Toddlers & Tiaras

[ClusterFreak]

Seriously...why haven't the mothers (and dads) on this horrific TLC show been arrested and charged with child abuse? There is a T & T marathon on right now and it just blows me away how this shit is allowed to go on. How much more evidence do authorities - the FBI, local police, whoever - need that this garbage has to stop??

These horrible 35 year old women tugging and pulling at their little girls - their little toddlers - applying spray tan, pounds of make up, false teeth, big hairdos and tarted up skimpy outfits - so they can live out their own unrequited beauty queen fantasies....it is simply beyond the pale in every sense of the word. Nevermind the sexualization of two and three year olds up to adolescents (as if that weren't enough), it is soooo abundantly clear that the youngest of the little girls have absolutely no choice whatsoever in whether or not they participate in these God awful pageants. Some of them - still in diapers and pushed around in strollers - have the most stressful, unhappy expressions on any child I have ever seen in my life.

I know I am not breaking any news here in expressing outrage about this terrible program, but I have to ask: what is next? Seriously. What is next? This show was recently in the headlines because of the little girl who was dressed up by her abusive mother as Julia Roberts' hooker character in the movie Pretty Woman. And then the 24 hour news cycle moved on. What...I guess Herman Cain came along and said 9-9-9 so they followed that shiny ball for a little while.

This show, and the entire child beauty pageant industry which it portrays, needs to be investigated fully by....someone!!! Who will step up? Pass a law if the laws on the books aren't adequate...fucking do something.

We all expressed our shock and outrage at Newt Gingrich's suggestion that U.S. child labor laws need to be repealed or whatever nutjob thing he said. Well my question is....what child labor laws? Everyone said of course children shouldn't have to clean toilets at their schools...well what about dressing them up as little cuepee (sp?) dolls and dare I say little sluts in hotpants????

I need a drink. Maybe several. Flame away if you must, I think most won't but I don't care.

[glarius]

1. I've been watching too....it's unbelievably disgusting!

I too am amazed that the law hasn't stepped in. This is nothing short of child abuse.!!!!

[brewens]

2. I saw that brought up by a Facebook friend.

The pic he posted looked like a human Brats doll. Everyone slammed that show. It makes you wonder just WHO watches it?

It's hard to believe there would be enough obsessive mothers to make a viable audience. Maybe it has a large number of male viewers? I'd like to know the percentage of sex offenders among those viewers.

[Control-Z]

7. I was tempted to check it out

as I've never watched before. But, with two already watching that would make it three, just from this thread.

You asked: "It makes you wonder just WHO watches it?"

[obamanut2012]

10. The people who I know who watch it

Watch it for the trainwreck factor.

I watched it once.

[zbdent]

13. "just WHO watches it" ... well, if you saw "Little Miss Sunshine"

I'd say the guy left in the audience who applauded the "stripper" dance would be a good indicator ...

[Control-Z]

18. Damn, that was a

depressing movie. So many loved it. I hated it.

[seabeyond]

3. "what is next? Seriously." parents at a highschool making out with blindfolded kids? nt

[ClusterFreak]

19. Yeah I saw a headline about that somewhere earlier...on HuffPo I think....

It would seem that this is an isolated situation however, at least I would hope, and not an institutionalized bit of insanity and criminality as is portrayed on T & T.

[Initech]

4. I'm a guy and I think this is insane.

The people on it are certifiably insane. It's just like those other crap shows like Bridezillas and so on. The massive inferiority complexes, the kids will grow up to have massive inferiority complexes... I think it is child abuse.

[tblue]

5. I have a 90+ yo mother in law with Alzheimer's.

Would it be okay for me to dress her in skimpy clothes and parade her around for people to gawk at and judge?!

You're not alone. These parents are pimping their babies! It's SICK! Really.

I'm starting to think people are free to act out their neuroses and psychoses as long as enough people do it too and others pay to see it.

Those parents really need serious court-ordered therapy and their kids need an intervention by CPS. I agree with you. This is just as much abuse as any misuse of a person who is under someone else's care. When the girls turn 18 (maybe 16, I don't know) there's time enough for them to decide as consenting adults what they want to do with their bodies and faces.

[ClusterFreak]

9. Exploitation of the young and the old...it's all terrible you're right.

It just boggles the mind how the stuff that goes on on this show is allowed to continue unchecked.

[Enrique]

6. isn't the show separate from the pageants?

it seems that the TV show is a freak show, mostly aimed at "normal" people who enjoy looking at the "freaks".

I could be wrong, I don't have cable and I haven't seen the show but it seems that most reality shows are freak shows of one kind or another.

I agree with the person above who said there aren't enough freaky parents to justify a cable show, that's why I think they're not who the show is aimed at.

[obamanut2012]

14. The IRL Pageants are JUST like the show

From people I know who have family members who have subjected their kids to this crap.

[customerserviceguy]

27. While the show may indeed highlight the worst of the worst

How is this whole industry anything but harmful, except for the pervs making money off of it?

[obamanut2012]

8. What laws are they breaking?

I think the child pageant thing is disgusting, and SHOULD be illegal, and spray-tanning your child's skin and dyeing your child's hair is sexualizing them and is abusive (imo)... but what laws are they breaking?

None.

Disgusting.

[ClusterFreak]

11. Then it's time to update the laws on the books.

Because this crap is about as heinous as anything I've ever seen on so-called reality television.

[obamanut2012]

15. This has been going on for decades and decades

This isn't anything new, and lots of people involved in this are community leaders. It's insane.

The good news is that there are a growing number of pageants for kids that don't allow makeup or adult clothes or anything else like that.

[customerserviceguy]

28. Tradition

is the lousiest reason for continuing anything that exploits people.

As for the 'safe' pageants that you find harmless, they teach young people that you are what you look like, not who you are inside or how you treat other people. We already have tons of advertising to do that.

[Canuckistanian]

12. They should call it "Pumps and Pedophiles"

And someone should do some audience research on exactly WHO likes this kind of show.

[SomethingFishy]

20. My thoughts as well...

I have never watched the show but I saw a clip of a little girl maybe 5 or 6 dressed up like Julia Roberts hooker Character in Pretty Woman.

It was one of the most sickening things I have ever seen. Dressing a 5 year old up like a prostitute? Really?

[Bladian]

21. Oh come on, seriously?

My 50 year old parents love the show. They think it's hilarious to see how insane most of the parents are. You're telling me their pedophiles? Pathetic.

[ClusterFreak]

22. Hilarious?

I for one wouldn't presume to call anyone who watches this show a pedophile. In fact most are probably shocked out of their tree just like me. But what is "hilarious" about any of this? Is it hilarious to watch some overbearing mother chastise her two year old daughter because she didn't perform up to expectations? And to watch the little girl cry and scream because she's sooo tired she can't keep her eyes open and doesn't want to perform? Etc. etc.

Yeah. Hilarious.

[Bladian]

23. Now you're just putting words in my mouth.

Hilarious in that the parents are so sick and twisted. The show digusts them. It's like a car wreck, you can't look away.

[customerserviceguy]

25. While the vast majority of "reality" TV

is the essential equivalent of human cockfighting, all the ones I've seen involve adults who presumably have a right to decline to participate. Even that trashy Maury Povich show doesn't bring the kids on to the set (I write this, because some times that swill is on the TV when I come into the break room).

Maybe by watching this show and feeling amusement rather than horror, your parents really are part of the problem.

[Ship of Fools]

16. I happened on this show once for a few minutes

and left it quickly. My palms began to sweat and I started feeling
somewhat nauseous, as it brought back memories of childhood in a
fiercely authoritarian household.

These young girls don't have a fucking chance at normalcy. The parents,
should be ARRESTED. Period.

[mrmpa]

17. Yesterday, my mom & I saw

a girl about 5 holding her mother's hand in the parking lot of an Olive Garden. The 5 year old appeared to have make up on, couldn't see her dress, she had a coat on, the coat was cut close and tight to the girl's body. However her feet were enclosed by boots that went above her knee and had a spike heel about 2" high.

I wanted to roll down the window and yell at the mother, but my mom in her infinite wisdom said "no, the mother just won't understand how wrong it all is."

[customerserviceguy]

24. We need a famous person to step in

Also, it might not be a bad idea for someone from the legal profession to find an angle. I imagine it would not be impossible to assist a man to get custody of his daughter back, when his ex-wife is exploiting the child on this show. It would make news, and news makes outrage on occasion.

At least we could have a national discussion on the issue. Being as the President has two daughters, I'd expect him to weigh in with an informed opinion. On the other hand, the Jon Benet Ramsey case did nothing to help, but people were more than willing to believe that her death was purely an inside job, and that 'other' girls simply weren't at risk.

[malaise]

26. We switched to Mythbusters

I refuse to watch that horrible show

[ProdigalJunkMail]

29. I don't think they should be arrested

however, they should be held up for ridicule and shame...it is horrid what some of them are doing to these poor little girls ( and in some cases boys )! I am not sure why these women (and their husbands) think that this is in some way acceptable. The sad part is that the show puts them out there and only a few people have the sense to be appalled.

sP

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. Personally, Dance Moms is my fav.

It affirms my life choice to live as a recluse.

[JoeyT]

31. Yeah, no kidding.

One of the most infuriating parts is the incessant cries of "But she wants to do this!"

Well yeah, any kid is going to want to do what their parents have made clear is the only thing that gives them value as a person.

[Iggo]

32. Fucking gross. (n/t)

[Dover]

33. As far as I'm concerned this show and others like it have had a very positive effect on my life

in that I'm not the least bit tempted to turn on the television. For that I'm so grateful.
I don't even know what show you are referring to, ain't it great!


I got turned off when they began airing Fear Factor. I couldn't imagine then that the bar
could ever be much lower than that, but judging by your response I guess it continues to reach new lows.
I'd assume that a steady diet of vomit and violence would either cause one to turn off the tube
or become so desensitized that you no longer flinch or become outraged by the toxic sludge.

Not too long ago I was flipping through the channels (I do still watch PBS with some regularity)
and happened on a 'reality' show where this top chef was berating and acting abusively toward his
student chefs. That this abusive behavior was even on the menu of regular t.v. options poses a very
real danger of condoning or normalizing it. Even being exposed to it for the few minutes I could stand
to watch it was an assault.

There is no other option than to turn it off.
And when one considers all the wonderful things that could take its place, is there really any
reason not to?

[ClusterFreak]

35. Your point is well taken.

I hope one day I will be able to limit my television viewing only to things which uplift instead of depress. I avoid 99 percent of the so-called reality show pap which putrifies the airwaves, but on occasion I stop and look at something that just seems to be so bad I have to slow down and stare. Kind of like a car accident.

[seabeyond]

37. i turned it off yrs ago when perfectly good shows had wives bringing in pay being strippers

and the women were totally empowered or show after show having a sexist theme. i dont know how long ago i turned off tv. but one night, i said, just no more.

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. I watched part of an episode a year or so ago. Wanted to puke.

I agree. Those people are abusing their children.

[Jamastiene]

36. No flames here.

I agree. Those kids look miserable and it cannot possibly be safe to be in such an industry that is sure to attract the worst kind of pedophiles. Pretty much all activities that have lots of kids attract pedophiles, but in this case, the parents are putting their kids in unnecessary danger. I think it is horrible too.

Rec'ced.

[Ron Green]

38. It's a win-win for TLC, and for teevee in general.

The mouth-breathers watch it at face value, the middle group watch it as a "car wreck," and some people even use it as an opportunity to say they saw it accidentally while switching to PBS.