The Ryan Thomas Collection

After a day out and about, a friend and I found ourselves in front of the TV for some relaxing, mindless television entertainment. What we came across was disturbing and haunting. No, it was not MSNBC’s marathon of “To Catch a Predator,” but rather TLC’s program, “Toddlers and Tiaras.” The program undertakes the daunting task of displaying the lives of young beauty pageants contestants  (the toddlers) and their parents as they work day in and day out to win tiaras. Children from two to ten were depicted in the particular episode we viewed and the pageant took place in Georgia. Like a car crash on a freeway or a horrible audition on American Idol, I found my eyes glued to this horrid ritual of dressing up young girls as if they were dolls or sex workers on Hollywood Blvd.

The preparation and time parents were shown taking for the toddler pageants seemed like time better spent on a playground, in a classroom or even watching daytime television on the Disney Channel. Girls as young as four years old were being taken to salons to get manicures and pedicures. Thousands of dollars were spent on attire to wear in the many rounds pageants hold, including swimsuit, casual and formal wear. The most horrid moment came as the very television before my eyes showed a mother rubbing fake tan on her young daughter because she felt it made her daughter more attractive in the clothes. Fake tanning before the age of five? Before the age of 15? Fake tanning! The value system being instilled upon this impressionable mind should be classified as child endangerment.

When it came down to the pageant, one contestant, who appeared to be no older than three, continued to cry and scream during her hair styling session, as each hair found itself coiled for buoyant curls. The same girl later refused to get off the floor, in tears, as her mother attempted to coax her in line. Whose event is this; the young girls or the parents? Whose fun is this? Most of the young girls or “toddlers” as TLC names them, appear to be far from excited about the entire process. The mothers (some fathers) act as though this is life and death pageantry. One can only conclude that mothers are living out their dreams of desired beauty through their young children who have yet to develop affirmation of personal identity and independence. One can only assume that many of these mothers were never able to be in beauty pageants, whether it was circumstance or their individual appearance. These toddlers become subjects of their mother’s ambitions to prove something to themselves. These toddlers are objectified by their parents and then the society that sits before them in a pageant, as if they are Playschool dolls on a toy store shelf.

Yes, we as a television audience end up objectifying these poor toddlers by watching a program that looks into their lives of pageantry. “Toddlers and Tiaras” does not necessarily glorify the lifestyle of these families, but allows viewers to peak into a sector of society that needs massive attention. The events these young girls are subjected to work to place value on physical beauty. Impressionable minds begin development on a runway, fake tanned and hair curled. How are these girls supposed to create their sense of self worth if their self worth is based not only on fulfilling the dreams of their parents, but their physical beauty?

I knew these types of pageants existed, particularly after the Jon Benet Ramsey homicide in the 90s, but TLC’s “Toddlers and Tiaras” really vilified the parents of these girls in my mind. I won’t be making a habit of watching this show any further, for I have seen enough, but the nation still has a lot of work to do, as we work to mold young girl’s minds to look to a future that is dependent on their abilities and beyond their simple physical beauty.

Chelsea Handler appears to have similar concerns about this program and ritual of young pageantry. Watch her comedic take on it in this clip from Chelsea Lately:

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