"Little Girls in Pretty Boxes"

"Little Girls in pretty boxes", I thought was a very inspiring piece. I believe the author had more than one point in this piece. I believe the author was trying to express his points to society, parents, and even coaches or as they may seem to be Military instructors. I believe the author was trying to say that these young girls are working too hard and are not living a life that they should be living as teenagers. I also think the author was trying to say that these girls may seem to be happy and have it all, but really deep down inside they are emotionally and physically unhappy.
This author expressed his points by talking about how these athletes that are in gymnastics and the Olympics are being starved. The author makes a point stating that these young girls under the age of thirteen years old are having to sneak food into their hotel rooms at night because they are so hungry they can barely stand themselves. He states that these young girls are so hungry they are becoming sick and anorexic. These young girls are being pushed so hard by their peers, parents, and coaches. Parents and coaches supposed to be inspiring these young athletes? But, no instead the parents and the coaches are working these young girls to their death. These coaches are far from inspiring. In this piece it says that one point in time after a young girl's performance where the coach told the young girl that her nose was a distraction. How do you think that makes a young girl feel? This girl is now probably considering to get plastic surgery due to the fact that this coach insulted her so greatly. Also, in this piece it states that the coaches form of motivation to these young girls if they are not doing well is to tell them they are imbeciles, pigs, failures, cows, and so on. I think you get the point! Also, in this piece it talks about a young lady named Jennnifer Capriati, "who turned pro with $5 million in endorsement contracts at the age of thirteen and ended up four years later in a Florida motel room, blank-eyed and disheveled, sharing drugs with runaways," (Ryan, page 282). These young girls suffer so much from pressure, humiliation, and broken by their work.
Here is a whole paragraph from this piece "Little Girls in pretty boxes," by Joan Ryan. This paragraph was the most touching, interesting, and disgusting part of the whole story that I enjoyed the most.
"What I found was a story about legal, even celebrated, child abuse. In the dark troughs along the road to the Olympics lay the bodies of girls who stumbled on they way, broken by the work, pressure, and humiliation. I found a girl whose father left the family when she quit gymnastics at age thirteen, who scraped her arms and legs with razors to dull her emotional pain and who needed a two-hour pass from a psychiatrist hospital to attend her high school graduation. Girls who broke their necks and backs. One who so desperately sought the perfect, weightless gymnastics body that starved herself to death. Others -- many -- who became so obsessive about controlling their weight that they lost control of themselves instead, falling into the potentially fatal cycle of binging on food, then purging by vomiting or taking laxatives. One who was sexually abused by her coach and one who was sodomized for four years by the father of a teammate. I found a girl who felt such shame at not making the Olympic team that she slit her wrists. A skater who underwent plastic surgery because when a judge said her nose was distracting. A father who handed custody of his daughter over to her coach so she could keep skating. A coach who fed his gymnasts so little that federation officials had to smuggle food into their hotel rooms. A mother who hid her child's chicken pox with makeup so her daughter could compete. Coaches who motivated their athletes by calling them imbeciles, idiots, pigs, cows," (Ryan, page 282).
If that is not a touching paragraph you must not have a conscious. Also Joan Ryan makes a few points about saying the American obsession with winning and about how culture is so fixated on beauty and weight. Also saying that winning is not really all that counts, there is beauty, weight, class, clothes, and politics. Also saying that gymnastics and figure skating remove the limits of a girl's body, teaching it to soar beyond what seems impossible.
With all that being said and more is said in this piece "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes," it seems to me that Joan Ryan has made his point and has great support to back it up. I totally agree with everything that he has said and his points were absolutely astonishing and wonderful. I think that he is right these girls are being pushed way to hard. These young girls have so much pressure hanging over the shoulders each and every day and night. These young girls do deserve so much better, they need to playing with their friends or maybe even be out riding bikes. Riding a bike is considered a sport, Right? I agree with Joan Ryan, these sports are marvelous, graceful, and entertaining all the same time. Like he says when it comes to the point when these young girls are being pushed to make suicide attempts, starving themselves, being insulted, having plastic surgery because of a comment to succeed at perfection, and also when it comes to parents signing custody over to the girls' coaches. This is totally out of control and there needs to be a stop put to this. Let these young girls live their lives, be kids, and have fun. These babies are way too stressed out and have way to much pressure on their shoulders for being so young. These parents need to wake up and consider what their child is actually going through, what kind of life they are living at thirteen years old, and maybe even actually ask they child how they feel or how they are feeling about the situation and what is going on their lives. I think that Joan Ryan had some very good points and a big chunk of wonderful support to back up his points. Maybe this article will make some people open their eyes to what is actually going on in their teenagers lives.

Recommendation against Abortions

So, I have just changed my topic for my research paper. I am doing a paper about how I think abortions are still killing a human being. If I were to have to actually write a recommendation paper my plan would be to pass a law that states, only young women who are under the age of 20 should be allowed to get an abortion procedure done and they must pay for it with their own money so they might learn their lesson. If someone over the age of 20 wanted to get an abortion they could not. Their next choice would be to put the child up for adoption. So, basically I would have to put this law in front of a judge and try to get it approved. I believe this plan would make people realize that life is not a joke and it is not to be taken for granted. I think people will begin to think of life as a gift or maybe even a privilege. There are so many women today that cannot even have children and there are all of these women who are having abortions and killing babies that have not even been brought into the world. I think that this plan would benefit the women who could not have children. These women would be able to adopt these children and give them the love they deserve. I think the only drawback to this plan would be that we would have a lot of mothers that just deal with having a baby when they don't want the child and the child may be mistreated or not loved the way a child should be loved. I wake up every morning and look at my two beautiful children and think of how blessed I am to have them and their love in my life everyday. I don't know where I would be or what I would be doing if my children were not in my life.