I’ve been doing some night audits for a client so my sleep schedule is messed up. Tonight I’m sitting up watching one of the dozen or so HBO’s that I get and there is a show on called “Living Doll”. It’s about little girls who are put in beauty queen pagents.
You just have to watch this show to understand how sick to my stomach I am about this shit. No one who knows me would every deny I’m a tough son of a bitch. I’m a tough guy even if I say so myself. Yet this show has me almost weeping.
Who the fuck does this to their little girl? These kids are dressed up like porn stars. They’re starved to maintain a certain weight. They are psychologically messed up own when they lose a contest. This shit is sick, sick, sick, sick,sick,
SICK! I’m a parent. My daughter is now grown and I wouldn’t like her dressing like this. These are children. Let them be children. Who the fuck puts a kid through this shit? I’m starting to wonder if Jon Bennet Ramsey didn’t commit suicide just to get out of this sick shit! Who does this to their own kid?
It’s sick! A beautiful baby contest is one thing. Why are you smudging make up all over a little kid and making her look like a whore? I dare someone to defend this crap! burn in hell!
Douglas Copelands “Miss Wyoming” has a parent even going to the extreme of moving house to that state to enable her kid to win a state competition and thus enter the national competition.
Sick. Really have to ask why the TV stations show this sort of thing. I mean, does it really have a large audience watching who are enthralled rather that appalled? Or do they broadcast it for the controversy it causes, knowing people will watch it in bemused fascination and abject hatred, rather than in enjoyment.
Yep…you’ll get no argument outta me on how sick the whole concept is, and how VERY sick the parents must be to get their ego trips from the pageants.
Those babies need to be playing, getting messy and dirty so that they can be kids. Playing Dress-Ups is something that should NOT be capitalised upon by voyeuristic and opportunistic adults.
Fuck 'em (the parents and the TV producers that is).
Oh, no shit- it’s sick! d_redguy and I were watching the same thing a few weeks ago. (You know how HBO loves to re-run stuff.) We couldn’t believe some of those mothers. But it was like a train wreck. You couldn’t look away. Those poor little kids…
I saw the show. Some of the parents were insisting that their kids loved to do the shows. I have a hard time believing this, but I guess anything is possible.
What the hell is with those two guys who were grooming the kids anyway?
The worst atrocity, IMO, was the poor little boy with the mullet and feathered bangs.
My totally-speculation theory about JonBenet Ramsey, beauty queen, is that Little Ramsey told Mommy Ramsey that she didn’t want to be a little piece of meat anymore and Mommy Ramsey snapped and killed her for taking away Mommy Ramsey’s vicarious spotlight. Then Mommy Ramsey had Daddy Ramsey clean up the mess and make it look like someone else did Little Ramsey in.
After all, those beauty pageants were a huge part of Patricia Ramsey’s life, and I have to think she would not have taken it well if JonBenet didn’t want to be a pageant monkey anymore.
It’s only my speculation, but I think parents who pimp out their daughters in that manner can get that wrapped up in it.
I saw that documentary a while ago. I don’t see how any parent who truly loves their child could behave the way I saw one of the mothers behave. If I recall correctly, one of the mothers quit her job and her sole source of income was her daughter’s earnings from winning pagents. The pressure she put on her daughter was, in my opinion, too much for an adult to handle, let alone a child.
I have an (ex) friend who has a 6 yr. old step daughter. She pays a ton of cash, that they don’t have, to get her modeling interviews, a portfolio, etc.
When I would ask my (ex) friend if her step-daughter wants to do this…My (ex) friend would say, “Oh, yea, she asked me to help her…she wants to do this…blah blah.”
Yea. When I was 6 I could not even conceptualize what modeling was. Fucking moron. Unbelievable that parents do this to their kid.
I saw a documentary on this very subject; at first I was amused, then became more and more disgusted as the show went on. In my opinion, this is out-and-out child abuse. “Mummy’s little whore,” indeed.
Was that the one with the little girl named “Swan?”
Yeah, that was messed up.
And why if they’re going to do this, can’t they at least be age appropriate? I mean no whorish make up and no hooker costumes. Why not have them do do Shirley Temple routines, not Madonna?
When you’re six, though, you have a very clear concept on making Mommy happy. And if Mommy is happy with you prancing around for strangers, you do it, and you probably think you like it. Especially if Mommy screams and cries if you don’t do it well.
I agree that this is tantamount to abuse. Call me reactionary, but I am horrified by the whole thing.
Totally disgusting. I didn’t see the documentary, but I’ve seen enough other shit about that to know it’s a sick thing. I have a 4-year old daughter, I could never imagine doing that to her.
Isn’t there laws about children working? If they’re making money (albeit prize money), aren’t there regulations that limit how much time they work?
I didn’t see the HBO version, but a few years ago I caught something on it (I think this was around the time of that Ramsey girl), and I couldn’t watch more then 15 minutes. I can’t believe parents like that actually exist.
The one time there’s been a change to use a Douglas Coupland reference that wasn’t related to Generation X and someone beats me to it. Hey! He’s my favorite author, I get to make the Coupland references.
Yeah, I’ve always thought things like this were sick, or at least the parents who have their kids in them.
They are ironic too. Sure, they may be helping their kids if they actually want to become models, but they dont really do anything in the attractiveness or self-esteem department.
Let me explain. The few glimpses of young pageants i’ve seen were sort of ho-hum, basically children “pretending” to be adults.
Then I saw a special on children trying out for the Nutcracker. I noticed that a lot of them, when they were being interviewed, comported themselves in a very adult manner. I believe it’s the poise one learns in dance that does this. If they keep this throughout their lives, when they grow up they will appear a lot more self-confident and thus, more attractive.
Ironically enough, trying to please others does not develop confidence or self esteem, and so the “models” will not be at an advantage later in life!
Sorry, no cite ;), but Ludovic, you do realise that the world of dance isn’t exactly free of insecurities, stress and eating disorders, right? I am not saying that that’s what the dance world is about, but it’s not uncommon, and Good God it’s not fun.
If this is in fact the one with Swan, I saw it a while back too. What I remember most is Swan’s mother yelling at her during a rehearsal in their house, while Swam did the fake smile thing. She looked like she was terrified.
Eh. I was in pagents/competitions/dance shows when I was little. I have photos of myself at age 4-5-6-7-8 wearing full makeup and up-dos and funky outfits.
I’m ok.
Obviously, producers are going to pick the most extreme examples to show-case on HBO or whatever. Those of us that had fun, learned how to dance and learned how to speak in public really wern’t all that hard done by.
Also, my mom was quite keen about doing my hair and makeup and what not, and I was keen too.
my point wasnt that they can have their insecurities, but that they don’t show it. I never watched this stuff for more than a few minutes, but the ones who were doing the pageant-type stuff may have been just as in/secure as the dancers, but looked like wannabes/tools.
And later in life, perception will have a lot to do with how well ahead they get in life.
Of course, if it’s genuinely fun for them, no problem. But I would imagine that it isnt, to a greater degree than sports, as a SWAG.
We had a Great Debate about this very thing a while back. alice_in_wonderland participated in at least several kid beauty contests, and she enjoyed the experience.
I also came away from watching that show feeling really disturbed about the whole process-- those parents portrayed in it are downright creepy, and it was heartbreaking to see how hard Swan was working, and how much criticism she took, just to get down a stupid routine.