Great…let’s have a tv show for all the pedophiles out there…
This show makes me sick.
I’m so far from being a prude that most would call me a bit of a perv sometimes, but this show is an obomination.
Problem is, its not so much that this show exists, but that toddler beauty contests do. These parents should have their daughters taken from them.
Why do the parents agree to be on the show? “Any publicity is good publicity”? They have to know that the people watching it aren’t thinking, “These kids are awesome” and more, “Ew, evil exploiting parents.”
Counting down to a visit from You-Know-Who…
Toddlers and Tiaras? My daughter likes to wear tiaras, as she has since she was old enough to plop one on her head. She also likes princesses and fairies. My son also likes these things, though he’s obsessed with dragons, not Tinkerbell.
This thread has made me sad.
My wife likes watching this show, but it’s for the “train-wreck” reasons, not for any interest in the named subject. Frankly, I think you would be hard pressed to find 1 out of a 1000 of these families where it wasn’t the parent doing the pageants for themselves. Most of the kids have no interest in participating. Think of all the wasted time and money…
I actually watched a bit of it a little while ago, just to see what it was all about (there were no surprises there - it’s about awful kids and awful parents). The parents really are the villains in this piece (especially the moms). If I was a psychologist, I could write a book on the issues involved here. The lives these kids live that have become normal to them - fake teeth to cover your baby teeth that don’t look perfect enough, taking three days to get ready for a pageant, primping and preening and shaving and plucking and exfoliating and getting your tan sprayed on at an age when you should just be playing with dolls; it’s all very strange. What goes on with pageant kids is a far cry from a little girl who likes to play dress-up, Nametag.
Have you seen the show?
It really is horrid. Even worse to think that there is no law under which these parents can be prosecuted or even officially sanctioned for their behavior. I suppose its been happening to “show-biz” children for centuries, but it’s still sickening.
NT - Celtling likes to dress up too; that is not what is happening to the kids we’re discussing.
I’ve only seen clips of it online–bad enough. The worst are the kids who really don’t seem to want to be there at all, and the stage moms are making them do all this crap when they’d clearly rather be doing kid stuff. And these kids look so frightening when they’re all made up. I thought JonBenet’s mom had a screw loose, but wow…
Me too. I was hoping for a thread about kids playing dress-up when I saw the thread title.
It is what should be happening to them instead of these pageants, though.
I know this is a hijack. Sorry in advance. But I wonder if pedophiles actually are more likely to gravitate to kids in these kinds of beauty contests. Don’t they just like kids because they are attracted to kids? Nothing to do with kids dressing up to look like grown ups, right? Just wondering.
I’ve always wondered this, too, Nzinga. You’d think that pedophiles would prefer kids who look less adult like, not more. Though you do hear stuff about pedophiles hanging out at pageants like these, so who knows…
IANAPedophile, but after having watched an episode of the show (and seeing numerous commercials for it), the reason they would like it is that they don’t really look like adults, but like little kids doing adult things, many of them actions I would attribute as “sexy”. I would think that this would feed into a pedophile’s concept that a child of that age could be a “consenting” partner - if they know how to do “sexy” things, then they MUST understand what they’re doing, right? :rolleyes:
Personally, the show makes me ill, and I don’t understand why any adult would subject their child to this sort of pressure.
Never seen the show, never will, but a recent episode of Food Network Challenges featured a cake competition that highlights one of these national compatitions, with each cake artist paired up with a Beauty Pageant Mom in the kitchen. What really disturbed me the most (since the focus on the girls themselves was minimal) was how much most of the moms emphasized the money that’s the grand prize of one of these pageants. When compelled to incorporate as many visual icons and references on the cake as possible that represented this competition, these moms were adamant about how this fan of Ben Franklins should be prominently displayed. Eesh.
To her credit, one mom wasn’t like that and tried to emphasize some positive (if less concrete) values she thinks the competition represented–empowerment, friendship, self-confidence, etc. She seemed like the most normal one of the lot, too.
Chris Hansen?
My wife accidentally tuned into this show, and as a result I heard an extremely angry half hour rant on the topic! 
Sad, very sad. Kids should be allowed to be kids.
Though this is the worst of all - there’s a thread on it hanging about I think:
http://celebrities.ninemsn.com.au/blog.aspx?blogentryid=585857&showcomments=true&rss=yes
Why don’t you have a seat over there?
I watched the marathon, and although this will not be popular here, I really don’t think it’s all that bad. Who knew that people could show other people like they can show dogs?
Basically, what I’m saying is that although it seems exploitive, how is any more exploitive than the parents who are crazy sports parents (like the nutty gymnastic mothers, or the hockey fathers)? This entire class of parents seems weird and unhealthy, but into much weirder or unhealthier than parents who do other crazy things to their kids.
The real thing that concerns me is the idea that many of these girls will have in the future that pretty=successful.
My understanding is that, in civilized society, what we have come to call “perversion” is no more stereotypical than “normalcy.” It manifests in many preferences.
I think the common factor among pedophiles is the power differential between a child and an adult. Perhaps it is that and not the appearance which is the attraction. Given that, I can imagine a number of pedophiles who may desire an easily influenced little girl who looks like a grown-up woman.
The majority of these pretty little girls may never meet a monster of the sexual type. But they have all met someone who is treating them as objects. Something to entertain. Something special. The center of attention.
Lets hope that the little girls who enjoy this are parented by people who understand the dangers inherent in the lifestyle.