Skin & Bones! Does Bethenny Frankel’s Reaction to Jules Wainstein’s Eating Disorder Point to Something Bigger?

Jules Wainstein’s journey on The Real Housewives of New York was rehashed Wednesday night, on the second installment of the post-season reunion. The rookie grabbed the opportunity to call out Bethenny Frankeland Carole Radziwill for their backbiting comments, jabbing at her ongoing struggle with an eating disorder.Bethenny claims a deep understanding of the disturbing mental illness, and Carole always blindly backs her bestie.

Jules was brutally honest about her struggle during the season, and the disclosure admittedly made the Skinnygirl mogul “uncomfortable.” Bethenny even aggressively stated that she had the right to “protect herself,” from being confronted with a condition that triggers haunting memories of a messy childhood. Her mother suffered from the disease, claimed Bethenny, and Jules’ behavior brought back painful memories. Jules called foul—because “know-it-all” awareness would not spur toxic comments, which only serve to stunt emotional recovery.

“Someone who says that they know everything about eating disorders wouldn’t act this way towards somebody in recovery. Maybe it’s not healthy for me to be around her,”  Jules remarked in a scene with Sonja Morgan.

Jules openly shared her personal  battle in a commitment towards a healthy life—while Bethenny maintains that other than a tussle with monster fibroids, she is the picture of mental health. Meanwhile the fan chatter on social media asked when someone would dare address the underfed elephant in the room.

#RHONY @carol and @Bethenny you talk about @jules, both of you are 5 ounces heavier than Jules. I do not like mean girls! Leave her alone!

— Bronxgirl (@Bronxgirl67) July 14, 2016

@jules ….. YOU put in YOUR mouth, #Carole. We just don't SEE it when #Carole & #Bethenny throw up. #RHONY #Hypocrites

— Amy Day (@AmyDay50) July 14, 2016

@Bethenny still "in it" w her own eating disorder, pot calling the cattle black #fraud #unnaturallythin #bullying #RHONY #queenofmean @andy

— Bravo J. Licker (@bravolicker) July 22, 2016

“It never really leaves you, and I haven’t seen Jules eat, so I’m sure this is a very complicated, layered issue. While it is not about me, I grew up surrounded by it, and this is a very sensitive area for me,” Bethenny wrote in her Bravo blog. “It is why I wrote Naturally Thin, to help people with their “food noise” and unleash themselves from a lifetime of dieting.”

Bethenny’s commercial break sensitivity took a nosedive later in the season, when Jules crossed some sort of invisible boundary with Bethenny.

“The pizza/calzone scene a.k.a .the Vagina Monologues was just nuts. We know Jules is vajasian and vajewish but we needed graphic pictures to prove it,” snarked Bethenny, later in the season. “Whatever meds she’s on is not my business, but asking her to keep them away from the food shouldn’t be too much to ask. Lord knows that calzone was already crowded what with all the cutlery and stainless serving cups and all. I mean girl puleez.”

“Just nuts?” Who snipes at someone working to stay healthy with such a biting comment? Bethenny Frankel—that’s who.

In one of the later episodes of the show, Bethenny is seen in a bikini revealing a bone skinny frame—a vision as scary as wearing such a thing while managing explosive bloody fibroids.

It’s relevant to remember Bethenny’s own words, used while defending herself after verbally pummeling Luann de Lesseps’, over her dating habits. On one of her B Real with Bethenny radio broadcasts, Bethenny disagreed with the concept of “slut shaming”—and her guest Carole agreed, with the duo contriving the acceptable expression “hypocrite shaming.”

“I think we do a little bit of hypocrite shaming. Don’t judge other people for something that you’re doing,”Bethenny said.

“Actually if anyone was shaming anyone, you were hypocrite shaming,” Carole agreed.

Skinnygirl is Bethenny’s life. Her success hinges on selling that “skinny”  equals happy—minus the emaciated and dark side of the story. Jules is committed to recovery—a public figure telling it like it is. Skinny yes, hypocrite, no.

Can Bethenny really say the same?

 

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