Diatribe: Toddlers & Tiaras Is A Few Cages Shy Of Being A Dog Show.
Fifteen years have passed since six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was killed in her Boulder, Colorado home over the Christmas holiday and the murder of the “child beauty queen” still remains unsolved to this day. Had she lived, JonBenet would be celebrating her twenty-first birthday this week. When news of her disappearance broke, I was fascinated and studied everything that I could about the case. I read her mother’s book and watched all of the made-for-television movies. What I remember most vividly about the case is the photographs of JonBenet that accompanied so many of the news stories. I remember thinking that she looked like a grown woman and I thought it was just awful that she never got to enjoy her years as a little girl.
This weekend, while trying to avoid the heat for a few hours, I was channel-surfing when I stumbled upon Toddlers and Tiaras. Conversations about this program have provided laughs at more than one happy hour but I had never watched it before. Now that I have seen the program, I can say with absolute certainty that I think the concept of child beauty pageants is ludicrous.
On any given weekend, on stages across the country, little girls parade around wearing makeup, false eyelashes, spray tans and fake hair to be judged on their beauty, personality and costumes. This program follows families on their quest for trophies, sparkly crowns, big titles, and cash. The preparation for the competitions is intense. There are hair and nail appointments, finishing touches on gowns and suits, numerous coaching sessions and rehearsals as each child prepares for their performance. One little girl was fitted for fake teeth by her dentist mother to improve her smile.
The kids on the show seem to be trying their best to please their mother. It’s true that some of them appear to be snotty brats but, basically, they’re just little girls. It’s their parents that should be ashamed of themselves. Shame on them for reinforcing, at such a young age, that beauty=success and that you have to be “special” to be loved. One of the adults thought it was funny that she was teaching a tiny little girl to become a “trophy wife” and that she should fall in love with a nerd because they make lots of money and the other girls won’t fight you for them. Disgusting. Furthermore, the outrageous amount money that the parents spend on these pageants could pay for college educations!
If these mothers want to groom a competitor to stand perfectly still, behave as instructed and show off their tricks … they should buy a dog! The child-pageant circuit is really only a few cages shy of being a dog show anyway. Clearly this program, and the pageantry that it shares, is more about the parents than the little children involved. I won’t watch it again. I can’t help but think that each of the little girls on the program could be the next JonBenet Ramsey … and not have childhood memories of anything but acting like an adult.
To be fair, I love some “reality” TV with all it’s “real” drama.
But I cannot stomach these kinds of shows where the parents seem to be using their children because they themselves hunger for the spotlight.
Agreed! I, too, love me some reality television. But it’s one thing for a bunch of adults to make fools of themselves at their own expense and another for parents to exploit their children in a hope to find their fifteen minutes of fame. There’s another show, on Lifetime, called “Dance Moms” that might even be worse! I still say that if you want to groom something and teach it to do tricks so you can get a trophy, you should have a dog and not a child.
The fact that shows like that get viewers makes me sick to my stomach. It is nice knowing that I am not the only one who thinks of the sad case of JonBenet. Thanks for this post!
If your kid has a REAL talent, say, other than smiling and having skin that holds a spray tan really well, how about you nurture that with classes instead of placing all the value and focus on how one looks? I think these pageants should be outlawed, but I also think Mackenzie should get her own show. Therein lies MY dilemma.
Also, did you see Corey Feldman’s interview where he said pedophilia is rampant in Hollywood? Sadly, that doesn’t surprise me one bit.