Blogger Shares Tips on How to Really Dress Up as 'Anna Rexia' for Halloween
Every year at Halloween some distasteful costumes surface, but few are as offensive and disheartening as “Anna Rexia.”
For under $50, the costume simultaneously pokes fun at and sexualizes anorexia — a serious, potentially deadly condition. This is no laughing matter — eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.
Jessi Davin, a 26-year-old recovering anorexic from Florida is calling out this tasteless costume. Davin was diagnosed with the disease at 19 and was in treatment until she was 22, BuzzFeed reported.
Two years ago, she wrote a poignant response on Tumblr to the Anna Rexia costume (which is still for sale), and since then her words have moved hundreds of thousands of people.
In her post, Davin lists what a real anorexia costume would entail:
Want to dress up like an anorexic? All it takes is:
- Four years of hospitalization.
- A nasogastric feeding tube because you’ve starved yourself so much that your body doesn’t recognize food as a good thing and tries to attack itself.
- Re-Feeding syndrome, which can kill you.
- Emotional struggles for years.
- A father crying and pleading on his knees begging for you to get help.
- A mother who cries every time she sees you because you look and smell like death.
- Holidays missed, birthdays crying in a hospital.
- Almost every major organ in your body failing.
- A shower chair — because you can’t stand in the shower because you’re too weak and the warm water could make you pass out.
- A wheelchair, because you are too weak to walk and it could make you go into cardiac arrest.
- A lifetime of medications for anxiety and the health issues “Anna Rexia” caused.
- Plenty of money for multiple ER trips due to “Anna Rexia” even in recovery.
- And if you don’t get help like I do, or even if you do, a coffin. Because I’ve lost more friends to this eating disorder then anything I’ve ever faced.
See images from Davin’s post in the gallery below:
“Anorexia is nothing to party about or laugh at. It’s real, it’s deadly and should not be marketed as a slutty outfit,” Davin says in the post. “Want to dress as ‘Anna Rexia?’ Just go as a vampire, or a zombie. Because one third of us are dead.”
Davin recently got married and is seven months pregnant, BuzzFeed reported. Though she’s recovering, because of her disease, it’s a high-risk pregnancy and Davin is currently receiving treatment to ensure her unborn daughter’s safety.
In the Hospital, but Baby Scarlett and I are still all ready for the game! 27 weeks! GO BUCKS! #OhioState #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/saPA6rKc8T
— Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye) October 17, 2015
Melissa McGlensey is the former News Editor at The Mighty. Her writing can also be seen in Ms. Magazine, on the Ms.Magazine blog and in The Huffington Post’s Good News, Comedy and Impact sections. Melissa is also a New York City comedian who does sketch, improv and stand up. She is passionate about social justice, politics, Thai food, literature, disability rights and more. She is currently in a long-distance relationship with her cat, Sneakers, who lives in California. You can follow her on twitter at @OhHeyMeliss.
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