Reason Writers Around Town

Writing in The American, Katherine Mangu Ward assesses the national security threat posed by Girl Scout Cookies.

Comments

[Dan T.]

Excellent article. You'd have to be pretty much insane to think that junk food is unhealthful.

[Jonathan Hohensee]

I got kicked out of Boyscouts for eating a Brownie.

[joe]

What's with the directory screen?

[Jonathan Hohensee]

This isn't Roth's first anti-fat publicity stunt. She also hosts the Wedding Gown Challenge, which encourages women to do annual checks to make sure that they still fit into their wedding gowns: "Most women I know commit fraud on their wedding days-they weigh-in for the walk down the aisle with no expectation of maintaining that weight year after year."
This goes without saying, but that is just plain ridculous to expect someone to do. Even those who eat a right diet and exercize can't prevent the natural slowing of metabolism that comes from aging. Such a challenge would result in at most low self-esteem and failed goals.

[Jonathan Hohensee]

Not to mention the fact that Girl Scout's narrow window of cookies sales (and slightly inflated prices) is so small that the consumption of such cookies would have almost no impact on your health.

[Lowdog]

I think MeMe should get bent.

[David]

Excellent article. You'd have to be pretty much insane to think that junk food is unhealthful.

Did we read the same article, Dan or did I miss the paragraph where KMW claims or implies that junk food is healthful? That is, unless you believe that eating the occasional cookie really will kill you.

[:-]

Troll claims another sucker ^

[Warren]

Another example of a Reason staffer trotting out an idea on Hit and Run (see http://www.reason.com/blog/show/118805.html) cut and pasting from the comments, and then submitting for publication.

[Dan T.]

The issue here is not that anybody thinks that Girl Scout Cookies single-handedly cause obesity or, as Ms. Mangu-Ward eloquently puts it, represents a threat to national security.

Rather, the objection is that it sends a poor message to young girls in an age when being overweight has become one of our society's top causes of health problems.

Why Reason writers are so threatened by this obvious fact is puzzling.

Relax, Kathy, the nanny state police are not going to raid your pantry and take your Tagalongs.

[thoreau]

Dan, so your point is that food regulations are nothing big to worry about because nobody is going to raid our kitchen cupboards?

A few years ago people would have laughed if told that there will be laws about the sort of grease that restaurants use. Some slopes really are slippery....or, well, with grease banned, maybe not so slippery as just really painful due to friction burns.

[Dan T.]

Did we read the same article, Dan or did I miss the paragraph where KMW claims or implies that junk food is healthful? That is, unless you believe that eating the occasional cookie really will kill you.

It was the same paragraph where it was stated that Girl Scout Cookies were a threat to national security.

[David]

So what you saying, Dan, is that we should pit someone like Dr. Susan Bartell against Meme Roth in an intellectual Thunderdome where they can slug it out over whether the greater threat is trying to be too thin or not being thin enough?

I'd buy tickets to that.

[Warren]

Relax, Kathy, the nanny state police are not going to raid your pantry and take your Tagalongs.

Have you been hiding under a rock the past five years Dan. That's exactly what they're trying to do.

[thoreau]

FWIW, my wife persuaded me that cookies are a sometimes food, and I've lost weight since then.

But I would never ask any authorities to help me make or adhere to that decision.

What's really funny is that when my wife does bake cookies she now says to me "I made you some sometimes food!"

[Thomas Paine\'s Goiter]

I just ordered two boxes of trefoils, two dosidos and 1 box of somoas.

*drool*

[Larry A]

Another example of a Reason staffer trotting out an idea on Hit and Run (see http://www.reason.com/blog/show/118805.html) cut and pasting from the comments, and then submitting for publication.

As a writer myself I think secondary sales, especially to gain a wider audience, are a feature, not a problem.

"Most women I know commit fraud on their wedding days-they weigh-in for the walk down the aisle with no expectation of maintaining that weight year after year."

I remember several promises from my wife's wedding vows 38 years ago. I don't think "only if I maintain the same BMI" was one of them. I'm darn sure I didn't promise to stay thin. (Thank goodness.)

Rather, the objection is that it sends a poor message to young girls in an age when being overweight has become one of our society's top causes of health problems.

Another being bulemic ultra-thin model stereotypes.

"Actually, it's a pity that Girl Scout cookies are being sold by cherubs," he wrote. "If the sellers were Iranians with turbans and menacing frowns, then the authorities might be more alert to the dangers."

Irony alert. "Iranians with turbans and menacing frowns" hate the U.S. because we enjoy too many pleasures they find sinful. I.e. they sound like soul brothers to Roth & Kristof Inc.

[Dan T.]

Have you been hiding under a rock the past five years Dan. That's exactly what they're trying to do.

Come on - junk food is more readily available now that it's ever been. They even put soda and candy machines in schools these days.

[Bagger]

Is someone spoofing Dan T. again? He's being more moronic than usual today.

[thoreau]

I hope nobody is spoofing Dan, because there is the germ of a good question there: Is this really something to get upset about? I mean, somebody said bad things about selling cookies. What does it matter?

A few years ago I would have said "Eh, whatever." Now, I'm not so sure.

[Thomas Paine\'s Goiter]

Thoreau has become the comments section Cathy Young.

[thoreau]

TPG-

I'm not trying to be wishy-washy. A few years ago, I would have said it's no big deal if some idiot complains about cookies. Cathy, on the other hand (hah!), would have written a column about this as an example of the culture wars.

Nowadays, with foie gras and transfats being banned, I'm like "Oh, shit! Are they coming for the cookies?"

[Dan T.]

I hope nobody is spoofing Dan, because there is the germ of a good question there: Is this really something to get upset about? I mean, somebody said bad things about selling cookies. What does it matter?

A few years ago I would have said "Eh, whatever." Now, I'm not so sure.

Yeah, unless I missed it there was nothing in the original piece about government intervention being needed to stop the spread of GS cookies.

Instead, the point seemed to be that people, especially children, don't need any more encouragement to eat junk food. Especially from an organization whose stated purpose is to improve the well-being of young girls.

[Thomas Paine\'s Goiter]

But at the same time, you make sure poor Dan the troll isn't being attacked.

hoser.

[thoreau]

hoser

Take off, eh!

🙂

[B.P.]

See Dan, the Girl Scouts are the vendors of the cookies, not the consumers.

The little dears will receive the real "poor message" when they get dragnetted into an obesity lawsuit.

[Warren]

What's really funny is that when my wife does bake cookies she now says to me "I made you some sometimes food!"

OK t, that's a little too much information. You're starting to creep me out 😉

[Eddy]

If you really want the full scare, go to MeMe's (no self obsession there) NAAO website. (emphasis mine) Oh, don't forget to find the humor in the bit about 2nd-Hand Obesity.

Through education, legislation, and most importantly-parental action-National Action Against Obesity works independently and as a consultancy to reverse the obesity epidemic by eliminating 'fake foods' from the food supply, barring junk food from schools and eradicating 2nd-Hand Obesity, while encouraging exercise across all ages.

[van]

>>Come on - junk food is more readily available now that it's ever been. They even put soda and candy machines in schools these days.

They did it when I was in school too, and I graduated high school in 1984. I can recall some calorie-dense meals from the school cafeteria too. One of the grossest combos was overcooked spaghetti with meat sauce (probably not the leanest beef either) and tater tots. Ugh. Nevertheless, I can recall only a few genuinely obese people in my graduating class. To be specific, I recall 3 out of about 200. Double that to correct for bias on my part and you get an obesity rate of 3%. Triple it, and it's 4.5%

>>"Most women I know commit fraud on their wedding days-they weigh-in for the walk down the aisle with no expectation of maintaining that weight year after year."

This wedding gown challenge really is obnoxious for several reasons -- all of which have been pointed out (maintaining one's wedding day weight is not in the vows, the fact that women so frequently diet prior to the wedding, and some to extremes, the natural slowing of metabolism with age). I just want to say that I agree with all of these points.

>>Yeah, unless I missed it there was nothing in the original piece about government intervention being needed to stop the spread of GS cookies.

That's fine. As Mangu-Ward pointed out, she has no problem with MeMe's methods. Neither do I. But were the Girl Scouts to give in to Ms. Chignon-and-Lipstick's boycott, I'd be mighty pissed. Which is why I intend to increase my consumption of them, year after year, from now until the end of my life or until they do give in.

[van]

>>eliminating 'fake foods' from the food supply

What stupendous nerve she has. She obviously learned to think very highly of herself in prep school.

[grumpy realist]

"wedding gown challenge"? I suppose next she's going to get in a hissy fit because people get grey hair and wrinkles as they get older. And at some point a woman goes through this horrible thing called MENOPAUSE (can you spell it, kiddies? I knew you could!) and after that can't have kids any more! Oh noooes! /end snark

Yeah, I know, silly, but geez that frosted me off. And anyone who gets her shorts in a twist about the Girl Scouts raising money via going around selling cookies, what does she suggest, given that it has to be relatively cheap (so the profit margin is acceptable), not needing refrigeration, relatively non-fragile, and comes in easily carried units?

Twit.

[The Real Bill]

Somebody needs to bake MeMe into a cookie and eat her.

[van]

I realize this thread is probably dead but...how much do you suppose her choice of a "wedding gown challenge" to make her points is based on upper middle class assumptions about the role of the wife in signifying a couple's social status? Overweight women with strong appetites are so vulgar and don't represent their families well in the society pages...

Well hey, what about woman who never marry? What about women who are already overweight when they marry? What about women who marry at city hall in a pair of jeans? Her wedding gown challenge probably doesn't even apply to some fairly substantial proportion of American women. What's her incentive for them? Doesn't she realize obesity has a correlation with social class? If she wants to target obesity she needs to come up with a better strategy than the wedding gown challenge. Or the Girl Scouts boycott. I just can't imagine it being effective.

Of course, I have no idea if Ms. MeMe actually is upper-middle class. But between her name and her "presentation of self" in her blog photo (perfect hair and makeup, smart and modest navy dress) she successfully comes across that way.

Having worked for a few years in a haute ladies dining club, I've observed first hand how blinkered these women can be about the world around them.

[Paul]

As a writer myself I think secondary sales, especially to gain a wider audience, are a feature, not a problem.

Isn't the "wider audience" the problem this article's about?

Dan T
Come on - junk food is more readily available now that it's ever been. They even put soda and candy machines in schools these days.

So... you are living under a rocket, then. Because they're pulling soda machines out of schools.

Now, yes, if you RTFA, it is a "voluntary pullout". However, it's a "voluntary" pullout the way I voluntarily quit doing something when a former president, flanked with lawyers comes into my living room and asks me to "voluntarily" quit doing something. On the other hand, it's smart thinking for the two major manufacturers of soda products to do this for... the long term. It's a classic public/private partnership deal where by agreeing to limits on marketing, they solidify their market share.