The biggest revelation from Zayn Malik’s new memoir, released Nov. 1, is not his decision to leave One Direction while on stage or when he called it quits with fiance Perrie Edwards, but instead that he struggled with a very serious eating disorder.
Activists and journalists are celebrating the reveal for coming from a man, and a man of color at that. But Malik’s reveal also sends a jarring reminder to many bygone teeny boppers and millennials whose fondest childhood memories include silly bandz and “That’s So Raven” that self-harm is still a prevalent issue.
Mainstream media seems to have left representation of eating disorders and self-harm back in 2011. I do not watch as much television as I used to, nor do I watch many teen-oriented shows. Yet, flashes of self-harm or hints that a character is not eating, or is throwing up in their high school bathroom, are no longer major plot twists in shows and movies.
To jog your memory, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” “The Art of Getting By,” “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” and “Black Swan” all came out to much acclaim or at least popularity as movies that dissected issues of self harm circa 2012. And on television, anorexia, bulimia and cutting were all featured to some degree in shows like “Make It or Break It,” “Gossip Girl,” “Pretty Little Liars,” and that one episode of “Lizzie McGuire,” although they existed mainly in the earlier seasons, not appearing in any recent year for the shows that survived 2012.
What Malik has done in revealing his battle with anorexia does not just expand visibility of men and men of color with eating disorders — 10 million of the 30 million Americans struggling with eating disorders are men — but he has also catapulted the discussion into the present day.
Movements and non-profits like “To Write Love on Her Arms” peaked in the late 00’s and early 10’s with dozens of celebrity endorsements in a time when self-harm was the uncool person’s cool thing to do. Yet even recent studies show 15 percent of teenagers report some type of self injury as well as surprisingly higher risks for college students with rates of 17 to 35 percent engaging in self-injury, according to Mental Health America.
Someone who makes the news for shaving their head now admitting a lengthy battle with anorexia gives huge visibility to the issue of self-harm at a time when it is seemingly on the verge of being completely forgotten. Maybe Malik’s reveal will make more people remember that self-harm does exist and that it affects all types of people in various ways.
Ryan Thaxton is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from Monroe, Louisiana.