Demi Lovato was not singing a happy tune on Friday night as she launched into a Twitter dialogue condemning her former employer, Disney Channel, for making light of eating disorders.
The onetime Disney queen — who earlier this year checked herself into a treatment center to address, among other things, eating disorder issues — was responding to an episode of Shake It Up, a musical/comedy about background dancers on a popular teen show. The dialogue Lovato quoted had an image-conscious character saying, “I could just eat you up — well, if I ate.”
“Dear Disney Channel, EATING DISORDERS ARE NOT SOMETHING TO JOKE ABOUT,” Lovato said during her series of tweets.
“What are we promoting here?” she asked, labeling the offending joke with the hashtag #notfunnyATALL.
“I find it really funny how a company can lose one of their actresses from the pressures of an EATING DISORDER and yet still make joke about that very disease.”
One of the actress/singer’s Followers claimed to her that another Disney series, So Random, had made similar jokes.
The Disney Channel PR department’s Twitter account promptly responded to Lovato, saying, “We hear you and are pulling both episodes as quickly as possible and reevaluating them. It’s NEVER our intention to make light of eating disorders!”
Lovato — who accepted Disney’s mea culpa — also wondered aloud on Twitter, “Is it just me or are the actresses getting THINNER AND THINNER…. I miss the days of RAVEN and LIZZIE MCGUIRE.”
“I have nothing against any specific actress/actor or tv show,” she clarified. “Nor do I think there’s anything wrong with girls who aren’t curvy, I just was stating a fact that there needs to be more variety on television so young girls growing up don’t feel pressured to look one specific way. Tall, thin, curvy, short, whatever you are, you are beautiful.”
