If you want to open up a thread on inappropriate football dads (and moms in my experience) please do so. My sister and I (I’m a dude) both played little league baseball and I can honestly say that none of us were encouraged to paint our faces like Vegas showgirls.
I’m a little pissed off that pageant parents paint these little girl’s faces to look like adults on the prowl, to have them wear some of the clothing they wear, and, finally, to strut around in a suggestive manner. If it makes you feel any better I lived in Texas and I currently live in the South. Even if I didn’t, fuck cultural relativism.
Well, proves the point, doesn’t it? If Maude had tarted herself up once in a while, Ned never would have had to run off with the next door neighbor’s wife, Marge, for some sexin’.
I don’t know if they’re consciously doing it, but it’s hard for me to look at that chorus girl outfit and not see that she’s basically emulating–in her stance and her get up and (from the videos constantly shown of her around the time she died) her movements–a much older woman. I mean, a little girl just playing with her mom’s make up is one thing. This just feels really wrong. The reason most parents tell their daughters not to wear make up until they’re x years old is because it is, on some level I think, a sexual/maturity thing.
Like, I don’t personally think these girls are sexy. But wearing this much make up, or…say, lingerie, is wrong because they’re just way too young. Whether these mothers are doing this on purpose or not, I do think the end result is that this is sexual. I mean, in a vacuum, no…but in our culture, these are the trappings of sexuality. When you see a woman displaying femininity, you see stuff like bright lipstick and huge eyelashes. It’s not that long eyelashes are inherently sexual, I guess…but putting all this stuff on your face to look a certain way is.
And I think it’s also wrong because the kid has no control over it. When you play around with make up, that’s one thing, but tarting up a five year old? That’s got to have some ramifications if the kid grows up and sees this. I don’t want to compare it to child porn, but it kind of is sexualizing someone without their consent.
For those of you who are curious, no, this isn’t sexy to me, nor to many of the other pedophiles I associate with on occasion. Yes, pedophiles (at least many of us, as I can’t exactly speak for so large a population in blanket generalizations) are attracted to kids who look like kids.
Between the makeup and prosthetics (teeth, eyelash extensions, etc) the kids in these pagents end up somewhere in the Uncanny Valley.
I agree with the group that’s outraged at the parents forcing their kids to participate, and I agree with those who have said the same about pushing their kids into anything they don’t want to do in order to vicariously live out their own failed dreams.
Aha! That’s exactly why these little girls look so creepy! They’re in the uncanny valley. I never could quite put my finger on why they looked so very wrong to me.
When you look at them, all of the visual messages conflict and give a strong message of “something is just not right about that person.”
False equivalence. Child actors taking child roles and being paid for their work isn’t the same as a mother who dresses her daughter like a whore on the off chance of a payday or the chance to catch the eye of an agent who may be able to get the kid into a few commercials. Parents who dress their kids up like dolls are a whole 'nother business entirely, and I’m not going there.
When I was growing up in Los Angeles, I knew several kids who were working actors. Most had parents who were in the business and who were in a position to get their kids into commercials and bit parts, and one or two got in on their own. But it was always their choice, and when it stopped being fun or profitable, they walked away. Of the seven or eight kids I knew who acted professionally as children or teens, I can think of only one who wanted to make a serious career out of it, and so far, he’s managed to do OK for himself doing guest roles on TV series.
The professional performers I knew then and know now are realistic about their chances of getting A-list stardom; they know it probably won’t happen, and they’re OK with that. Pageant moms aren’t realistic about it, and their daughters (and a few sons) end up paying for it.
I understand what your saying, I really do. I just think the participants of these shows don’t feel the same way. They’re thinking less about sex and more about tiaras, jazz hands and most importantly, winning. I don’t think this is healthy behavior by any means but I don’t know if it should be singled out when other activities, with similar elements and similar pushy parents, garner less outrage.
There was one contest each year for children 6-9 and another for the high school girls. The message was clearly that children 10 through 13 were too awful to be judged on beauty and that high school males did not have to be physically attractive to be acceptable.
In the junior division, our mothers put just a bit of coloring on our lips. That was all. We didn’t have to display any talent. And the year that I won, we were told to wear plain dresses. Most of the little girls that I knew wanted to be in it. But we didn’t have to practice endless routines at home or learn a special way of moving our heads or looking at the judges.
A girl in my neighborhoood was backstage and told me at the last minute to wink at the judges, so I did.
The strange thing is that my mother said, “You could have knocked me over with a feather when you won.” I knew that didn’t sound like a compliment. She also said, “Everybody said that Gail Jones would have won but her dress wasn’t plain enough.” Mother always knew how to keep me humble.
My father wasn’t there. He was at the pool hall. I hit in the back floorboards so that he wouldn’t see my Reynolds wrap and cardboard crown. When he got in the car I popped up and said something to surprise him.
He never played pool again after that. He was always there. I didn’t realize that until I was grown. He didn’t have to do that. I didn’t mind. But knowing that was worth all the display cases of crowns and trophies that I could have ever had.
I got a letter from him once when I was grown that said, “You’re still my little girl with the silver crown.”
If I thought that these little girls in the pageants could come away with good feelings about themselves and memories like that, I would be all for it. But that’s not what I’ve seen at all. The parents often pout when the child loses, the children feel bad about themselves or they learn that $6,000 dresses are important. Some learn to wag their fannies at the judges. They have to perform when they are half asleep. It’s just awful.
And always, winning is not enough. There is the next pageant…
“We will spend close to $1000 going to this pageant. Any cash prizes will go to her college fund!”
Here’s a hint mom. Save that $1000, and the other $1000 that you spend in tanning, hair, makeup, outfits, and “talent” coaching, and just invest that cash in her fund instead of the $500 you might win at the contest.
It’s not just the makeup. It’s the makeup AND the outfits AND the poses AND the movements. All of these put together scream “I’m looking for someone to sex me up!”, even though the little girls don’t know it. The parents and coaches, though, know very well what they’re doing, or they’re in denial about it. I’m particularly disturbed by the photo of JonBenet dressed up as a chorus girl. Chorus girls are sex symbols, period. Oh, sure, they might sing a bit, but they are chosen for their sexy looks, and then they’re carefully made up and dressed to be even sexier.
These little girls are dressed and made up to portray an extremely sexualized adult woman, and that’s what bothers me. Any adult woman who made herself up and dressed like that would be considered a slut or a hooker. I’m also extremely bothered that these little girls don’t have time to be kids, and are probably not allowed to play vigorously when they do have some time off, because they might chip a nail or something. Besides, they could be spending that playtime with a coach, to learn to sashay their hips more entrancingly.
I knew somebody that did those contests with their kid. They constantly went on about having the winning kid, and being the most beautiful. I had to hear over and over that they were doing this only because their kid wanted to do it. It was very apparent they were doing this to feed their ego, and conveniently at the time the kid wasn’t yet sick of it after a year. The kid was more into being happy that the parents liked her so much when she won. They weren’t at the reveling clothing stage at that point, and I hope they never reached it. There was still a hope last time I saw them that it wouldn’t reach the obsessive winning parent stage that would continue this if the kid said they didn’t like it. It was annoying to hear about the contests and clothes they were buying all the time, but it wasn’t something that was screwing up their kid at that point.
I don’t mind the show. I hate the rude comments though from youtube, and even this board. Rather tired with the comments bashing the show…
I work with kids for a living when I’m not working full time, and they love dressing up. The show is only sick minded if you think it is. Its a freaking documentary about young pageants.
If this is being " Sick or disgusting " what does that make Miss America and the older girls pageants who strut their stuff in two piece or bikinis and their older. Think about that, do any of you diss that when it shows on tv ? Or just the one that has younger ones in it. I’m thrilled that girls are into this, because it means they’ll get outta trouble less.
I would rather see kids in activities such as this, or Girl Scouts/Girl Guides then winding up getting into trouble when their older. Stop your bickering about the show people, I’m sick of seeing comments " Another show for pedophiles " rolls eyes Guys just grow up okay its just another showing what life is like behind the scenes at a pageant.
We stopped bashing the show here more than a year ago. Your post resurrected a thread that’s been dormant since early February 2010. This will almost certainly lead to more bashing of the show. If you can’t stand to see “Toddlers and Tiaras” criticized then you’d have been better off just leaving this thread alone.