Eating Disorders Examined in 'Size Ate'
Margaux Laskey shifted through sixteen different sizes before she finally became a size eight. Sideways. In the glorious finale of Size Ate, Laskey’s one-woman one-act play depicting the triumph of a woman over the prison of numbers, Laskey makes a lifeless number 8 come alive by turning it on its side and transforming into an infinity sign. Infinity is not necessarily huge but more-so indefinable. It is not a number but rather an all encompassing, unfathomable, vast possibility. 8, sideways, insinuates that a woman-- a sister, a mother, a lover-- cannot be incapsulated by something so tiny as a number. This is the lesson Margaux yearns to share with her audience.
Size Ate chronicles Laskey’s childhood, adolescence, and blossom into womanhood through the lens of her past and present struggles with body image. In what she describes as “cathartic advocacy”, Laskey uses the stage to speak out against an issue she has spent her own life battling. Size Ate fluctuates within Laskey’s own story, yet is framed in such a way that everything from her battles with anorexia to binge eating feel as if they are every woman’s battle. It is not simply eating disorders Laskey wants to combat, but any form of self-loathing that can plague a person’s soul; Laskey aims to give her audience a sword to slay their demons regardless of what those demons might be, and in the process seems to have frightened away her own ghosts... on good days at least.
The humor as well as the drama of Size Ate are at times self-deprecating, at times controversial, but always poignant. Laskey keeps her audience teetering between tears and fury, stringing together the stories of women a myriad of sizes and proving that each, whether starving or bingeing, is simply searching to discover the human within-- the human too infinitely vast to be decided by a tag in a pair of Levis.
She takes the stage--not alone-- but with a cast of mannequins. These headless, limbless, colorless torsos may only be defined by the bold, black numbers on their chests.
We value and respect the experiences of all of our HERWriters, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.
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Women in the midst of an eating disorder have always shared 'tips' - this is not new - and instead of calling for a ban on such sites perhaps there needs to be dialogue between those who have recovered and those still caught up in the intensity of the experience.
February 18, 2010 - 1:41amFiona Place
Author of Cardboard: A woman left for dead
This Comment
I totally agree Fiona. I would love to develop a forum or blog where all women struggling with body image and eating disorders, no numbers allowed. (ps I am ordering your book from amazon!)
February 19, 2010 - 3:06pmThank you torimo and I do hope you enjoy the book, Fiona
February 19, 2010 - 7:35pm