NationStates Jolt Archive

So, having nothing better to do and, certainly, nothing better on TV, I succumbed to temptation and watched Toddlers and Tiaras. This is a show about child beauty pageants. Or, more accurately, a show about parental narcissism. I was only mildly disturbed at what I was seeing until a mother started talking about her sons and how she was turning them into "the girls I never had."

Sick mom! Sick!

I've never really liked the idea of child beauty pageants, I've always felt that the mothers (most of whom seem to be fat and untidy) were mentally putting themselves on stage. But after watching this, I really think they should be banned. It's abusive, it's exploitative, it sends a horrible message.

Bloggy, I know, but I'd like to know if anyone here has seen the show. I'd like to know NS take on child beauty pageants.

http://television.aol.com/show/toddlers-and-tiaras/10429679/main

Urgh!

Children Beauty Pageants are a great way for your child to meet their very own child molesters!

Little Miss Sunshine, FTW.

ya but its TV. they put on the looniest parents they could find. any organized activity for children has loony parents in it. its unfair to judge by what you saw on this show.

ya but its TV. they put on the looniest parents they could find. any organized activity for children has loony parents in it. its unfair to judge by what you saw on this show.

Even then, Child Beauty Pageants are always going to be haunted by the image of Jon-Benet Ramsey. The way pre-adolescents are made to dress up and make up like supermodels sometimes is rather creepy to me.

I find them horrifying. I try to be open minded and allow that parents have the right to bring their kids up the way they want, but there are some behaviors that I find so disgusting that I want nothing to do with them.

I don't know about banning them, but if, for instance, I found out my child's teacher was a supporter of pageants then I would immediately have my child moved to another class. I would never permit a pageant supporter to babysit for me, nor would I ever leave my child in the care of a relative who was a pageant fan. Adults who participate in that kind of thing disgust me and I wouldn't knowingly allow one to so much as speak to my kid.

It's no different than when adults do it, but the parents using their kids as accessories...I dislike it.

Walking, talking dolls comes to mind.

In other words, really fucking creepy.

What a wonderful lesson it teaches to children too.

Wrong, on just about every level.

What a wonderful lesson it teaches to children too.

This is a true statement.



I approve this message :p

at least you didnt say you dont like child beauty pageants because they teach children that there has to be a winner and a loser. a lot of people say that. a lot of (losers) say that.

A lot of little girls actually enjoy them. I don't see it as a problem as long as the child is having fun.

Having the child dress up and have fun is fine, its just that they go not one step further, but take a leap of the CN tower type of further. They pretty much force the kids at times. But, then, never been into this typah thing, so who am I to judge.

I don't think that child beauty paegants are any worse than child dance classes or gymnastics TBH. I get really annoyed at parents who complain loudly about how disgusting child paegants are and then send their daughters up on stage to shake their arses in revealing clothing and face full of make-up. No difference to me.

I don't know about banning them, but if, for instance, I found out my child's teacher was a supporter of pageants then I would immediately have my child moved to another class. I would never permit a pageant supporter to babysit for me, nor would I ever leave my child in the care of a relative who was a pageant fan. Adults who participate in that kind of thing disgust me and I wouldn't knowingly allow one to so much as speak to my kid.

What about a dance teacher? Gymnastics supporter? Ballet fan? Stage parent of an acting or singing kid?

To me these parents are all as bad as each other. As well as the sports fanatic parents.

First time I've heard of these things. It's bizarre as all hell, but I dunno whether I'm automatically against it. It depends whether it's being done because the child wants to do it (no worse than playing dress-up, although probably as expensive as pony club if you have to buy all the stupid outfits) or whether it's being done because the parent wants to do it (in which case the parent should stop using their child as a doll, and take up something healthier, like quilting). It seems to be the same mentality that leads middle-aged women to dress their poodles up like bumblebees and take them to shows, and the same mentality that makes pony club mothers raging aggressive indignant bitches at the judges because little Emma didn't get a ribbon.

... it may be apparent here that I cannot abide pony clubs. Blame my sister for that.

What about a dance teacher? Gymnastics supporter? Ballet fan? Stage parent of an acting or singing kid?

To me these parents are all as bad as each other. As well as the sports fanatic parents.
Um...so if my kid likes to act and I let them do it I'm "bad"? How so? Exactly?

Fake teeth and spray-on tans for four-year-olds. It's really unfortunate that we can't make people take a test to reproduce. I can see it now...

1. SPRAY ON TANS AND FAKE TEETH FOR TODDLERS: Y/N? IF NO, PROCEED TO QUESTION 2. IF YES, THROW THIS AWAY AND COME BACK IN A FEW YEARS.

Um...so if my kid likes to act and I let them do it I'm "bad"? How so? Exactly?

^This.

Seriously. I was one of those kids who liked to act. My "stage parents" let me. I'd actually kinda pissed at them if they didn't. I think I'm a better judge of my parents than some random person on the internet.

It's hard enough dealing with the media's portrayal of beauty without having to worry about the next generation being brought up to believe the same load of asinine horse manure. These kinds of things reduce the participants - girls or boys - to mere eye candy. What kind of lesson is being taught, that beauty is only skin deep and that what matters on the outside is everything? Beauty will get you squat when you've got nothing in the cognitive area.

Let girls and boys grow up then make their own decisions if they want to participate in this. Hell, that goes for anything. My parents encouraged activities, but never pushed me unless I chose something to pursue. Let kids pursue and find what they enjoy; what they're good at.

Um...so if my kid likes to act and I let them do it I'm "bad"? How so? Exactly?

I thought stage parent was an understood term. I don't mean parents who take their children along to players groups or acting training and auditions when the child wants to do it. I mean the parents who continually push their children into doing it, not as a hobby, but in order to make them a star. Like the stage parents of these paegent children.

^This.

Seriously. I was one of those kids who liked to act. My "stage parents" let me. I'd actually kinda pissed at them if they didn't. I think I'm a better judge of my parents than some random person on the internet.

Then maybe you shouldn't judge these parents and let their children do it for them.

I was referring to the parents of children who push their children into acting, who get them fake tans, bleached teeth, dye their hair at 6 etc etc ad nauseum.

I went to acting classes because I wanted to and my mother thought it would be good for me. But she didn't then drag me around to every damn audition going, perm my hair, dress me up and take me to meet with agencies and the like.

Children Beauty Pageants are a great way for your child to meet their very own child molesters!

I have a really strong dislike of child beauty pageants, but to be fair, they're normally closed to the public, so it's only judges and other moms around.

Then maybe you shouldn't judge these parents and let their children do it for them.

Maybe you should save the advice for someone it actually applies to. Like, for instance, a poster who was judging these parents. If you examine this topic closely--or briefly, you might see that was my first post in this topic.

I was referring to the parents of children who push their children into acting, who get them fake tans, bleached teeth, dye their hair at 6 etc etc ad nauseum.

I went to acting classes because I wanted to and my mother thought it would be good for me. But she didn't then drag me around to every damn audition going, perm my hair, dress me up and take me to meet with agencies and the like.

Then I apologize for misunderstanding the meaning of the term.

I find them horrifying. I try to be open minded and allow that parents have the right to bring their kids up the way they want, but there are some behaviors that I find so disgusting that I want nothing to do with them.

I don't know about banning them, but if, for instance, I found out my child's teacher was a supporter of pageants then I would immediately have my child moved to another class. I would never permit a pageant supporter to babysit for me, nor would I ever leave my child in the care of a relative who was a pageant fan. Adults who participate in that kind of thing disgust me and I wouldn't knowingly allow one to so much as speak to my kid.

That's a pretty extreme opinion. Do you have a prob with parents who push their kids too hard or is it that you have a problem with kids wearing makeup?
Why would you not let a beauty pagent parent speak to your kid? What kind of harm did you think would come from that?

I have a really strong dislike of child beauty pageants, but to be fair, they're normally closed to the public, so it's only judges and other moms around.

Riiight. That's why they're filmed and aired on TV. That's why the kids real names and home towns are given. Obviously, they have every intention of protecting these kids from molesters.

When you go into the link, go down a bit to the judge, Michael Flores - this man is creepy.

http://jezebel.com/5141201/toddlers--tiaras-pageant-dads-sexy-babies--creepy-judges

What about a dance teacher? Gymnastics supporter? Ballet fan? Stage parent of an acting or singing kid?

To me these parents are all as bad as each other. As well as the sports fanatic parents.

Well you see, it's all fine and dandy if the parents are there to actually, you know, support them positively. However, pageants are rather well known to have mothers who are basically living vicariously through their daughters, and remove any glimmer of "fun" from the whole deal. This happens with every event of the sort, be it a sport or not, where the parent becomes more consumed with the child "winning" than actually learning anything or bettering their child. So really, it's the nature of competitions, that is drawing out the asshat parents who are jackholes.

ya but its TV. they put on the looniest parents they could find. any organized activity for children has loony parents in it. its unfair to judge by what you saw on this show.

Parents who sexuallize their kids like this are already loony in my books...

So, having nothing better to do and, certainly, nothing better on TV, I succumbed to temptation and watched Toddlers and Tiaras. This is a show about child beauty pageants. Or, more accurately, a show about parental narcissism. I was only mildly disturbed at what I was seeing until a mother started talking about her sons and how she was turning them into "the girls I never had."

Sick mom! Sick!

I've never really liked the idea of child beauty pageants, I've always felt that the mothers (most of whom seem to be fat and untidy) were mentally putting themselves on stage. But after watching this, I really think they should be banned. It's abusive, it's exploitative, it sends a horrible message.

Bloggy, I know, but I'd like to know if anyone here has seen the show. I'd like to know NS take on child beauty pageants.

http://television.aol.com/show/toddlers-and-tiaras/10429679/main

Child beauty pageants are all the rage down our way.

Based on the fact that this part of the country also objectifies women as sexual objects - and that areas I've lived that treated women like equals DIDN'T have this wealth of pageants, I'm thinking there's a correlation.

Personally - I find them a bit sick and paedophilic. They dress tiny girls up in grown-up clothes, and doll them out in make-up and accessories. While those things are okay for play, this isn't about play - this is about packaging your child to appeal to judges - and I find the idea that packaging infants as sexually active women WINS competitions... to be an affirmation of all the things I think are wrong with the pageants.

In the interests of full disclosure, I also find schoolgirl cheerleaders quite sickening. And age-inappropriate dance.

It's really freaking disturbing. Regular beauty pageants are bad enough - it's helping emphasize the wrong thing - but child beauty pageants take the cake.

What about a dance teacher? Gymnastics supporter? Ballet fan? Stage parent of an acting or singing kid?

No, I wouldn't be as bothered by any of those, depending on how they were handled.

Well, except maybe gymnastics...it's really sad, too, because I took gymnastics as a little kid and it was really fun, but at a certain age bracket that sport starts becoming very creepy.


To me these parents are all as bad as each other. As well as the sports fanatic parents.
I think, for me, the difference is that I believe it is possible to be a good "soccer parent" or a good "dance parent" or a good "music parent," but I don't believe it is possible for a parent to be a decent human being (let alone a decent parent) if they are a "pageant parent."

That's a pretty extreme opinion. Do you have a prob with parents who push their kids too hard or is it that you have a problem with kids wearing makeup?

Neither is the source of my objection.


Why would you not let a beauty pagent parent speak to your kid? What kind of harm did you think would come from that?
Same reason I wouldn't let somebody talk to my kid if I knew that person liked to hit their own children. Same reason I wouldn't allow missionaries to speak with my young child. Same reason I wouldn't let Scientologists have quality time with my toddler. Same reason Rush Limbaugh is never getting within 12 city blocks of any child in my care.

I disagree very very strongly with what a lot of people do, and even though I often choose not to push for criminalization of their beliefs/activities I still elect to not have anything whatsoever to do with them.

Neither is the source of my objection.


Same reason I wouldn't let somebody talk to my kid if I knew that person liked to hit their own children. Same reason I wouldn't allow missionaries to speak with my young child. Same reason I wouldn't let Scientologists have quality time with my toddler. Same reason Rush Limbaugh is never getting within 12 city blocks of any child in my care.

I disagree very very strongly with what a lot of people do, and even though I often choose not to push for criminalization of their beliefs/activities I still elect to not have anything whatsoever to do with them.

Indeed there is a hell of a lot of diffeance between a parent being supportive of a childs hobby, and a pusy parent.

Acting, dancing, ballet etc. actually involve effort that leads to achieving something. Beauty pageants don't.

Acting, dancing, ballet etc. actually involve effort that leads to achieving something. Beauty pageants don't.

Indeed, beauty pageants specifically encourage a child (let's face it: a GIRL) to sacrifice any actual skills or talents in favor of looking pretty. The "talent" part of the show is the saddest part, because you often see glimmers of real actual talent, and those talents are completely wasted because the girl is being taught to focus on how she'll look in evening wear. Yes yes, you can sing, you have a nice voice, but those THIGHS of yours...

IIRC, trading pictures from child beauty pageants was actually one of the hallmarks that the FBI looked for when hunting pedophiles.

Just something to think about.