Wednesday, August 6, 2008

This Makes me Puke in my Mouth a Bit


My kid’s cuter than your kid
By Melissa Hank
2008-08-06

Children’s beauty pageants get reality treatment

Kids’ beauty pageants. Three words, a whirlwind of controversy. But also, with stage-parent stereotypes and questionable psychological after-effects abounding, there’s also ripe grounds for a reality show.

Twelve years after the death of pint-sized competitor JonBenét Ramsey and two years after pageant-based movie Little Miss Sunshine, a new documentary series is delving into the world of kiddie baton-twirling, Annie soundtrack-singing and tiny jazz hands.

WEtv has ordered six one-hour episodes of Little Miss Perfect, a documentary reality show from NorthSouth Prods., according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The series centres on Florida families who enter their five- to 11-year-old daughters in a beauty competition.

"There's a real fascination with these beauty pageants," said Steve Cheskin, the senior VP of programming at WE. "In parts of the South, it's taken very seriously, and in other parts of the country they're looked at with near-disbelief."

For its part, Little Miss Perfect will withhold judgement on the proceedings.

"We're taking an approach that's completely neutral," said Charlie DeBevoise, Perfect’s executive producer and a co-owner of NorthSouth.

"I'm inspired by Sundance's Nimrod Nation. I loved the way it showed its subject in a respectful and objective way and let the audience decide how to feel about it."

The subject matter has been mined before: the HBO documentary about child beauty pageants Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen aired in 2001 and won an Emmy.
Little Miss Perfect is scheduled to air sometime in the first quarter.
I hate beauty competitions. Especially for little girls. I cannot even explain how sickening I find it, the wrong wrong WRONG lessons are taught, and talk about "psychological impact"....well I can't say for sure but it can't be good. I'm too hot to really rant right now, but well....this bugs me. Not that they are doing a documentry about it, but just that it even exists anymore to document.

12 comments:

Duncan said...

I guess the good news is that the creeps might just watch it at home now, instead of stalking the children for real

Dr. Fatty said...

These things are total freak shows. The parents should be put in labour camps.

Anonymous said...

I really have little to say about the matter except just how sad the whole thing really is....talk about setting your kid up for a lifetime of complexes....shouldn't this be considered a form of child abuse...I mean emotional is just as harmful as physical...if not more!

TheHMC said...

I'll be back soon to leave a Real comment, but wanted to let you know that I tagged you!

TheHMC said...

I'm kind of in the middle. I, personally, don't like them. But! I've seen women putting their 18 month olds in those things, adding fake hair pieces and everything. Come on, now.

With older girls, I try to look at it..objectively I guess? More along the lines of-if the girl wants to participate and it's not her parents pushing her to do it, then maybe she should be able to do it.
But I still have a hard time with that, because of all of the crap that goes along with it. The fake smiles, the make-up on girls that shouldn't be wearing it for another 8-10 years(IMO, anyway), all of it. All of it. I truly hope that my daughters aren't interested in that kind of thing. I already freak out thinking about them wanting to be in dance classes.

TheHMC said...

Just to clarify on the 18 month old thing.. I mentioned that because I find it ridiculous that someone would put a child that young in any kind of competition like that. With kids that age especially, they have no say in the fact that mom's up there parading them around for a f'ing prize.

And by them naming the show "Little Miss Perfect"...um yeah.. nice title. Way to be neutral and let the audience decide how they feel about it.

Okay :D. I'm done now. Told you I'd be back lol.

Anonymous said...

I totally don't understand why parents would think it's okay to put their daughters in these contests. It focuses so much on the external, and you know it will probably give them problems in the future.

Whiney Momma said...

I know. These things are sickening. Like, let's just make our little girls look like whores...and the whole competition over looks is totally taking away from the Dove campaign--have you seen that yet? I think more of that type of promotion is necessary and those beauty pageants banned.

BTW< I am passing on a little award to you!

Cuz_I'm_The_Mom said...

The pedophile buffets...um, I mean kiddie beauty pageants are hilarious and pathetically sad all at the same time. I just wish that they'd cut the crap and put a mini stripper pole in the center of the stage. At least then it would look more like an honest enterprise.

Anonymous said...

im doing a persuasion speech on how beauty paegents should be banned because of the girls losing their confidence... i mean really image having pounds of make up on your face just so you can feel beautiful see what these girl go through some times on a daily basis... their parents pushing their into emotion pain.

Anonymous said...

I always thought I wanted my daughter to be in these pageants, but after seeing what these parents do to their children, transforming them to look like little women. It is so wrong. Pageants are not like they used to be when I was a little girl. When I was a little girl the most parents did to their girls was take them to get either curls in their hair, or straightened out, and maybe red lip stick and nail polish....but that was it. U were missing teeth then so be. Eyelashes and hair pieces unheard of...These women have taken the fun out of these pageants. So sad...Yes this should be a form of child abuse.

Reese Westerwelle said...

All of you are idiots and a bunch of wankers. You make a big deal out of nothing and you insult people to prove your point. What have you been smoking? It is stupid for you to make false statement like these. Its no big deal. Its not a problem. If you don't like it then change the channel. Get a life or kiss off