Imagine me starting off this post by laughing my behind off while scratching my head in confusion.
I thought that the Miss Bimbo Game would top the charts as 2008’s Most Ridiculous Concept, but I may have been wrong, as the book My Beautiful Mommy might give Miss Bimbo a run for her money.
From Newsweek:
“A girl accompanies mom on a cosmetic surgery consultation. Mom explains she’ll soon be ‘prettier,’ and shows where the bandages will be, and the finished product.”
This is what kids books are about these days? What ever happened to The Cat in the Hat?
Oh but there’s more.
“[The book] is aimed at kids ages four to seven and features a plastic surgeon named Dr. Michael (a musclebound superhero type) and a girl whose mother gets a tummy tuck, a nose job and breast implants. Before her surgery the mom explains that she is getting a smaller tummy…Mom comes home looking like a slightly bruised Barbie doll with demure bandages on her nose and around her waist.”
There’s one thing to educate your kids so they won’t be shocked or afraid, but when you start throwing in “I’ll be prettier” and “superhero plastic surgeons” that opens to the door to more issues than being afraid of scars and bandages.
Is this author (who happens to be a plastic surgeon) going to write a sequel called “And You Can Be Pretty Too” and explain why teenagers should have plastic surgery to look just like mom?
Where’s the afterthought? Where is the responsibility?
I’m so sick of this obsession with beauty and perfection. It’s old, it’s tired, let’s get over it.
I’m also saddened that this “you aren’t good enough” attitude that surrounds women on a daily basis is now moving on to the kids.
How do you feel about it?
[Source]
9 responses so far ↓
1 Tracee Sioux // Apr 16, 2008 at 3:59 pm
What the F*&$ is wrong with the planet - that’s how I feel about it.
what’s wrong with the writer? (Is the surgeon the writer?)
What’s wrong with the publisher?
What’s wrong with the parent who buys the book?
What’s wrong with women that we feel beauty is the most important thing?
What’s wrong with women that we hate ourselves?
I will not be buying that book and I will be protesting if it ends up at my kid’s bookfair. I’ll probably write a few letters too.
2 DJ Nelson // Apr 17, 2008 at 9:06 am
Yes, a plastic surgeon thought it would be a great idea to write this book to help his clients explain to their children. In fairness, when you put it into that context, ok, I can deal with that.
But I can’t deal with the glamorizing of it. That is where the book crosses the line for me. And I guess it does bring up bigger issues because if mommy isn’t pretty enough then I must not be either.
So there is more to it than just helping out clients, but people often don’t look at the full picture.
3 Tracee Sioux // Apr 17, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I think a plastic surgeon thought it was a great idea to write it so that children will think reconstructing and cutting on one’s self is a “normal” healthy part of life.
Cause if he can convince kids of that then he makes more money.
If we grow a self esteem instead of opting for surgery he might have to return the boat and live in a normal home instead of a mansion.
4 Laurel // Apr 17, 2008 at 3:41 pm
It’s not much different than Joe Camel huh? I don’t have an opinion on plastic surgery personally. There are things about myself that if I had the money, the time and nothing else to do with my life - then I may consider changing a few things. Let’s face it - we love beauty, we are attracted to it - but it’s only temporary & the people that fail to see that or base their identity around it are in a fog. As long as surgery is risky etc. (which is still very much is) I feel that marketing should be strictly for an adult audience.
5 DJ Nelson // Apr 18, 2008 at 10:49 am
I don’t know how I feel about the subject of plastic surgery in general, but I do know that the normalization of physically altering yourself for pure vanity is having a terrible effect on our society.
Should women have plastic surgery just because they want bigger breasts? I don’t know. But I do know that things like this don’t help women who want to be valued for their intelligence over their looks.
Forget intelligence, just to be valued as people and not a pretty sex object.
6 Tracee Sioux // Apr 18, 2008 at 11:22 am
I don’t want to take a blanket anti-surgery stance either.
But I think what we’re seeing is not just a philosophical “objectification” we’re seeing women take their internal feelings of being an object valued only for it’s appearance and actually choosing to become physical objects in a way.
As in “I feel like an pretty object” and now I’m actually going to make my breasts objects by putting an inanimate object in them. It’s hard to articulate. But the reason they call it plastic surgery is because it’s a transition of humans into plastic and object form to some degree.
This is better or easier than saying kind things to one’s self and acknowledging we’re good enough the way we are? Learning to appreciate our strengths and minimize our flaws and becoming fully 3 dimensional people?
7 Laurel // Apr 18, 2008 at 12:07 pm
“I am beautiful, I like the way I am”
8 Tracee Sioux // Apr 18, 2008 at 12:12 pm
It makes me happy to read those words from women. Pass it ON!
Challenge - say it the next time someone tells you she hates her thighs or stomach or hair. See what happens.
9 Tee // Apr 20, 2008 at 2:56 am
WOW…that book really does cross the line with the “super-hero to the rescue” tone. Thats ridiculous. If they wanted to help kids understand it without giving them “beauty hang-ups” of their own, they should have consulted or co-wrote with a children’s therapist.
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