This past Saturday after taking most of the day to clean out my whole closet I found myself crashed on my couch watching TLC’s show Toddlers and Tiaras. I was drawn in quickly as a sassy four-year-old with bleached blonde hair and blue eyes barely made it up the stairs to a stage the height of herself. Minutes before, the little girl was screaming and crying, throwing a temper tantrum backstage as her mother attempted to apply a second coat of lipstick on her daughter while the grandma tried to hand the pint sized Barbie doll another dose of sugar (a pixie stick) to keep her energy up. To the judges, the girl was a complete package, personality and experience along with a spray on tan, fake hair, manicured nails, mascara and eyeliner, exuberant amounts of foundation, blush, eye shadow and the latest shade of lipstick. She began her dance routine for the talent portion of the contest, prancing around the stage in a tight, skimpy, zebra patterned outfit that showed off her belly. She shimmied and shook her behind provocatively to the music while her mother stood in the audience performing the exact moves as daughter. I watched the show till the end. I guess I couldn’t full wrap my mind around the fact that these little girls were dressed, looked and performed very similar to adult woman in the entertainment business. It was interesting to me to say the least.
Many people are shocked as they watch shows like Toddlers and Tiaras. They believe that nothing good or positive can come from scantily clothed girls prancing around a stage performing provocative routines for the world to see. One of the biggest arguments is that Children’s Beauty Pageants sexualize the girls and give them a false idea on body image. William Pinsof, a clinical psychologist and president of the Family Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago performed studies on the emphases of appearance and sexualization of young girls. When a little girl is told she needs to look and act a certain and specific way to the point of imitating a Barbie doll, Pinsof states,
“In girls particularly, this can unleash a whole complex of destructive self-experiences that can lead to eating disorders and all kinds of body distortions in terms of body images.”
With this being said pageant moms and those involved in the pageant industry don’t believe that Pinsof’s study relates to children’s pageants. Many pageant moms would argue that pageants are the equivalent to sports. They say pageants teach their daughters life skills such as being confident, working hard and public speaking. Many compare the competitions to “playing dress up” and would argue that in no way are these competitions sexualizing the girls. Annette Hill, a prominent Child Beauty Pageant director speaks up on the issue,
“The Child Beauty Pageant industry is not in any way sexualizing Child Beauty Pageants. I feel that the media, Hollywood and society has made it that way. If you are looking at a child in a sexual way you are a very sick individual because we are not. We look at it as form of competition.”
There are two sides to every story and belief. In this case, both sides bring up valid points. I guess the question to be asked is have these competitions taken it too far? Is it all fun and games or have pageants crossed the line in turning little girls into pint sized barbies?
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