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I am in a rage about this. She's supposed to be a child; not a frigging sex toy.

A Playboy centrefold? Hardly. I don't like the cover particularly but she's hardly naked. I don't know where you get the sex toy reference from either??

She was a redhead! Wasn't there a storyline that she dyed her hair?

Really you can't see anything sexualised about the pose at all? Can you imagine a man posing like that?

I am with you SGM. Anne of Green Gables was one of my favourite books growing up. Not like the character at all.

It's a dreadful cover. But I do think you're making this worse than it is. There's nothing remotely Playboy about it. I'm more that she's blonde

Yes, it is a sexy pose. It's certainly not a kid standing in a field or in front of a house with a white picket fence, is it? I wonder why they chose to do that and why change her hair colour.

Abigail, I blogged about it this morning. I am in such a rage. The idea that the first book is about a blond teenage girl instead of a redheaded child misses the whole point of the damn book, but then the new edition of the Bell Jar spectacularly misses the point too.

It's like we can't possibly have books for girls that are just about girls, instead we have to have covers where the main character is aged 5 years, grows breasts, dies her hair and cavorts about in hay like a retro-Playboy shoot.

She's blonde, and that's what is wrong! Anne is a redhead!

The hand behind the head is a classic 50s pose. It's probably 50s pin-up more than Playboy centrefold but the point is it's a sexualised pose rather than one that has anything to do with the character.

oops, meant to say classic sexy pose

I loved the Anne of Green Gables books as a kid, and I always remember watching the televised series starring Megan Follows at christmas time aged about 14 or so?
It's a guff cover.

As a ginger I am offended. When I was bullied as a chil for being a red head I took solace in those books. Gingerism.

I don't like the pose either, but I am more upset by the blonde hair.

That is wrong on so many levels. Apart from anything else, the Anne books are set in the late 19th century. I can't find a picture on line of my paperback edition (probably 1980s?) but it's a nice illustration that gets Anne about right.

pictish I loved that series!

Who is the publisher?

This really is pernicious and a brilliant example of porn culture.

Any child buying this book is receiving the message that being a girl means being sexy before being anything else. Even if the words in the book say something completely different and don't even talk about the need to be fuckable, the subliminal message is that even when you're busy doing other stuff, sexy is where it's at. If this goes on, it will almost be impossible to find pictures of female humans which don't emphasise their fuckability above every other aspect of them. Are we to look forward to a representation of Hermione Granger suggestively holding her wand in her mouth, or near her arse or something, a la 50 shades? WTF?

Who the fuck thought it was a good idea, is the publishing house full of child-molesters or something?

I mean seriously, what possesses an otherwise normal person, to imagine that the best representation of an 11 year old red-haired girl with freckles (something the book is very specific about) is a sexualised picture of a teenager? There's something actually quite sinister about this, what is wrong with the adults who authorised this cover? I really do think they should be forced to make a statement about why they felt it was appropriate to pornify the image of a child on a book whose target market is female children. It's beyond disgusting, it's actually amazing - as if peadophiles are working in the office and deciding the artwork and the normal adults there are accepting the paedophile view of the world, that every child is a potential fuck.

And of course, we're all going to be told that we're overreacting, it's only a picture and it's fine for 8 year old girls to be brainwashed in this way.

FFS.

Yes I saw your blog post SGM. It was good!

<btw I did another blog post for the other blog last night. Hope you don't mind. I seem to be a little obsessed with sandwiches atm >

It is a rubbish cover makes me think of 'Jackie' or teen romance novels, not Playboy though, It is wrong on many levels and is totally not appropriare or relevant to the books.

No need to overplay the issue though it is not a raunchy picture just what some very unimaginative publisher thinks will appeal to a teen girl market. Depressing.

It is an awful cover. Not quite Playboy, but, yes, a pornified ideal of appearance which strips away the charm and individuality of a real young woman in place of something anonymous and pernicious.

Reminds me of a webpage that the UK blood donation service emailed me as part of its campaign to get lots of new donors. There was a photo there of several young men and women, and all of the females had those masses of blond hair, thick make up, and "sultry" open-mouthed smiles -- as well as the kind of pose that thrusts the breasts forward slightly. Again, not really Playboy but definitely employing lots of porny tropes.

The very fact that it wasn't quite Playboy but had been softened into something wholesome and girl-next-door was part of what was distasteful -- a kind of final seal on the transition of porny tropes into the whole of life. Same with this Anne of GG cover, I think.

<It's a collective! Post as much as you want!>

This is the link to the books page on Amazon. I've never heard of the publisher before.

They must have thought it was an image that would sell the book as girls want to look like Busty Blondes. Depressing.

Anne was a strong person and of course a redhead. It would have been much more effective to have a redheaded female staring directly at the potential reader.

Those marketing men that came up with that obviously live in a prewar bubble of revoltingness.

I've had another look since this morning. Actually she looks like a sexy C&W singer who stands by her man.

What fastidia said at 12.04.

It's fostering attitudes like [[ http://www.theonion.com/articles/teenage-girl-blossoming-into-beautiful-object,31061/ this]]

www.theonion.com/articles/teenage-girl-blossoming-into-beautiful-object,31061/