"Maggie Goes On A Diet" - What's Your Take?

[Hey Man]

There is a new book coming out for children that is pissing a lot of people off, because they believe it sends the wrong message to girls. It's called Maggie Goes On A Diet. What do you think about a book like this for girls.

Here is some more info:

[Deleted]

Not surprisingly, I have a big problem with this book.

It is my understanding that the author claims that he wrote the book to encourage girls to get healthy but he also has to understand that what he intended is not what he actually wrote. What he wrote was a book that tells little girls that no one will like them unless they go on a diet and get skinny. And that unfortunately is the message they already get everywhere in our society. We already have 7 and 8 year olds talking about dieting, terrified of getting fat, not because it isn't healthy but because no one will like them. We want kids to have a healthy and good perspective of food, not be terrified of it. That's just further setting up eating disorders that are already way out of control.

I also find it pretty hard to imagine that someone would sit down to write a childrens book about food relationships without having any knowledge at all of what messages are already out there for girls and what message he is sending by focusing on a girl on a diet. At the very best that is painfully naive.

[Hey Man]

Sept 9, 2011 10:23:54 GMT -5 @isis said:

Not surprisingly, I have a big problem with this book.

It is my understanding that the author claims that he wrote the book to encourage girls to get healthy but he also has to understand that what he intended is not what he actually wrote. What he wrote was a book that tells little girls that no one will like them unless they go on a diet and get skinny. And that unfortunately is the message they already get everywhere in our society. We already have 7 and 8 year olds talking about dieting, terrified of getting fat, not because it isn't healthy but because no one will like them. We want kids to have a healthy and good perspective of food, not be terrified of it. That's just further setting up eating disorders that are already way out of control.

I also find it pretty hard to imagine that someone would sit down to write a childrens book about food relationships without having any knowledge at all of what messages are already out there for girls and what message he is sending by focusing on a girl on a diet. At the very best that is painfully naive.

I have a problem with them using the word diet, but also the fact that she has no friends and is pretty much a loser until she loses weight and then she's all popular - which IS the wrong fucking message to send to girls.