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Emily Dusablon

Phillips

Cultural Media Literacy Honors

21 May 2017

The Romanticism of Self-Destruction in Skins

The show Skins invaded UK televisions in January of 2007. Skins

depicted a lifestyle that most teenagers wished they could achieve. Endless

parties, sex, drugs, and still passing their exams with flying colors. Each

generation on the revolutionary show had at least one broken character that

every viewer idolized. The First Generation had the beautifully, elegantly thin

Cassie Ainsworth. In the first episode shes introduced as an effortlessly

vacant and ditzy girl who just got out of the hospital for her eating disorder

and suicidal ideations. The Second Generation focuses on First Generations

Tony Stonems kid sister Effy when she enters the UK equivalent of freshman

year. Mysterious and seemingly in control, Effy held the perfect image of the

edgy cool girl who buries her deep rooted problems with mindless sex and

excessive drug use. Unwittingly, these characters quickly became role

models to young girls in 2007. The show was added to Netflix and seemed to

reboot the cycle in 2016-2017. Skins especially became a hot topic again

on its 10 year anniversary this past January. Various articles appeared that

either celebrated and reminisced in the show or clearly opened old wounds

that shaped some women's lives.

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Anna Leszkiewicz writes how viewers engaged with Cassie Ainsworth.

Leszkiewicz makes the observation that Cassies entire character is built

around her eating disorder. In the first episode alone we find that Cassie is

not allowed to handle knives and shes great in the sack as long as shes

not hungry. Cassies fashion and the way she carried herself caused her to

be somewhat of a role model according to one woman Leskiewicz

interviewed. Another logic that Cassies character bled was that not eating

could make you more interesting. She made it cool to starve. The anonymous

interviewee claimed that she thought of Cassie at school while her friends

ate and she didnt, giving her a sense of inner triumph. And suddenly,

Cassie became the patron saint of Pro Ana blogs everywhere. Her most

dangerously famous lines became mantras for the online eating disorder

community. One popular gif of Cassie is a medium shot of her face with her

meekly saying I didnt eat for three days so I could be lovely.

Not only did Cassie become the poster child for anorexia, but her

character gave great tips and tricks. One scene shows her proudly

demonstrating how she makes it appear like she ate the food on her plate.

She walks through step-by-step to show her love interest Sid.

Cassie: I like you Sid. So Im going to show you. *vigorously cuts up

food* You have to do a lot of talking. Im good at talking. Do that while

youre cutting things up. A lot, and then, questions. *brings fork of food
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up to mouth, stops* Wheres your student card? Your ID? *cuts up

food* Have you got it?

Sid: What? Oh..No.. I uh lost it somewhere.

Cassie: *still cutting up food* Change the subject! This is great! I love

these sausages. Oh you should try one! *moves pieces to Sids plate*

Go on, delicious! Mmmmm

Sid: Hang on you didnt-

Cassie: Youre not quite sure what Im on about but Im distracting you.

Then I up the ante. Oh! I love this stuff! *takes Sids plate and dumps

food onto hers* Really delicious. You arent sure if you want some

more. I keep waving the food at you until you stop looking at me.

Where do you think you lost it?

Sid: Sorry?

Cassie: *checks watch* God I gotta go! Soo full! Gotta dash! *gets up

and mimics walking away* There you go, job done.

Sid: Impressive.

Cassie: Cheers!

This display of disordered eating behavior directly showed the Cassie

worshipers how to become her. Sids inquiry only solidifies the idea that

Cassies disorder makes her interesting. Its over glorified and normalizes

these behaviors. The blog anorexia-is-not-a-diet posted two years ago about
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their experience with anorexia and Cassie Ainsworth. They tagged it:

Anorexia isnt Cassie fucking Ainsworth.

Anorexia isnt tragically beautiful. Anorexia isnt I stop eating until

they take me to hospital. Anorexia is raw. Anorexia is suffering.

Anorexia is sickness. Anorexia is death. Anorexia is I stopped eating,

and they took me to the hospital, and shoved a tube down my throat

against my will to nourish my decaying body. Dont post shitty pro ana

content...in order to romanticize and promote anorexia.

Cassies character left behind irreparable damage to the minds of

young girls who already struggled in competitive environments. At the end of

Gen. One, Cassie goes on to live her life seemingly unaffected by her

disorder and years of self-destruction, showing not even one of the long term

side effects. Thus, sealing the fate and unreality of anorexia nervosa.

The Second Generation introduced a whole new disorder with Effy

Stonem. Effy had made past appearances in Gen. One, being Tonys little

sister. Then, she had selective mutism and was a complete mystery. Now, in

Gen Two its revealed that she is more mysterious than originally expected.

Effy Stonem became the new goal in 2009. Edgy, perfectly smudged eye

shadow, boys pining for her affection, access to exclusive clubs. Morven

MacDonald writes that Effys real problem lied with the fact that her mental

illness was entirely covered up by romance. Her rebellious, carefree ways are
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what attracted the attention of the boys Cook, JJ, and Freddie. She didnt care

what people thought of her. She smoked, disregarded everyones feelings

and did what she wanted. Her bipolar and depressive characteristics were

depicted as little quirks that truly made her cool. Despite the underlying

hints of her mental illness, Skins made it seem like everything turned out

okay no matter what. The show failed to show the isolation of depression, the

true ugliness of it all. It showed that apathy is cool. Sad is cool. Numbness is

cool. The way to deal with your problems is to not! Do drugs! Hurt the ones

you love! Manipulate everyone around you! Its not until she unravels into

beautiful chaos that the true state of manic depression is shown. And even

then, Freddie swoops in and saves her. Its true romanticism. It seems as if

the boy will always come running in, stopping you from slitting your forearm

open more than you already have. Its unrealistic and shows the audience

that depression can be beautiful when it is absolutely not.

Skins provided todays basic stigmas around anorexia and

depression. The romanticized stigmas that surround these disorders were

planted with shows like this and watered with sites like Tumblr. However, I

personally see a lot of effort and progress in the movement to show the true

sides of these disorders.

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WORKS CITED

"Effy Stonem from Skins was not a role model." The Tab Glasgow. The Tab, 16 Mar.

2016. Web. 17 May 2017.

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Leszkiewicz, Anna. Ten years on, how Cassie from Skins' eating disorder affected

a generation of teenage girls. New Statesman, 25 Jan. 2017. Web. 17 May

2017.

Wheeler, Andre-Naquian. "How 'skins' provided teens with vital, nuanced

depictions of mental illness | read." I-D. Vice, 22 Mar. 2017. Web. 17 May

2017.