Teach Your Daughters Well
May 14, 2008 · Print This Article
I have three daughters. In watching them grow up and deal with peers and popularity and teen-age pressure, I have come to understand that we put an enormous amount of pressure on our girls to concern themselves with appearance. Everywhere our girls look they are told that they are not good enough. And now plastic surgery provides an easy solution. If you don’t like the way you look, you can pay someone to fix you. My wife spent 20 years as a hospital chaplain. She tells me that some parents are now giving their daughters breast implant surgery for their birthdays.
Our girls face enough challenges to their self-esteem without mom and dad reinforcing the message that somehow they need surgery to look good enough.
Tanya Dennis has discovered a rather disturbing book called “My Beautiful Mommy.” It’s a book that helps young girls understand their mothers’ plastic surgery. Something seems terribly wrong with this.
“The mom in this children’s book doesn’t just deal with what went wrong (the extra stretched-out skin); she also gets a nose job and breast implants. She explains to her inquisitive daughter: “[I'll be] more than different … I’ll be prettier!”
I’m against teaching our kids - especially our daughters - that their value is found in their appearance.”… Read More.
In the Dailies - Discovering the extraordinary God in ordinary life.
My first reaction is, “You’re kidding, right? This book was PUBLISHED?” Then, I realized, what a platform! Place one in the office of every plastic surgeon, psychiatrist, and (why not start early) pediatrician.
If honest, the dialogue would be: [I'll be] more than different. . .I could be scarred for life, disfigured, or dead.”
One of my daughters has Down Syndrome. She tells people, “I’m not cute, I’m gorgeous.” Maybe she should write a book in response.