At this time we go over a very sensitive topic: eating disorders in pre-teen gals on a well-known, family sitcom. There have been a few cases of this and today we tackle not only two of my favorite shows, but two of my favorite female characters.
Full House first covered this with their episode, Shape Up. Years later,
Lizzie McGuire took a similar approach with
Inner Beauty.
Plot
Both tackled body issues of a young girl and taking matters into their own hands to try and lose weight. Unfortunately this is probably something that's even more relevant today and instead of television shows trying to nip it in the bud, they're glamorizing it instead. And I'm sitting here eating chocolate.
The lovely thing about comparing these two is that in one show the dilemma is with a main character, in the other it's with a supporting character. Granted
Full House has a lot more main characters, however it still made things a little more interesting. So beginning with
Full House we have DJ Tanner, normal girl of the 90's, struggling with her weight while her younger sister Stephanie takes on the caring and concerned role while finally bringing the situation out into the open. On
Lizzie, Lizzie herself is actually the supporter while her friend Miranda is the one at odds with her figure.
We begin with
Full House. DJ's best friend Kimmy invites her to the surprise pool birthday party she is throwing for herself. DJ feels self-conscious at the thought of wearing a bathing suit in front of all of her friends, especially standing next to a bird-like Kimmy with a so-called "perfect body". DJ vows that then and there she will take no part in sweets or junk food which slowly (at least in sitcom form) turns into forgoing food altogether. Her younger sister Stephanie starts to notice this when she see's DJ try to give away her ham sandwich to Kimmy (who declines) and ends up feeding it to their dog, Comet. Stephanie confronts DJ, DJ lies (and lies, and lies) and finally DJ pinky swears Stephanie to shut her mouth about the entire thing. She also semi-confides in her Aunt Becky who reminds her that by eating sensibly and getting enough exercise you can lose weight the right way, however DJ needs to drop the pounds in a matter of two weeks before she's ready for this party, hence the non-eating. It doesn't seem to me that it's a control issue for her. DJ simply wants to look good in a bathing suit in front of her friends and then I could even assume that she will go back to eating normally. She does mention wanting to look like models in magazines because they're beautiful and don't have Charlie Brown cheeks, but that's just something that comes and goes. Finally, after a trip to her other sister Michelle's gym (played by the lovely, skeletal Olsen's who will obviously deal with this in later life, they should have re-watched this episode), she overexerts herself on the stair machine and has a dizzy spell in front of everyone. Stephanie tries to speak up but DJ gives her the side-eye and she zips her lip. After she rests a bit the family has a bit of an intervention in the kitchen over Joey's chicken parmesean when Stephanie outs DJ saying she hasn't eaten in three days. They try to force her to eat which causes her to run upstairs and then tell her dad that she has to look good for her friends and that she wants to look like a model. Danny, as he often does, reminds her that she don't know what these models deal with in real life, and tells her a story of him wanting to be the guy that turned into the hulk because he was just an average dude, unlike Danny the giant. Then he realized that he didn't want to be the nerdy guy because whenever he gets angry he has to buy a new t-shirt. DJ realizes that hunger is a powerful thing, and if her friends are really her friends they won't care what she looks like in a bathing suit and scarfs down her food (implied).
Lizzie goes a bit of a different route. Lizzie and Miranda are filming a music video (for a song, I've deduced, they do not sing) directed by their friend Gordo. When they aren't working as hard as he expects them too he makes an off comment about them stuffing their face and they get back to dancing. When Miranda see's some photos that Gordo took of the performance she starts to take Gordo's words to heart because all of a sudden this skinny gal has six chins and fat arms. She decides that she is now on a diet. That day she skips lunch and Lizzie begins getting annoyed with Miranda's response of having a large breakfast. She and Gordo discuss the oddness of that comment coming immediately after her saying she needs to diet. Later that day while rehearsing, Miranda has her dizzy spell after dancing much too hard. She lies to Lizzie's mom about having a huge lunch and Lizzie grows visibly concerned. Miranda gives her the side-eye and Lizzie decides to keep quiet. She tries to confront Miranda and Miranda gets defensive and now they're on the outs. To try and gain some advice Lizzie does the responsible thing. She goes to her mother and describes her "friend" having weight issues. Of course, her mom assumes it's about Lizzie and then Lizzie lets Miranda's name slip. Her mother assures her that if it hasn't blown over in a few days she will do her a solid and talk to Miranda and her mom. At what I think is their final rehearsal for the music video Lizzie tries to talk to Miranda again, with the help of Gordo. This finally gets through to her and she admits that she likes having control over her food. She's been stressed out with not being able to get good grades no matter how hard she studies and now she finally found something that she can steer. She knows it isn't the healthiest route and agrees that she needs to start eating again. After watching the final product of their Britney rip-off classroom music video, Miranda gains the confidence that she needs after realizing she looks outstanding.
Characters
DJ Tanner vs Miranda Sanchez - The under-eater. In this case, purely for the sake of the message I'm going with Miranda. DJ again seemed to have more of a grip on this, doing it for a birthday party, not as a means of control. Miranda experienced what I think a lot of teenage girls start to around her age. Stuff gets hard, boys and classes and everything can really seem overwhelming at that age and one of the easiest things they think of to start controlling is their eating habits. Granted Miranda's disorder lasted about 2 days from what I gathered when DJ's went at least 3, I believe Miranda learned a bigger lesson overall.
Stephanie Tanner vs Lizzie McGuire - The concerned friend/family member. I will give this to Stephanie. Maybe it's a sister thing, but she seemed more concerned. It could also be the 3 day vs the 2 day as well, but she spoke up in front of the entire Tanner family not giving DJ a chance to deny it. What was she going to do, lie to everyone? She probably saved DJ some pain, I think she had more balls than Lizzie, and she was a lot younger too. In Lizzie's defense though, Miranda is a LOT more terrifying than DJ.
Aunt Becky vs Jo McGuire - The helpful adult. Mrs. McGuire takes this, but barely. I feel like Aunt Becky was trying to give DJ options when she didn't know that there was actually a problem, though she did her best. Mrs. McGuire immediately agreed to take action after encouraging Lizzie to try and help her friend as well. She didn't come off as a jerky adult trying to take control of the situation, but also understood that this is a severe issue and would step in if needed.
Breakdown
The deciding moment - As previously mentioned, DJ seems to just want to crash diet in order to look good in swimwear. Who knows if she'll feel this way after? I mean, a few times she talks about wanting to be a model but that's only a part of the big picture. Miranda on the other hand wants control. That's evident when she talks about her grades not being where she wants them to be despite all of her efforts. Food is something she has a handle on.
Lizzie has it.
The confrontation -
Full House has this. Lizzie definitely makes some good points when confronting Miranda but overall Stephanie shows DJ how concerned she is and DJ just brushes it off. Stephanie calls her out on her lying and everything and DJ really can't respond so she jumps to her own defense as to why she needs to be skinny. Even when Stephanie tells her how important actual food in your stomach is DJ still doesn't get it.
The wow I should start eating again because eating disorders are not cool - It's tough to call honestly, but because no one can resist a good dad speech let's go with
Full House. Danny nails it with why DJ is perfect just the way she is, maybe sensing that after the pool party this could turn into a real issue. Maybe he saw it before I did, with his dad-sense (equivalent to Spidey-sense on the
Full House level). Good job, Danny. Though
Lizzie should get some recognition. Miranda did have a sadder story and the fact that after her day or two of being anorexic was able to decide that controlling something isn't going to bring her peace is a big deal, so you go Glen Coco.
I think overall both shows made their points. Lizzie seemed to have a leg up on pretty much everything expect the supportive sidekick, you can't argue with that sister bond.
