Friday Food For Thought: How Early Are Body Image Issues Starting?
This morning, as I was clicking around on Glamour‘s website, I came across something that made my jaw drop. Apparently, author Paul Kramer is publishing a diet book aimed at six to twelve-year-old girls, entitled Maggie Goes On a Diet. Ummm… what?
As if young girls weren’t already subjected to enough in the media telling them how to look and act, along comes a book written by a male author, telling them they need to slim down. If they didn’t already have body image issues, they might now.
First of all, I kind of wish we would just let kids be kids anymore. Give them halfway decent food and let them pick an activity they like, and their weight will probably land where it’s supposed to. And I know there’s a huge problem with childhood obesity in this country, but I don’t think we need to put kids on diets. If a child has more than just a little belly, then fine, start making little tweaks in what they’re being fed and limit time in front of the TV, but don’t make them so aware of the fact that they need to lose weight. This is only going to result in preoccupation with looks and fixation on food as the kids grow up.
Second of all, as Sarah Jio also points out, the fact that the book is written by a man kind of angers me. I’m not saying that men will never understand body image issues, but the incidence of EDs and body image issues in men is a lot lower based on the fact that men are judged more often on merit than looks. It reminds me of when my guys friends rip into other girls’ appearances and expect me to think they think I’m great just the way I am or the time my college boyfriend said he didn’t understand eating disorders because if everyone just ‘ate normally’ we would all be fine (as I sat in my size 2s thinking I could stand to lose a few more). Based on my experiences, guy just don’t really ‘get it’ when it comes to body image issues. So unless Mr. Kramer had some horrific childhood experience that resulted in lifelong self esteem issues, I don’t think it’s fair for him to tell the world’s little girls that they should be saying no to dessert and counting calories. As if lingerie for tots and thongs for 10-year-olds weren’t bad enough. What’s next, Spanx and low-cal Gerber for babies?
I’m just glad this was self-published and that no editor thought this one would be a good idea to support. Ugh.
What do you think? Is the media contributing to body image issues starting earlier and earlier in kids? Should we be putting kids on diets? Does this new book piss you off more than just a little? Tell me what you think! Spill!
Posted on August 19, 2011, in Uncategorized and tagged body image, eating disorders, Fed Up Friday. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
All I can say is…
WHAT
THE
F***!
Right? My mouth was seriously hanging open as I read the original article.
What???? This is ridiculous. I’m all about teaching kids to eat healthy – but at that age it should never be with a goal of losing weight – just being healthy, energized, and with active minds. They are about to experience the biggest changes in their bodies they will ever have and need to be prepared to adjust and listen to what their bodies want, not try to eat the same things through all of that — and not try to control their bodies through all of it too. The thing about dieting is you start to analyze your body in more ways than just fat – you become more aware of everything you want to change, even if it’s not possible (like “my hips are too big” even if you’re talking about bone). Little girls are insecure enough, don’t encourage them to analyze their bodies like that while they change.
ALSO, totally with you on the enraging fact that this is written by a MAN for little GIRLS. How much more obvious can you be that you think women should be a certain way, let’s get back to making sure women shape themselves into something men want, so let’s start early and then they’ll never be able to shake that mentality.
My big question is, how can he possibly excuse writing this for little girls and not children in general? Call it “Max and Maggie Get Healthy,” and picture them watching TV overweight with blank faces, and then playing soccer together and smiling (looking healthier but not SKINNY or MANLY), and then we might have something…
I saw some other comments on another article about the book, and people seem strangely okay with this (aside from the cover in some cases). We have a long way to go….
My daughter is 10 and if she even uttered the word “diet”, I would slap her silly!!! I’m with you….we need to let kids be kids…I’m not saying we should feed our children junk food & let them sit on their butts all day but we don’t need to have them going to Weight Watcher meetings after they leave school….completely ridiculous….
T.
I’d also like to add, on the flip side ignoring little boys in this isn’t good for them either. We have images of rich fat dudes on TV getting everything they want in life, and a lot of teenage boys get that image as a good option (easier than being a body builder, their other “best” alternative) of how to be … get fat and cocky and don’t give a shit and you’ll get everything you want (secret tagline .. you’ll get diabetes and die early and painfully). At least they have options when it comes to an ideal, unlike girls (for girls it seems like everything new just gets incorporated into the *same* ideal, “you can be it all!”), but one is similarly unattainable and the other terribly unhealthy.
Not about inflicting the same body issues onto boys though. Again, just health.
Praying a day comes when our ideal is long-term health and happy, stable relationships.. But dream away, right?