Minnie Mouse Opens Up About Struggle with Bulimia

Guest Blogger Melissa Sedita (my wonderful wife) has some views on the double standards in Mousketelevison.

After nearly a century of working for Disney, Minerva "Minnie" Mouse has finally joined the ranks of starlets coming clean about their battle with Hollywood body standards. In her recent autobiography, One Hundred Years of Mousketude, Minnie admits that she, too, fell into the "mousekatrap" of looking thin to get movie roles.

After her first appearance in "Steamboat Willie," producers hinted that the polka-dotted costume seemed to "cling for dear life" on Minnie's 1'3, 7 lb frame. Determined to be strong for her fans, she refused several diet programs and countless diet pills. Finally, when friends and family suggested that she only had one shot at this career and didn't have many options beyond prostituting herself in seedy mouse holes, Minnie caved--though in secret.

"I started to binge and purge and it became addicting when I saw results," she admits.

And apparently it paid off, though not without a price. On the set of the 1930 film "The Shindig," Minnie had gone days without so much as a crumb and had to be hospitalized after passing out on the set.

Longtime friend Donald Duck remembers that day. "She was saying things that didn't make sense. She couldn't walk straight and finally passed out during a dance number with Clarabelle Cow. I have a feeling that the pressure had just gotten too heavy, even though she was working alongside a literal cow."

In addition to her internal struggles, in her memoir, Minnie also candidly discusses the sexual harassment on the set of various television productions.

"I had to show my underpants in every costume I ever wore. It got so bad that all of the male cast members kept asking me if I wanted to do the Hot Dog dance, and if I knew what they meant. Mickey was the worst of all of them," she says with eyes closed.

Representatives for Mickey Mouse declined to comment.

Now, however, on the road to recovery, Minnie has decided to spend the remaining years of her career as a spokesperson for young mice fighting the same battle.

"It's got to stop sometime. How small can a mouse get before she disappears? I refuse to be quiet when there are so many young animals affected by this demented business."

As for her career plans, Minnie is considering signing with Nickelodeon, pending a contract release from Disney.

"It's time to move on," she says. "I'm ready to let loose a bit, curse once or twice, and Nickelodeon is notoriously more vulgar. If I'm going to get sexually harassed, I want to be able to tell these mousketools where to stick it."