Hollywood Says it so it Must Be True

I love a good fairy tale revamp, so I was super pumped about the new movie "Hansel and Grettle." But now there is one thing about the movie that is bothering me. It is Hansel. He has diabetes. And, since he is insulin dependent, it seems to be type 1 diabetes. And the reason Hansel has this horrible disease? Sugar ... lots and lots of sugar from the witch's house.

Sigh.

Hollywood, type 1 diabetes is not caused by too much sugar. It is an autoimmune disease. And, while we're here, type 2 isn't caused by a poor diet alone - genetics play a very large factor. But you throw around these misconceptions like they are nothing, and it really gets my panties in a bunch. Don't you have fact checkers on staff? Don't you have medical consultants who can call you on your ridiculous ideas of how the world really works outside your bubble?

I am waiting, Hollywood, for the day my daughter and her peers are old enough to pick up on crazy ideas like that. I am waiting for them to tease and taunt her about her diabetes being caused by sugar ..  for them to accuse me, or even her, of causing this disease. I am waiting on that day because the misconceptions are already out there.

In a waiting room the other day, a mother told her son that he better not eat his sucker or he'd get diabetes. As a mom, I understand a good scare tactic, but this one was so damaging. What if one of his classmates is diagnosed with diabetes, and he becomes that kid that I fear for my own daughter? What has she taught her son except that people cause their own diabetes? How can he be sensitive to diabetics when she is painting such a negative picture of them? Or, and the biggest of them all, how will she reverse the damage if he himself is diagnosed with diabetes?

Maybe, Hollywood, you should stick to things you know, like reinventing comic book heroes and picking up Spielberg movies, and keep your misconceptions to yourself. Because I did not give my one-year-old diabetes by force-feeding her sugar like some evil witch. Because there are people out there who are already ignorant about the disease. Because society does not need your veiled commentary on the obesity epidemic in the U.S.

Because you don't know, and if you don't know, then you should let someone who does know do the talking.