After reading the latest article for class by Jackie Stacey, I really started to think about how influential celebrities and stars are seen to us “normal” people. I started to think about how I personally regard these people are being more “special” than the average Joe and also how I tend to copy/follow their lead. One show that stood out most to me when I thought about this topic was Toddlers & Tiaras. Even though I have only seen the show a few times, I still can’t believe that these mothers force their daughters to imitate/idolize the life and characteristics of older pageant queens. The mothers, by dolling up their children to the extreme, are only creating a sense of spectatorship for their girls to feel pressure to look and act “perfect”. The young girls pretend, resemble, imitate, copy and consume all that they see in pageant life. Most of the time, their own mothers, who want them to act and look much older and mature, influence this. I believe this is impossible to do because it is so unrealistic. You can’t expect a toddler to have the maturity level nor the patience as that of an 18-year-old girl. In my opinion, the fandom must come to halt and maybe these young girls would be able to enjoy the childhood they should have had all along.
I completely agree with you. This show is a complete exploitation of children. Children obviously idolize celebrities and stars in the world. However, this is a way that parents force and reinforce certain materialistic values and ways. These children are in fact brats that are trying to take on the roles of adults. But who are they learning this from? Their parents that put MAC make up on them and put them in $1,000 dresses. I think you can talk about this post regarding gender (forcing feminine values on children), Semiotics and how these girls are trying to showcase their superiority to one and other, etc.
ReplyDeleteI personally change the channel when I see any type of beauty pageant, but especially when I see it for young children who haven't even hit puberty. I think it is sad that most of the mothers of these girls, in my opinion, are trying to live their lives through their daughters. Children do not enter themselves into this sort of exploitation, their parents do. I would feel differently if they were of age to make sound decisions for themselves, but they are not. Their is no way that a child should wear make-up, unless its for play. This sort of exploitation encourages superficial beauty and reinforces how women should view themselves according to the standards of society, and in my opinion, this only leads to severe cases of anorexia, drug usage, identity conflicts, and insecurity.
ReplyDeleteI came across this show the other day on netflix and could not believe at the extent these mothers and fathers push their children to participate in these pageants. The children at times are not even aware of what the concept to compete is, such as a 2 year old prancing around the stage who can not even walk shouldn’t be judged and compared to how another 2 year old was able to stand for a longer time. You can't help but to feel sorry for the child, because the parents are the ones who are signing them up for these pageants and their desire to use their children’s money from the pageant. Like Joanna mentions, it seems that these poor children are living out the lives that their mothers weren’t able to have. Therefore they have to put their daughters in these horrible pageants; they transform their children’s into real lives dolls. Where the 4 year old is wearing extensions, fake eyelashes, fake teeth it becomes an unbelievable lie. Which makes me wonder, if growing up always being "fake" by what their mothers put them into at such a young age will definitely cause some sort of distorted thinking of themselves as they become older. For the reason that growing up in an environment where you are always being compared to another person and people telling you that they are better than you because they have more extensions than you leads to hegemony way of thinking that what they are being compared to what they should look like. Which can be a very toxic environment to grow up in.
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ReplyDeleteI think that this show is not only a way to target women who support this cause, but it is also a way to target young children. It makes me question which audience the producers intend to actually attract. I believe that it is the children themselves because it is easy to manipulate or implant certain ideas in children. Especially girls because most have a sense of insecurity thanks to shows like these. Therefore, young girls are a great target if companies really want to make money. In addition, there are those parents and other older viewers who are able to rationalize and realize that these mothers are only fulfilling materialistic needs and become repulsed. In addition, young children all over America now have more televisions than ever before. Therefore, accessibility is also a great reason as to why these shows even have high viewings. Even knowing that NetFlix is participating in the distribution of this awful show is disappointing.
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