Name: Manorexia
Age: Unspecified.
Appearance: Reducing and increasing.
Reducing and increasing? Who? How? What? Where? Manorexia is the favoured tabloid term for the eating disorder anorexia – self-starvation in pursuit of the "perfect" body, commonly associated with girls and women – when it occurs in men, as it is increasingly doing.
Gotcha. In tabloid tradition, is it because someone famous has it? Pretty much. The actor Sam Claflin, who plays warrior-turned-womaniser Finnick Odair in the latest instalment of The Hunger Games, has spoken of his body hatred and that his wife refers to him as "manorexic".
I've seen Claflin in the Hunger Games trailers. I very much do not hate his body. How could he hate his body? Therein lies the conundrum at the heart of eating disorders. You see one thing, the sufferer another.
Like? Well, in Claflin's case something awful enough to keep customarily hidden in public. "I'm not someone who'll take my top off on the beach. I'll wear a vest … I do seriously have issues, I think. [My wife] thinks I'm getting so skinny, but I look at myself and think I'm getting fat."
How profoundly dispiriting. "It's the way the Hollywood [ideal] is thrown at you," he added. "There's an element of wanting to be Ryan Gosling with a perfect six-pack."
This is very bad news. The idea was that we would gain equality for women by granting them the same freedom from body fascism that men have historically enjoyed – not let the same madness spread to include them. Maybe The Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence can help.
Isn't she, as Hollywood's newest, brightest young thing, in an even more pressurised position? Probably, but she's fighting back, refusing to diet after management told her she was overweight and gave her pictures of herself naked to motivate her.
They did what? I know. And she has loudly proclaimed: "You look like you look and be comfortable. What are you going to do – be hungry every single day to make other people happy?"
She is so wonderful. I've loved her ever since she dealt with Jack Nicholson after the Oscars, but now I adore her. We all do, my friend. We all do.
Do say: "You look great."
Don't say: "They say the camera adds 10lb. How many cameras were on you?"
