Pageant Kids & Moms "Interviewed" On Today

The Today show had a segment with some pageant kids this morning, and Ann Curry bungled what could have been an interesting interview with the children and their parents.

While the kids were pleased to be receiving attention, and excited to be on TV, Curry missed out on a chance to ask the parents several important questions. Are they teaching their kids that appearance is everything? Are their children learning that it’s right to judge people based on looks? Do they worry about their kids learning to be “on”? And why are their children’s lives so jam packed with activities? Instead of letting the kids or the parents talk, Curry took up most of the time allotted trying to muddle through her question. This is, verbatim, the question Ms. Curry asked: “You know, some people wonder if — you know, there are child psychologists — I have to ask you this question — you’re all ready for this question, because you know you’ve heard it before — that there are child psychologists who say that it amounts to, you know, the sexualization of our children, that it’s exploitation of children at a very young age. So I guess the question for you is: Do you feel any concern about having your children see and overemphasis on beauty, feeling this judgment, that they are being judged on how they look, in a way that might maybe skew inappropriately how they may think of themselves or their own self esteem?” The mother who attempted to answer the question, Phyllis Jones, did an okay job. But when speaking of her daughter wearing makeup, Jones used the word “we” and not “she,” as in “we don’t wear makeup to school.” Does the daughter have her own personality? Clip above.

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