toddlers & tiaras

posts about #toddlerstiaras more →
Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
Toddlers & Tiaras: Tootie Is A Total Nightmare
10 Things You May Have Missed On TV This Week
Toddlers & Tiaras: A "Diva Moment" Is Actually A Tantrum
Get Ready: It's The Second Time Around For Toddlers & Tiaras
Toddlers & Tiaras: A Pageant Show's In Brooklyn
This Pageant Boy's Mom Wants To "Turn Him Into A Little Girl"
Toddlers & Tiaras: Children Who Don't Wax Their Eyebrows Don't Get The Crown
In Defense Of Reality TV
This Little Beauty Queen Insists She's "Smiling On The Inside"

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voteforme
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
We need to realize that we all feed into the mentality that encourages mothers to wear their daughters like purses. Part of the commentary on Lindsay Lohan is "Oh but she was such a beautiful and talented little girl! If she would just get herself together and make movies again, we could be happy with her existence!" No one's considering that maybe she never wanted to be an actress and that she may be perfectly content to make $20k a week doing party appearances (I know I could live with that). Instead, she's forced to deal with the public's perception that she's a failure because she has drifted away from her childhood hobby. There's nothing out there telling showbiz parents that there's anything for their children besides fame in the entertainment realm, and they don't see any benefit in letting their kids quit.
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HighSchoolFearleader
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
I can't get over how sad all of these girls look. None of them seem to get any enjoyment out of this. How do their parents drag them through this without feeling horribly guilty for making their children this unhappy?
Also, no seven year old should have to be burdened with the worry that they aren't good enough by being forced into cosmetic surgery. I say forced because I can't even picture a seven year old saying "Mommy, I think I should get my ears sewn closer to my head" in all seriousness.
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maybeimamazed02
08/10/09

@HighSchoolFearleader: Even if she said that? She's SEVEN. I wanted different-colored eyes when I was seven, and my mom sure as hell wasn't running me to the plastic surgeon.
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LolaQuinn is full of beans
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
That little girl looks like she's already dead inside.
But so sparkly on the outside! That surely makes up for it.
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cuteasabutton
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
I saw this and it just made me really sad and angry. Especially Tylas' mother as she said she "couldn't bear to have an ugly child".
Also I thought that the fathers were not present because they were all single mothers. The person that disgusted me the most was the woman who actually decided to hold the pageant. And I felt sorry for Sasha, whose only motivations for winning the pageant was to give the money to her family who are "skint". Sigh.
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thesciencegirl
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
My friend forced me to watch "Toddlers and Tiaras" this weekend because she'd stumbled across it and was horrified, and we were both agog. I was wondering afterward if child beauty pagaents were a uniquely American thing, and was going to google it, but you've already answered my question for me.
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lucyjae
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
My lord this stuff has changed so much since I was a kid.
Full disclosure: I was a pageant kid. It was all based around baton twirling & dance, but there was a beauty component as well. Thank goodness it was before spray tans and hair extensions. It was really, in my memory, just me and my friends with curlers in our hair, with extreme 80s make-up, wearing sparkly dresses, and my mom asking me at least once a week if I wanted to quit.
Then again, maybe our baton competitions were just on a different stage than the full on beauty pageants, I don't know.
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maybeimamazed02
08/10/09

@lucyjae: When I was a kid, I had a friend who won a county fair pageant. It was nowhere near this horrific. Plus? Granted, she was a cute kid, but she won because she made the judges laugh during her interview.
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morninggloria
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
I feel that soon the world of child beauty pageants will cease to exist as it was before it was discovered by cultural car-wreck gazers and begin to be influenced by knowledge of that gaze. Parents who just some screen time for themselves will push their children to extremes for the sake of the cameras.
Sort of like how by the third season of the series, none of the women were really there for Flava Flav.
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Skinny lips, killer lashes
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
Of the three, Sasha and her mother seemed the most normal. Sasha's mother wanted her to gain some confidence, although I wasn't sure entering her in a pageant was the best way to do it.
The compare was a former Miss East Anglia, who declared that every little girl dreamed of having her sash. Not this one. I wanted to be an international super spy or win the Nobel Prize.
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Plum-Pie
08/10/09

@Skinny lips, killer lashes: My heart swelled when Sasha conquered her stage fright and marched out and she looked so happy afterwards. I feel, however, that her mother should have, perhaps, found a dance contest which could enter as a solo performer, rather than all the extra stuff that goes with a child beauty pageant.
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maybeimamazed02
08/10/09

@Plum-Pie: Agreed. That's the problem I have with moms entering kids for "self-confidence." I guess I can see their point, but there are also sports, dance classes, plays, music lessons where you give recitals, and a million other things that won't mess you up as an adult.
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Edited by maybeimamazed02 at 08/10/09 5:17 PM maybeimamazed02 was starred maybeimamazed02 was unstarred

MegiEr
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
One contestant's mother says, "They remind me of little drag queens, really."
And she is okay with this?? That is messed up.
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LaComtesse
08/10/09

@MegiEr: My cousin (also named Madison) is named after a drag queen, so I don't think this is awful. It's also TRUE.
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LolaQuinn is full of beans
08/10/09

@LaComtesse: I'm also naming my daughter after my favorite drag queen: Alaska Thunderfuck.
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dummyfakeroller
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
I'm hungover yet the fact that parents somewhere in this world gave unnecessary plastic surgery to their 7 year old daughter makes me far more nauseous.
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colormeroutine
08/10/09

@dummyfakeroller: My mother wanted me to have that surgery when I was 4. My dad put his foot down for the first and possibly only time in his life. I wound up having it at 13 anyway to shut her up so I kind of wished he's just let her do it then
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morninggloria
08/10/09

@dummyfakeroller: Believe it or not, my BOYFRIEND had that surgery done when he was like 5. He was getting teased a lot in school and his mother thought that "fixing" his ears might make life easier for him. Now, it looks normal, but if you look closely when he smiles, there are some weird-looking creases. And this is why you don't take your kid to Mexico for plastic surgery.
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dummyfakeroller
08/10/09

@morninggloria: @colormeroutine: Attempting to lessen teasing and prevent insecurities is more palatable. I hope that would be the reasoning behind the contestant's surgery. It more reminds me of Arrested Development and the frequent references to Lindsey's nosejob that appear to have happened when she was rather young.
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Edited by dummyfakeroller at 08/10/09 4:02 PM dummyfakeroller was starred dummyfakeroller was unstarred

slightlyhardup
08/10/09

@dummyfakeroller: In Canada the surgery is actually covered by healthcare until a child is over the age of 13. It is done since large ears can be such a source of teasing for kids.
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colormeroutine
08/10/09

@dummyfakeroller: It isn't really more palatable though. Saying "I was afraid kids would tease you" implies "because I would, and probably will"
Which is basically what this mom's motivations probably were
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laureltreedaphne
08/10/09

@dummyfakeroller:
Honestly, it's actually a very common surgery, and doctor's recommend performing it when the person is younger, because it's easier on them. That doesn't make it right, of course, but it's not like these parents gave the child a nose job or breast implants.
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colormeroutine
08/10/09

@laureltreedaphne: It is common, but people also don't realize its a lot bigger of a deal than it looks like. They aren't just sort of sewing them back, they cut out tissue and cartilage as well. It hurts like a motherfucker and you have to wear a head bandage for weeks. How is this any different than a nose job?
not to mention the fact that give them a few years and they might grow into the ears anyway
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Edited by colormeroutine at 08/10/09 4:09 PM colormeroutine was starred colormeroutine was unstarred

laureltreedaphne
08/10/09

@colormeroutine:
Well, now they have developed a way to do it called "Incisionless Otoplasty" which is much easier on the person having the procedure. But, if you're a child, you still have to go under general anesthesia, which can be traumatizing, and it hurts while you recover. Though I have a friend who had it who compared it to the pain of having braces.
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colormeroutine
08/10/09

@laureltreedaphne: That's only an option for some people, usually the ones with less to minimize in the first place. And in addition to being traumatizing, general anesthesia can also kill you. Yes it's very rare, but it does happen, and the smaller the child the greater the risks. I just cannot get behind that risk as being worth it for something so silly
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dummyfakeroller
08/10/09

@colormeroutine: To me the mom saw the ears as imperfections and that's why it makes me sick that she "corrected" it. She wasn't trying to help her daughter with teasing or self esteem, she just wanted a little girl to look a certain way.
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gangey
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
Can't America stick to exporting less harmful things, like high-fructose corn syrup and Grand Theft Auto video games?
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greengrey
08/10/09

@gangey: Or BB guns and lawn darts?
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NefariousNewt
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
It broke my heart to think of these children (none of whom won) as they left the venue. At an age where my biggest body hang up was wondering when my next tooth would come out, what would these girls now think of themselves? That they were ugly? Or indeed, that it mattered? That they were worthless, because their only ‘talent' had been beauty, and they had failed at it? Which would grow up to suffer from eating disorders, (which are affecting younger and younger children), or to believe that fake tans and plastered-on smiles are more important than intelligence, wit, compassion and love?
Could not have said it better myself.
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alexa
08/10/09

@NefariousNewt: Here's something even more chilling (from the youtube link, first video), the little girl is talking about why she's in pageants, and how it prepares her for her dream job of being a model (paraphrasing): "I want to be out there, doing things, not sitting around in the house."
This little girl thinks her options for adulthood are sitting around the house or being out there, as a model. Apparently, she does not have any other career prospects, and her looks are her only hope to avoid a life of what she sees as domestic drudgery. NICE.

Edit: Wait, there's more. "God has given Madison a natural talent of being beautiful..." *wide eyed stare*

I ... I don't think that being beautiful is anything to do with talent.
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NefariousNewt promoted this comment Edited by alexa at 08/10/09 3:40 PM alexa was starred alexa was unstarred

colormeroutine
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
The one on the right in the top picture looks like she wants to devour my soul
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Annabellie
08/10/09

In reply to Child Pageants: American Pasttime Exported Across The Pond
Is it a child beauty pageant rule that there always has to be a contestant named Madison?
Hopefully this one didn't have a weird pageant alter ego, a la Tootie.
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dripdrop
08/10/09

@Annabellie:
I think you mean Madysyn :)
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NewsBunny
08/10/09

@Annabellie: I just watched that one, a couple of hours ago. And I was ... quite...weirded out.
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Annabellie
08/10/09

@NewsBunny: Me too! Especially when her mother was totally dismissive of it and was just like "Oh, now she's in Tootie mode."
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Annabellie
08/10/09

@dripdrop: Maddisynne?
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redqueenmeg
08/10/09

@Annabellie: Well, yes, I think there is such a rule. "Son of Maud" is the perfect name for a beauty queen, right? Unless you want to go with "Son of Adam" (Addison). ;)
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lizdexia
08/10/09

@dripdrop: Or Makyinli. I wonder if the drive to have your child (chylde?) stand out as the very prettiest at a beauty pageant is influenced by the same factors that inspire a parent to give their kids fairly common names with really bizarre spellings?
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jrhys
07/30/09

In reply to Toddlers & Tiaras: Tootie Is A Total Nightmare
I don't care how nasty she is I'm not down with calling a 10 year old girl the B word. I'm actually barely down with using it about grown women but I think applying it to a child is particularly ugly.
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