Only not at all.
Yet I realized the other night, after a brief discourse with a colleague concerning the two antitheses, that while the two are known and considered two extreme eating disorders (bulimia nervosa as well) only one of them is joked about. With a group of friends, you (ubiquitously, I should add) might see an overweight man or woman at a restaurant with an empty plate of food, slowly finishing another. One of your friends comments, with a laugh, "What a fatass!" or something equally derogatory. The table rejoices in laughter and you carry on with your meal.
Across the restaurant, however, you spot an incredibly thin woman--so thin it pains you to see--pecking at what little food is on her plate. And you think to yourself, "Oh, that's so sad." A friend notices and agrees: "Poor girl has an eating disorder. . . ." The table's livelihood fades, temporarily, until the check arrives, is paid and everyone leaves.
Two eating disorders affecting both young and old, yet one is considered a joke, the other earning the sympathy of those that recognize it as a disorder. It's a shame that we, as a society (generalizing, I know), acknowledge one as a serious problem while the other is simply laughable.
