You are flipping through the channels on your television and come across 4-year-old girls dressed as Dolly Parton and Madonna with pounds of make up on. You think to yourself, “What am I watching?” and click the information. You find out the television show is called Toddlers & Tiaras.
Toddlers & Tiaras is a show on TLC that first aired in 2009. It follows the lives of three mothers who enter their very young daughters in to child beauty pageants. Since 2009, the show has created a large amount of controversy. Toddlers on the show get their eyebrows waxed, go spray tanning, and throw tantrums.
In season three of the series, 3-year-old Paisley, one of the contestants, was dressed up as Julia Roberts from Pretty Woman. In that film, Roberts’ character is a prostitute. One episode showed 5-year-old Mia dressed up as Madonna. During the pageant she dressed in an angel outfit and then proceeded to rip it off, revealing a replica of Madonna’s cone bra. In another situation, 4-year-old Maddy Jackson portrayed Dolly Parton. To emulate the country singer, Jackson’s mother stuffed her gown with fake breasts and a fake bottom.
“To some people it’s over the top; to us it’s just what happens… When she wears the fake boobs and the fake butt, it’s just like an extra bonus,” said Lindy Jackson, mother of Maddy, in an interview with ABC News.
Child pornography is defined as any visual image or video where a minor is portrayed in any sexual way. Although no cases have been made against the show for it, many people who have seen it argue that it could pass as child pornography and that the show sexualizes young girls. After the Dolly Parton and Pretty Woman episodes aired, TLC had to take down their Facebook page because of all the hate comments it was receiving.
In an age when almost every model is skinny and air brushed to perfection, 62% of females battle with self-image issues, reports an MSNBC survey. However, as a toddler, that battle has not begun. Toddlers & Tiaras seems to be trying to change that with the pounds of make-up and glitzy ensembles. Young female viewers who watch the show could begin to compare themselves to the child beauty pageant contestants and begin to act like them.
“Toddlers & Tiaras advocates outer beauty in an already superficial world,” said Sophia Park when asked how she feels about the show. “Girls should not be exposed to pounds of makeup and spray tans at such a young age. It will affect the way they view themselves as they get older.”
“The girls in Toddlers & Tiaras should enjoy life on the playground, not on stage. Their mothers are forcing them to grow up too fast,” believes Isabella DeRosa, a junior who has seen the show before. Helene Mclaughlin, graphics teacher and soon-to-be mother, feels similar. “I don’t like when kids are forced to wear little pink dresses. If they like it that’s fine, but don’t dress them as prostitutes.”
The controversy over Toddlers & Tiaras is ongoing and seems to get worse with every episode aired. Despite critics’ claims that it is at best a bad message to young girls and at worst a soft form of child porn, there are no plans for cancellation of the show in the near future.