The Anna Rexia costume
Call us crazy, but we don’t think eating disorders really scream “sexy”.
New York chain beauty store Ricky’s is typically the place to go for your ridiculous, last-minute Halloween costumes. But the “Anna Rexia” costume the store was selling online brings scary to a whole new level. The skin and bones costume, complete with measuring tape to obsessively monitor lost inches, has reportedly been around for a while, however Ricky’s has just pulled the costume after the backlash started. The costume is nowhere to be found on the site and a spokeswoman told the Village Voice that Ricky’s was no longer selling Anna Rexia.
(MORE: The Furor Over An Anorexia Ad)
Obviously the costume was meant to be funny and it’s great to see original ideas, but NewsFeed fails to see the humor in a sexy rendering of a mental illness that affects millions. And we’re not alone. Trish Jones-Bendel, from the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders told ABC, “I’m just appalled because eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Depending on the rates, and how long people have had the disorder, mortality [for the illness] can be from 10 to 15 percent.”
Doesn’t seem so sexy now, does it?