Toddlers Don't Need Tiaras
Something that has been bugging me for a while is this show on TLC called, Toddlers & Tiaras. According to TLC the show, "Toddlers and Tiaras follows families on their quest for sparkly crowns, big titles, and lots of cash." If you've never seen the show (or it's commercials) then let me fill you in. This show chronicles the "adventures" of little children in the beauty pageant arena. They are dressed up and made to perform, à la JonBenét Ramsey.
Why anyone would think it's okay, or even desirable, to dress little children up as Vegas showgirls and have them perform suggestive routines, is far beyond me to understand. Far from being "cute," it's disgusting. Children, some of them very young, are being paraded around like objects whose sole purpose is to perform like trained circus animals. The parents of these children should be ashamed of themselves for putting their children through this, for treating them as objects and for, very possibly, bringing them to the attention of pedophiles.
Surely, everyone remembers little JonBenét and her ignominious death. The possibility that her death could be a direct result of her involvement in child pageants cannot be ignored. Her case, unfortunately, still remains unsolved, though one suspect in her case confessed to the murder while being held on child pornography charges (no charges were filed on him for the murder because his DNA didn't match that found on JonBenét).
This raises the questions of whether the parents of these children and the organizers of these events are actually exploiting them, and whether allowing children to perform in these pageants constitutes a form of child abuse. At the very least it should be recognized that children are not dolls to be dressed up and played with. The psychological scars of child pageants have even been documented. In her Note And Comment: Protecting Pageant Princesses: A Call For Statutory Regulation Of Child Beauty Pageants, in the Journal of Law and Policy, author Lindsay Lieberman outlined some of the trauma that child pageant contestants have reported. Brooke Breedwell, a former child pageant contestant, reported suffering from, "stress and anxiety while striving for an unrealistic standard of perfection. She explain[ed] that her mother's ambition, coupled with her own obsessive drive to win, resulted in severe social and psychological consequences."
According to Lieberman's article, "family therapists report that pageants interfere with healthy child development...[and] as a result, little girls who participate are prone to persistent lifetime challenges, including body shame, perfectionism, depression and eating disorders." Lieberman goes on to describe the psychological and physical effects on pageant contestants and outlines the government's duties to protect these children.
The best way to protect these children is to make these pageants illegal. They serve no good purpose and they, clearly, serve to harm the children involved. That TLC is airing this show is a travesty. They are helping to make this sort of thing seem acceptable to those who may not have even thought about it in the past, while being an accessory to the trauma these children are facing. Since these children know nothing other than what their parents are making them do it's not the "family" that is on a quest, it's the parents.
Why anyone would think it's okay, or even desirable, to dress little children up as Vegas showgirls and have them perform suggestive routines, is far beyond me to understand. Far from being "cute," it's disgusting. Children, some of them very young, are being paraded around like objects whose sole purpose is to perform like trained circus animals. The parents of these children should be ashamed of themselves for putting their children through this, for treating them as objects and for, very possibly, bringing them to the attention of pedophiles.
Surely, everyone remembers little JonBenét and her ignominious death. The possibility that her death could be a direct result of her involvement in child pageants cannot be ignored. Her case, unfortunately, still remains unsolved, though one suspect in her case confessed to the murder while being held on child pornography charges (no charges were filed on him for the murder because his DNA didn't match that found on JonBenét).
This raises the questions of whether the parents of these children and the organizers of these events are actually exploiting them, and whether allowing children to perform in these pageants constitutes a form of child abuse. At the very least it should be recognized that children are not dolls to be dressed up and played with. The psychological scars of child pageants have even been documented. In her Note And Comment: Protecting Pageant Princesses: A Call For Statutory Regulation Of Child Beauty Pageants, in the Journal of Law and Policy, author Lindsay Lieberman outlined some of the trauma that child pageant contestants have reported. Brooke Breedwell, a former child pageant contestant, reported suffering from, "stress and anxiety while striving for an unrealistic standard of perfection. She explain[ed] that her mother's ambition, coupled with her own obsessive drive to win, resulted in severe social and psychological consequences."
According to Lieberman's article, "family therapists report that pageants interfere with healthy child development...[and] as a result, little girls who participate are prone to persistent lifetime challenges, including body shame, perfectionism, depression and eating disorders." Lieberman goes on to describe the psychological and physical effects on pageant contestants and outlines the government's duties to protect these children.
The best way to protect these children is to make these pageants illegal. They serve no good purpose and they, clearly, serve to harm the children involved. That TLC is airing this show is a travesty. They are helping to make this sort of thing seem acceptable to those who may not have even thought about it in the past, while being an accessory to the trauma these children are facing. Since these children know nothing other than what their parents are making them do it's not the "family" that is on a quest, it's the parents.
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