Kerry Washington opens up even more about her experience with body image issues. Washington spoke candidly with actress Gabrielle Union at the Palace Theater on Oct. 1 during the Los Angeles book tour for her bombshell memoir, Thicker than water. During their discussion, Union brought up the widely held belief that “black women and girls don’t experience disordered eating or body dysmorphia” and asked Washington, 46, if that has affected her personal journey. “I think this idea of needing to fix myself, needing to be better, needing to be more perfect, that seed was planted very early on,” Washington told Union. Washington, who spoke to PEOPLE for our Oct. 9 issue, stated that she is a “very private person” in her story. Thicker than waterwhich was published on September 26, shows a vulnerable side Scandal and Small fires everywhere actress, as she discusses topics such as childhood panic attacks, miscarriage and her experience with an eating disorder.
Kerry Washington.
Josefina Santos
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With Union, Washington talked about going to school on New York’s Upper East Side, where she thought comparing herself to “very affluent white girls” at her private school helped contribute to her eating disorder. “These are stereotypes, but the way their moms and wives looked in that world was so different from the women I grew up with,” Washington told the Union. “And all the messages I was getting from Hollywood and from this environment were that thinner is better. And that success looked like thinness.”
Washington also discussed being from the same Bronx neighborhood that Jennifer Lopez was from and how she was the first to have a different take on beauty standards in the ’90s. “Jennifer’s bottom was celebrated everywhere,” Washington recalled. “But that’s not what I interpreted as beautiful. Because I spent nine hours a day at Spence, where Gwyneth Paltrow used to go. I’m not shaming Gwyneth Paltrow’s body, but…there was one area that I was kind of told was the direction to go in.” Washington also joked with the crowd that she mentioned Ben Affleck’s two exes. Lopez and Affleck are now married.
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Gabrielle Union and Kerry Washington.
FilmMagic
Washington then told Union that she needs to be more open about how she feels and about eating disorders.
“I think sometimes we don’t talk about it as much as we should,” she said. “I think it’s important to talk about it in part because eating disorders don’t belong to one community. This pain does not belong to one community.”
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Thicker than wateras the title suggests, it showcases Washington’s message of resilience.
“There wasn’t a lot of experience with eating disorders in my community,” Washington said. “I think it’s important that we have the courage to recognize when things aren’t right.”
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Thicker than water it is now available where books are sold.
- With a report from Nathan Vinson
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Source: HIS Education