I’ve been running around with this thought in my head for a few weeks, and am struggling to put it in to words so that it make sense.
I saw this link recently which was a post about Toddlers and Tiara’s {excellent post} and it made me splutter in anger/frustration.
Not because it said anything that was not true, but because the video reminded me of how much I hate /abhor this show.
And how angry it makes me.
It brought up severe feelings. It is not just this show – though the show is enough to push a mom over the edge, but it is because this culture is a symptom of something so much bigger.
I am not the best mom in the world. I realise I often make some stupid parenting decisions, which I hope I learn from them as I go ahead.
Even with my rather limited IQ and parenting issues, I can see that spray tanning my child, and pimping them in a two piece on a stage might be questionable behaviour for any parent, even one with limited IQ.
Having my young daughter parade on stage in what is really a downsized version of an adult outfit, and mimic’ing adult behaviour is a not really a sign of a good parenting decision, no matter how big the trophy or how ridiculous the title
I have caught Toddlers and Tiara’s a few times and sit there and wonder what the hell these parents are thinking! Seriously, what the freaking hell!
That being said, I look at the parents – even if you exclude their toddler who is clenching false teeth to give her the perfect smile, has hair poofed to an inch of it’s life, wearing more spray tan than “The Only way is Essex” and a wardrobe that would make the Jersey Shore single figure IQ cast jealous – and really seldom think they are stellar parents making fabulous parenting decisions.
I do tend to sit there and go “what the fuck?” and that is before I have seen the child.
I get how the mom will often think this is a great idea – moms get to do stupid things, often, that is our right. Surely a sane dad would think “there must be something wrong with my 4 year old daughter being waxed, primped, and posing on stage in a bikini and then sashaying about like she is a 20 year old?” and maybe put up his little fist and go “Hey, I prefer my daughter not to look like someone who appears on Hollywood Boulevard.”
The parents explain why they parade their children on a stage and promote these girls whose only “good attribute” is their external beauty or perceived beauty. The most common reason is always about how good it is for the child/baby.
No one mentions how much discomfort/pain this child goes through to be plucked, pulled and painted to look like a doll.
No one comments on the behaviour which many of these girls exhibit which is rampant self-absorption and a skewed perception of reality. Also they are encouraged to be DIVA’s demanding and rude, and of course the stuffing in of food high in sugar and caffeine to keep their energy going.
The entire show is hideous. It reminds me of that audition on Bruno where they are trying to show how far a parent will go to get their child into an advertisement.
Auditioning for a children’s fashion shoot in Los Angeles, Bruno asks a group of showbusiness mothers a series of questions about what they would allow their child to do for the shoot.
“How would your daughter handle being dropped four-storeys?” he asks one, to which she replies: “I think she’d be a little scared at first, but she can do it.”
Bruno then reveals that the fashion shoot will involve one child dressed up as a Nazi officer pushing a wheelbarrow holding another young girl dressed as a Jew into a furnace.
One of the mothers auditioning her child says: “It sounds theatrical… as long as she gets the gig.”
I think as parents we all make, well, dodgy decision with our kids. Then when given time to reflect realise we have been a bit dick-orientated and try our best to correct the behaviour moving forward, say, rather than entering them into the NEXT competition.
I did the photo competitions with Connor, and dragged him to a few hideous commercials.
The days were long, the work tedious and at the end of it all it had nothing to do with Connor. It was all about me and my need for outside affirmation that my child was truly a beautiful child – because if he was pretty, then surely that made me a good parent (or a better parent)!
Eventually I realised that my need to win had nothing to do with Connor. But all to do about me feeling that “he was the best looking child” and decided to not take him for further castings – he really hated them, and I was having to bribe and coax him to do them.
I cannot stand child based beauty competitions.
I blanch when I get a request to go and “LIKE” the link because someone’s child is on a list of 400 kids where clearly the competition is about how many “LIKES” they get which does not make them the best/most beautiful child, but who ever has the mom who can campaign the hardest.
The issue that I wish to raise at the moment – though not in the most eloquent manner – is girls – and how we are projecting them in public, and the stereotypes we are buying in to.
Not just small girls, teenage girls, and adult girls.
I cannot watch VH1 or MTV because besides the inane repetition of the most ridiculous lyrics to date, every girl is presented as either a p0le/lap dancing freak or a bikini clad, large sunglasss, and gloss lipped woman who drapes herself over a rather imbecile looking rap star/singer/recording who is lounging in a house/on a yacht that clearly is not theirs, saying something along the lines of “yoh-yoh-yoh.”
Fucker, please!!!
Every show I watch which features a girl/woman in any way has her dancing. But she is dancing like a stripper or a lap dancer. For small denominations.
The girls all appear the same. All aspire to be the same thing – part time prostitutes/full time strippers who sole purpose for being on earth is to be drooled on by boys.
That being said, what message are we, as moms, as grown women, sending to our daughters by attending pole dancing classes or by installing a pole at home? When did learning to be a stripper and imitate moves found at Mavericks become a household mainstream activity? I think there can be a convincing argument for great exercise, and wow, how it tones your thighs, but still what is it exactly you are learning to do? And is it okay for your daughter of 5 to watch and learn to do with you?
Have you watched a 12 year old girl dance lately?
Have you watched a 16 year old girl dance?
It is enough to make you throw a bag over their head and run off and put them on an island somewhere so you can desensitize them to this media flooding in of a how a girl is meant to look and act.
Toddlers and Tiara’s is just another symptom of how f’ked up society has got and how children/girls are turned into sexual objects before they can spell Dr Seuss!
When did boys win? When girls started doing pole dancing classes and called it exercise.
{this post is a bit of spluttering …. I still have not quite found a way to convert it into good english, but there we go}
