Looks like TLC is getting super-freaky. The network recently announced plans to launch Toddlers and Tiaras, a new series that goes behind the scenes of the child beauty pageant circuit. Says Howard Lee, Vice President of Production for TLC, "The appeal and success of Little Miss Sunshine illustrates that this competitive world really exists. These children and their parents pour so much energy into wanting to win — and it’s fascinating to watch.”
It’s also disgusting to watch. A while back, I caught Vh1′s similarly themed doc Little Beauties, in which a group of moms jumpstarted their young daughters’ body-image issues by making them wear "flippers"—fake teeth to hide the gaps that normal girls have from losing their baby teeth—and encouraging them to go on stage and bat their eyelashes at adult male judges. Toddlers and Tiaras should offer similar horrors; according to a TLC press release, the show will be "jam-packed with stage moms and dads, hair extensions, spray tanning, makeup and glitter."
But who deserves more scrutiny here? The parents of these tiny pageant contestants, or a network that agrees to give them the national spotlight? Perhaps the main reason I felt nauseous watching Little Beauties was because the doc never seemed acknowledge that these pageants are so…wrong. Plus, how can Lee point to Little Miss Sunshine as an inspiration for the new TLC program when the movie implies that such beauty pageants are, you know, essentially T&A shows starring unknowing, innocent five-year-olds?
Am I missing something here, PopWatchers? Will any of you be watching Toddlers and Tiaras when it premieres in late January? And if so, why?
TLC is citing the success of a 2006 indie movie about children’s pagents as a reason to produce Toddlers and Tiaras? Way to stay timely, TLC! No – this show is about parading these pathetic train wreck parents out into the spotlight for the rest of us to laugh at. Meanwhile, the children lose six ways from Sunday.
HELL TO THE NO!
I love TLC… probably won’t watch it though. I’ll stick to the Gosselins and the Roloff’s
cause nobody has learned from Jean Benet Ramsey
Didn’t they just have a special on pageant girls and how their lives were affected by their pushy parents? I didn’t see it, just the commercial, but I do distinctively recall a clip of a teenage girl saying, “She made me do it, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do” in reference to her mother. Why, now, would they run a show like this??? It’s just encouraging this terrible parenting to continue.
I was a “pageant brat” from ages 5-7, but nothing higher than a state level and certainly NOT to the extreme that things are taken nowadays (read: my two-year-old will NEVER be in pageant or “scholarship contest”). What’s funny re the “flippers” comment – I remember the girl who won Miss Photogenic in my age group for the Sunflower Miss IL/MO pageant, Heather Storey – a very pretty, 7-year-old girl with light blonde hair and a cute smile. The picture that won was of her looking over her shoulder and smiling – WITH HER TWO FRONT TEETH MISSING. The judges turned into a pile of mush, and I remember overhearing that half of it was because of her missing teeth. Take that, TLC!
There’s been a few documentaries recently. My husband and I quote lines from some of them. Like the little girl who was taught to twirl appropriately by the words 1…2…3…PIZZAS! (arms UP like you’re serving pies.)
This show is disgusting, and I won’t be tuning in. But it’s no more or less despicable than the trash they show on VH1 or MTV. It’s just another sad statement on American culture.
I really don’t know what’s worse – these idiot, child-abusing parents, these idiot networks, or these idiot people who watch these shows. This really is nothing short of child abuse, and borderline pedophilia (there’s tons of sickos getting their jollies watching this kind of stuff). It all just boggles the mind
TLC’s defintiely getting the wrong idea here. The reason we watch the Roloffs is because they’re an interesting family who do face challenges. The reason we watch the Gosselins is because they’re adorable and interesting and face challenges.
We do not want to watch more babies, even more twins and sextuplets, and I had hoped that they wouldn’t turn this into a regular television show but I’m wrong. I fear that a show like this could only encourage pageants. I hope that it doesn’t.
My reaction:
EW! Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew yuck ew ew ew ew gross gross gross gross gross are you friggin kidding me ewwwwwwwwww …
Maybe TLC is going to just show things, like it does on shows like Jon and Kate plus 8 and Little People, Big World? The good the bad and the ugly. Just sayin’
Got to love child beauty pageants. There’s nothing more precious than watching pageant mothers trying to live out their fantasies through their daughters or teaching them that being pretty = success.
*dry heave*
Does TLC know who is going to watch this series? Please cancel it.