynn Johnston's heart -- food.
Lynn Johnston admitted to having an eating disorder some years ago in the Hogan's Alley interview with Tom Heintjes . In the interview, she says that she and her friend Brunhilda or Bernie (take your pick) were both anorexic and would call each other at night for support. This is a classic Lynn Johnston-ism in interviews -- the late night female friend. I have grown to learn over the years of looking at her interviews, if she brings up a female friend she calls at night to talk about putting on makeup, or wearing thrift store negligees, etc. in order to show that they are attractive; Lynn is making it up. Notice in the text I quote below that Lynn's friend solves her anorexia problem by marrying a doctor, which is very much the same thing Lynn did when she married Dr. Rod Johnston. The part I can take from it is that Lynn is admitting that she was, at one point, anorexic. How that ended, if it ever did, is a different story.
Tom Heintjes: Contrast Aaron’s upbringing with your daughter’s, Kate.
Lynn Johnston: When Kate was born, she was born into a world of joy and happiness and confidence. The difference between the children is night and day. She’s happy, she’s thriving, she’s full of self-confidence. I tell her she’s beautiful every day before I send her off to school. When I had her, I was happy, and when you’re happy, you can look in the mirror and say, "You know, I’m not so bad." But when Aaron was born, it was different. My husband would say things to me like my mother did. "You’re fat and ugly." And he treated me like garbage. His girlfriends would call him at home, and when I would pick up the phone, they would giggle at me. And I would look in the mirror then and say to myself, "If only I were pretty. If only I were thin." So I decided to get thin, and boy, did I get thin—I went down to 110 pounds. I was anorexic. I would go to bed and my stomach would be cramped.
Tom Heintjes: What cured you of the anorexia?
Lynn Johnston: I think it was because a friend of mine did the same thing. We would call each other late at night and say, "I’m starving, are you starving? OK, don’t eat anything and I won’t, either."
Tom Heintjes: You were each other’s codependent.
Lynn Johnston: That’s right. She was from Germany. Her name was Brunhilda. She ran away from home to come to Canada, and we became best friends. We went on this incredible diet where we both became skeletons. I remember looking at her at one point and saying, "You look terrible!" Here we were, trying to become the models we saw in magazines. We wanted the pointed hips and the angular elbows—we looked like Biafrans. When I first met Bernie, she was wonderful, sexy, beautiful . . . every man’s dream. She wasn’t fat, but she was rounded, just a delicious-looking woman. Beautiful blue eyes, just perfect. And here she was after this diet, her back covered with bumps from her spine.
Tom Heintjes: I don’t imagine that you were much better off.
Lynn Johnston: No, I wasn’t. But I looked at my friend Bernie and said, "This is it, we’re killing ourselves." I quit dieting, and she didn’t. Her period stopped, and she just got worse.
Tom Heintjes: What ultimately happened to her?
Lynn Johnston: She married a doctor, and that was a crazy relationship. They moved back to Germany, where they split up, and I lost touch with her. I know her father owned a pub in Germany, and I have a crazy idea that she’s working at that pub. I’d love to go there and see her again; she was a wonderful person.
I find the subject to be of interest to me partly because of Lynn Johnston's recent Blog entries about her vacation trip to Oaxaca, Mexico. She mentioned that she bought carrots, served them to her daughter (which made her ill) but....Lynn did not eat the carrots herself. I thought that was a little unusual. Why would you buy carrots, fix them to eat, and then fail to eat any yourself? This made me notice what it was that Lynn actually said that she ate on the trip.
On day 1 she says:
Upstairs, Arlene has put out spicy nuts, wine and a variety of local tequilas. We sit and enjoy each other’s company. A great finale to day one.
On day 2 she says:
Candy made from coconut, tamarind and cactus are delicious and we stop to buy a sample of each one.
The ancient town square is ringed with restaurants and we choose one for a snack and a cervesa.
On day 3 she says:
We had chocolate milkshakes- to DIE for and bought stuff to eat to cook and make drinks with.
On day 4 she says:
Maria’s family owns a restaurant across the road. After goodbyes with hugs and a promise to return some day, we went for snacks and a cervesa.
Not once does Lynn mention eating a full-up Mexican dinner and she talks about food extensively in her Blog entries. If I were to judge from this, I would say Lynn is eating only a few snacks each day. When I look at the details of today's reprint, it looks like this strip was probably not too far from Lynn's Johnston's real life in her past and possibly her present too. The reality of the strip is not that funny, but I doubt that few reading the strip at the time were thinking that the author was talking about an eating disorder as severe as anorexia.
Lynn Johnston admitted to having an eating disorder some years ago in the Hogan's Alley interview with Tom Heintjes . In the interview, she says that she and her friend Brunhilda or Bernie (take your pick) were both anorexic and would call each other at night for support. This is a classic Lynn Johnston-ism in interviews -- the late night female friend. I have grown to learn over the years of looking at her interviews, if she brings up a female friend she calls at night to talk about putting on makeup, or wearing thrift store negligees, etc. in order to show that they are attractive; Lynn is making it up. Notice in the text I quote below that Lynn's friend solves her anorexia problem by marrying a doctor, which is very much the same thing Lynn did when she married Dr. Rod Johnston. The part I can take from it is that Lynn is admitting that she was, at one point, anorexic. How that ended, if it ever did, is a different story.
Tom Heintjes: Contrast Aaron’s upbringing with your daughter’s, Kate.
Lynn Johnston: When Kate was born, she was born into a world of joy and happiness and confidence. The difference between the children is night and day. She’s happy, she’s thriving, she’s full of self-confidence. I tell her she’s beautiful every day before I send her off to school. When I had her, I was happy, and when you’re happy, you can look in the mirror and say, "You know, I’m not so bad." But when Aaron was born, it was different. My husband would say things to me like my mother did. "You’re fat and ugly." And he treated me like garbage. His girlfriends would call him at home, and when I would pick up the phone, they would giggle at me. And I would look in the mirror then and say to myself, "If only I were pretty. If only I were thin." So I decided to get thin, and boy, did I get thin—I went down to 110 pounds. I was anorexic. I would go to bed and my stomach would be cramped.
Tom Heintjes: What cured you of the anorexia?
Lynn Johnston: I think it was because a friend of mine did the same thing. We would call each other late at night and say, "I’m starving, are you starving? OK, don’t eat anything and I won’t, either."
Tom Heintjes: You were each other’s codependent.
Lynn Johnston: That’s right. She was from Germany. Her name was Brunhilda. She ran away from home to come to Canada, and we became best friends. We went on this incredible diet where we both became skeletons. I remember looking at her at one point and saying, "You look terrible!" Here we were, trying to become the models we saw in magazines. We wanted the pointed hips and the angular elbows—we looked like Biafrans. When I first met Bernie, she was wonderful, sexy, beautiful . . . every man’s dream. She wasn’t fat, but she was rounded, just a delicious-looking woman. Beautiful blue eyes, just perfect. And here she was after this diet, her back covered with bumps from her spine.
Tom Heintjes: I don’t imagine that you were much better off.
Lynn Johnston: No, I wasn’t. But I looked at my friend Bernie and said, "This is it, we’re killing ourselves." I quit dieting, and she didn’t. Her period stopped, and she just got worse.
Tom Heintjes: What ultimately happened to her?
Lynn Johnston: She married a doctor, and that was a crazy relationship. They moved back to Germany, where they split up, and I lost touch with her. I know her father owned a pub in Germany, and I have a crazy idea that she’s working at that pub. I’d love to go there and see her again; she was a wonderful person.
I find the subject to be of interest to me partly because of Lynn Johnston's recent Blog entries about her vacation trip to Oaxaca, Mexico. She mentioned that she bought carrots, served them to her daughter (which made her ill) but....Lynn did not eat the carrots herself. I thought that was a little unusual. Why would you buy carrots, fix them to eat, and then fail to eat any yourself? This made me notice what it was that Lynn actually said that she ate on the trip.
On day 1 she says:
Upstairs, Arlene has put out spicy nuts, wine and a variety of local tequilas. We sit and enjoy each other’s company. A great finale to day one.
On day 2 she says:
Candy made from coconut, tamarind and cactus are delicious and we stop to buy a sample of each one.
The ancient town square is ringed with restaurants and we choose one for a snack and a cervesa.
On day 3 she says:
We had chocolate milkshakes- to DIE for and bought stuff to eat to cook and make drinks with.
On day 4 she says:
Maria’s family owns a restaurant across the road. After goodbyes with hugs and a promise to return some day, we went for snacks and a cervesa.
Not once does Lynn mention eating a full-up Mexican dinner and she talks about food extensively in her Blog entries. If I were to judge from this, I would say Lynn is eating only a few snacks each day. When I look at the details of today's reprint, it looks like this strip was probably not too far from Lynn's Johnston's real life in her past and possibly her present too. The reality of the strip is not that funny, but I doubt that few reading the strip at the time were thinking that the author was talking about an eating disorder as severe as anorexia.
posted by howard at 1:56 PM
8 Comments:
I don't believe the whole Brunnhilda thing. I do believe the untreated eating disorder thing -- I would have guessed at an eating disorder anyway, just from how Lynn talks about food and treats it in her strip. And you don't get "cured" of an eating disorder just by deciding you're all better now.
I agree. I have not known very many people who have had eating disorders, but those who did struggled with it and the reasons for it. On the other hand, I can't see Lynn Johnston admitting to an interviewer that a problem that she had is a problem she still has.
I don't believe the Brunnhilda story either, although I could accept that Bernie might be a nickname for someone named Brunnhilda. All these late-night phone calls, though: it's becoming a cliché. I assume that Lynn's cheating cheater of a first husband was away at nights and not bothered by her friends ringing up in the night to talk about being skinny, but any parent will agree that late-night phone calls are rarely welcome unless something serious has happened. No matter how quickly you get to the phone, there's the worry that the ringing has woken the child(ren), coupled with the anxiety that someone is ringing late at night which likely means bad news because your friends and family understand that evenings are often the only time you have to yourselves.
Meanwhile, Lynn happily dishes on all of Brunnhilda / Bernie's issues -- a run away with an eating disorder, then a "crazy" relationship with her husband -- then casually mentions, "Oh, we've lost touch; I've no idea where she is or what happened to her." I can almost hear her shoulders shrug as she says this.
Good to see you back. Hope you had a wonderful holiday.
howard,
Not once does Lynn mention eating a full-up Mexican dinner and she talks about food extensively in her Blog entries. If I were to judge from this, I would say Lynn is eating only a few snacks each day. When I look at the details of today's reprint, it looks like this strip was probably not too far from Lynn's Johnston's real life in her past and possibly her present too. The reality of the strip is not that funny, but I doubt that few reading the strip at the time were thinking that the author was talking about an eating disorder as severe as anorexia.
I share that doubt; it's obvious that most of the people who read the strip think that Lynn depicts the Pattersons as messy eaters because spittle and gobbling is low comedy. Of they knew that she thought that eating normally and Pattersnarfing were the same thing, they'd be as horrified as I am.
Yes, there are thousands of people and their families who simply don't know the secret to stopping anorexia is having some phone conversations and then saying stop.
Right.
Personally, I thought Lynn looked extremely thin in her pictures at the petting farm. It could be the "divorce diet" but with her history....
And it always amazes me how Lynn goes on and on about the most personal things--that interview was something that only someone who wants a LOT of attention would go on about.
debjyn,
And it always amazes me how Lynn goes on and on about the most personal things--that interview was something that only someone who wants a LOT of attention would go on about.
That is an alarming habit of hers, isn't it? I doubt that she realizes exactly how off-putting it is to watch her undress herself in public.
debjyn,
And it always amazes me how Lynn goes on and on about the most personal things
No kidding. If it's just her own personal things, well whatever, she can say what she likes. But here she is telling the world about how this supposed "best friend" had a severe eating disorder, and how her marriage to a doctor was a mess. I believe "Bernie" is made up, but if not, jeez Lynn shut your trap! Her story is not yours to tell!
All these late-night phone calls, though: it's becoming a cliché.
And having Bernie and her husband move "back to" Germany (so automatically her husband was also from Germany). This is also a bit of a Lynn-cliché--dispense with a character/made-up-person by having that person flee to his/her country of origin. Cf the teacher whose sudden divorce and move back to England led to Liz's perfectly timed grade-four teaching position in Milborough.
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