Warning: Not Suitable for Children

Excuse me because this is going to come out as delicately and mellifluously as possible; are you fucking kidding me with this fucking book about dieting for children?!  I thought today I wouldn't have the mental energy to post anything more than a few photographs or a favorite quote, but then I found this article on Jezebel: New Children's Book Encourages Young Girls to Diet.  Like young girls don't have enough ways to contract body image issues through images continually perpetuating unhealthy and unrealistic body images, oh boy, a children's book specifically addressing our culture's obsessive nature with weight, food, and how women look; because it's a scary thing to imagine a world where women aren't so obsessed with how they look, what they eat, and how others perceive them, how much energy they would have to think and act regarding to other things, like say, working towards creating a feminist, anti-patriarchal society where women aren't still viewed as the second class gender.

What kind of message are we sending children, especially young girls, that there is only one kind of image that is acceptable; shocking, it's a white girl. Why don't we just give girls links to pro-ana websites like this one and just continue the ideology that their worth is based strictly on the size of their pants and their weight.  That happiness is achieved through outside things, including their appearance, not through working on becoming the type of person, exhibiting traits that will be positive for both them and the world.  No, that would mean girls wouldn't grow up into women aren't preoccupied with weight, and where would we be then?

Would you read this book to your daughter? What is a children's book that left a positive impression on you?  Please comment below or email me: shapedbymylife@gmail.com