What. The. Hell.
This is a children's book meant for 6+ year olds called "Maggie Goes on a Diet" where a young girl is picked on b/c of her weight, and then loses the weight and becomes a soccer star. -_-;;
I love that this is from an author who wrote about bed wetting and bullying too... except I'm pretty sure his bullying book wasn't "capitulate to the bullies and try to fit in" (I hope it wasn't neways) but this is "ppl make fun of you cuz you're fat, so therefore go on a diet and lose it tubby". >:| Like... there's alrdy a problem w/ EDs in our culture for boys and girls, and so many unhealthy body images and food ideas being directed at ppl, and the obsession w/ the "obesity epidemic" in our kids that's putting even more pressure on ppl being thin... and now we've got kids books that are saying the same msg to girls that they get from everything else...
And dieting is a rly loaded issue in the context of our society :\ There's nothing wrong w/ "dieting" per se, but a lot of the times dieting as a narrative in our society isn't about changing your food to be more healthy, it's about being thin, it's about crash diets, it's about trying to cut back on how much you eat (as opposed to just changing what you eat), it's about counting calories, watching carbs, and often it's about putting your body in an unnatural place which is why once ppl get OFF diets, they rebound, b/c their body was being starved and so when you start eating normally again, the body starts hoarding fat and calories... :\ And that leads to yo-yo dieting, and it leads to rapid weight loss, then gain.
And yes, it can also lead to EDs, and rly, given all the msgs our society sends us about losing weight, dieting, controlling our eating, being "strong" against our desires for food, commercials where hunger is portrayed as a monster (there's a Weight Watchers commercial like this) or Special K commercials which encourage replacing all real food w/ their cereal... or the
friends don't let their friends eat food ads or
obsessing over celebrity weight gain or 100 calorie "guilt free" snacks (should we feel guilty about eating? o_O ), is it any surprise so many ppl decide "well if some is good, then more is better?" when it comes to losing weight, and if you're going to be hungry ANYWAYS, you might as well starve yourself and be in ultimate control.
Which is the other thing that plays into EDs that a lot of ppl miss... a lot of EDs are about control. And there's a lot of those msgs in our society too. Take control of your body, and take control of your life. :\ Things might be going horribly in your life, you might not be able to control that, but you can control your body. You can control how others view you. You can prove that you have the control, you can master the hunger reflex, you can master the pain of not eating, of over-exercise. And a lot of the narratives in our society about weight and eating is about that. Fat ppl are lazy, they're sloth, and gluttony. They have no self-control, they have no will. They're weak. They don't care about themselves. (How many times have we heard a guy justify not wanting to date a fat woman by saying "I want a woman who takes care of herself?" It's ironic cuz when I was thinnest was prolly when I was taking the LEAST care of myself xD ) So if you diet, you're strong, you're fighting sin and temptation. You're in control.
Esp for girls and girls approaching puberty, the push to stay thin can be rly strong, and that's why this book being targeted them is doubly scary to me, b/c this is an age where a lot of girls bodies are changing, and often in ways that don't fit into society's beauty standard (or they fit into specific ones, and then they get harassment, or insulted b/c of large breasts, or big hips, or etc) which is actually v close to a pre-pubescent body... it's thin hips, thin thighs, etc etc... and that's part of why so many EDs manifest during this period of time for girls... b/c it's a way to try to get control when your body feels out of control, when things are changing, and when society says that curves, or TOO MUCH curves is bad... bad bad bad... (
I've written before about msgs of post-pubescent female bodies being just stretched out pre-pubescent female bodies in our society).
This is the context, the book doesn't exist in a vacuum... and it's sending similar msgs... your body is bad... take control... CHANGE it...
and love yourself.
That's the thing about this WHOLE thing that bugs me SO MUCH. >_< The idea that only if you're thin can you love yourself, and you'll love yourself when you finally get control.
"Maggie is accepting that kids are mean and kids can be mean and she has decided to do something about it, to take things in her own hands, try to change her own life, try to make herself healthy by exercising. She does want to look better. She does want to feel better and she does not want to be teased," Kramer said.
Apparently, in this case, it's on the case of the bullied to change. I wonder if it's b/c we think that being fat is alrdy unhealthy, and bad, so it's okay if we put the onus on them to change. Sure kids are mean... but don't you want to look and feel better?
Kramer knows that using the word "diet" in the book's title can be risky.
"If I entitled the book 'Maggie Eats Healthy,' somebody in a bookstore ... is really not going to identify with someone who has been overweight, who has health problems," Kramer said. "Diet is a kind of a misconstrued word, and it has many, many meanings."
Basically... he's playing into how loaded a word "diet" is alrdy, and the fat-shaming that alrdy goes on in our society, and the pressures on dieting. Honestly, I'm wondering who his audience even is. Cuz this is the type of book that it seems like he wants PARENTS to buy, and it rly feels to me like he is hoping for parents who want their child to lose weight to pick it up and hope that it'll make their little girl or boy (there's also a lot of pressure on boys to not be fat too, and there is a lot of bullying directed at fat boys, and EDs are on the rise in boys) lose weight and maybe shame/"encourage" them to... and that's rly scary to me.
From here:
The book, entitled "Maggie Goes on a Diet," tells the story of teenaged Maggie and how her life is "transformed" after she goes on a diet, starts exercising and loses weight.
According to a description of the book at Amazon.com, Maggie "is transformed from being extremely overweight and insecure to a normal sized girl who becomes the school soccer star. Through time, exercise and hard work, Maggie becomes more and more confident and develops a positive self image."
It's rly scary to me that "confidence" and "positive self image" is being conflated w/ making yourself thinner, exercise and dieting. :\ It's not that getting healthy CAN'T give you a positive self image. If exercising and stuff is something you want to do, then accomplishing it CAN make you feel better about yourself, but if you're doing it b/c you hope that being thin will make you feel better... it won't. (In fact if you're starving yourself, you'll feel worse, b/c your mood is affected by your bodies lack of energy, I know this from first hand exp) And if your self-esteem is dependent on how thin others see you, or trying to be thin to fit in, or be pretty or etc... then often no amount of thin will ever be enough... :\
Ultimately, what this author is peddling is snake oil. Sending the idea to children and their parents, that all the kid's problem will go away if they just get thin, if they get thin, and pretty and become socially acceptable, and they'll feel better, ppl will stop bullying them, and things are great! And that's rly dangerous, not just b/c it gets it back asswards about feeling good and confident about your body, but also, it's targeting ppl at an age where their bodies are still developing, where their bodies need food and energy to grow, where kids are alrdy at high risk of EDs, and where society is alrdy sending negative msgs about certain types of bodies and dieting and etc... and this children's book is only playing into that and reinforcing that w/ a stick (if you don't diet you'll be bullied) and carrot (if you do diet, you'll be popular and feel good). And AUGH >_<
The OTHER thing? A lot of ppl won't ever be societally thin. And a lot of ppl can't STAY there b/c it's unhealthy and unnatural for their body :\ And this book is sending the msgs to children that EVERYBODY can (to be fair, a LOT of things send this msg)... and what happens w/ the kid who can't? Who no matter how much they starve, or work out... they're never going to have a size change that Maggie in the book has? Or become a soccer star? Since the msg of the book is hard work, then they must have not worked hard enough. They're a failure. And they have to work harder... or they should feel bad about themselves that they're just not good enough. :\
And that for me is the biggest problem I have w/ diet culture, the obesity epidemic crap, and msgs like the one in this book, that thinness (and societally accept thinness) is just about hard work, and "taking care" of yourself, and that thinness is equated to health, and if you're NOT thin, then you're lazy, you're not working hard enough, and you MUST be unhealthy. And it has nothing to do with body type or genetics, or culture... it has to do with YOU, and YOU better work harder, and YOU better starve yourself more, and YOU better push your body more.
If Maggie can do it. So can you.
