Among the
excuses and reasons she gave for forcing her overweighed child on the diet, I
disagree with her mostly about her claim that the diet was better for her
daughter’s health. Losing weight at this
early age would affect her health in many ways. She is clearly ignorant to the
negative effects of having her child on an extreme diet at a young age. By
doing so, her daughter could get high blood pressure, diabetes, high
cholesterol, and it will stop her growth. Moreover, publishing this experience
proudly really got on my nerves.
In her
article, Weiss states “I dramatically grabbed the drink out of my daughter's
hands, poured it into the garbage, and stormed out.” Rough, isn't it? She also
said, "And there have been many awkward moments at parties, when Bea has
wanted to eat, say, both cookies and cake, and I've engaged in a heated public
discussion about why she can't." (Vogue April issue 2012, 123). Another time,
she broke her daughter's heart by dealing with her in such a violent and brutal
way. And as if it wasn’t enough to humiliate her daughter alone with the
secrecy of their house, she lectured her about her food in public.
In
addition, Weiss wrote in the article about the moment when she asked her
daughter whether she was happy at the moment with what she has gone through and
about the result, she honestly answered ""Just because it's in the
past," she says, "doesn't mean it didn't happen.""(April
issue of Vogue 2012, 123). When the period of dieting ended, despite the mother's
feeling of pride at the end result, her daughter was not as happy or proud as
Weiss expected. From the daughter's answer, it is obvious that Weiss was taking
out her own obsession of food on her daughter without thinking about her
feelings.
Forcing
people to do things they don't want to do, can give deep, negative and
psychological repercussions in spite of how we see them from the outside. This
is what Weiss had done to her daughter. Letting her child go through that
entire struggle is a nasty behaviour coming from a mom. Most of her readers realised the extent of her naivety after finding out about this. She could have
let her daughter make a habit out of some daily exercises instead of dieting.
That would raise Weiss in her daughter's eyes as a mother. Also, her goal
behind the daily exercises would be clear, that it is for her daughter's sake.
Her goal behind the diet was ambiguous, and whether or not it was out of
Weiss's pure selfishness, is not clear.
