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Tuesday, Dec 2, 2008 10:51 PM UTC

Let’s beat up on Britney Spears!

Round 15,687, now with anorexia, bulimia and diet pill abuse.

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Topics: Broadsheet, Eating Disorders, Britney Spears, Love and Sex,

Ho-hum. Another day, another way to eviscerate Britney Spears — this time starring bingeing, purging and diet pill abuse.

As you’ll no doubt recall, just a little over a year ago Spears wobbled around in her underwear onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards in a performance universally dubbed disastrous — from her lackluster dancing to her inability to remember the words to her own song (that she was lip-syncing). Among Britney’s much-lamented MTV gaffes: Her scantily clad body didn’t look exactly like it did before she had her two sons. (Did anyone need another reminder that the maternal body gets no respect in our culture? Right, I didn’t think so.)

Well, guess what, folks? Now, apparently Britney’s lost a bunch of weight, so it’s time to revel in the sordid details of her long-rumored disordered eating! According to a source close to one of her bodyguards  quoted in Star magazine — and every celeb gossip blog, not to mention the Sydney Morning Herald — Britney has been bingeing and purging and abusing diuretic diet pills in pursuit of her newly svelte figure.

There’s even a cute buzzword for Brit’s affliction: “bulimorexic.” Get it? Bulimic and anorexic! Wait until the pro-ana groups over on Facebook get a load of this! A source told the Star: “Britney is thrilled she has finally got her pre-baby body.”

So, let’s review: Either Britney’s a flabby mommy who can’t lose the baby weight fast enough and has no business showing off her naked gut in public (bad Britney!) or she’s super-trim but bingeing and barfing to get that way (bad Britney!).

Yuck. After yet another cycle of gorging on Spears’ misfortune, I’m feeling a bit Britneyorexic myself.

Katharine Mieszkowski is a senior writer for Salon. More Katharine Mieszkowski.

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