On a recent episode of TLC’s Toddlers and Tiaras, a four-year-old girl competed in a pageant contest with not only a big ego but also showing off a big padded chest and bottom.
As the mom tries to cover up for her daughter’s fake boobs and butt by saying it adds a little bonus, she also admits people laugh at her little girl when she comes on stage looking like Dolly Parton.
The girls on this show get hair and teeth bleaching, spray tanning and waxing at the age of four and even three. They all have acrylic nails and most of them have fake teeth (flappers). Often times these toddlers fight to get away while their moms glue fake eyelashes on their eyelids or spray them with a cold bottle of spray tan. This in my opinion is as close to child abuse as anything.
All these mothers want out of their children is money. Moms are dressing their children in short poufy “glitzy” dresses and put so much make up on no one can see their faces. Most of the show’s moms are insecure themselves and use their daughters to get the satisfaction they wanted in their own dreams.
These moms really aren’t much older than us and those toddlers will soon be the next generation in college. Could you imagine walking around campus seeing girls with face-lifts, short sparkly dresses and even fake teeth?
It is only going to get worse as they grow older.
These mothers are drilling into these girls’ heads what they have to do or wear to be considered “beautiful.” The little girl with the stuffed fake boobs and butt will be known not only by the judges but also the whole world watching this show. Most of the children on this show look miserable as their mothers are drilling them to dance around in circles for what they call their dance routine, all to get a trophy. When this little girl becomes smart enough to realize that she is making herself look like a fool she will never be able to get out of the reputation of “the girl with the crazy mother who stuffed her bra on stage.” This footage will follow her forever.
I think this becomes deeper and is also very sad when it comes to how girls perceive their image. Girls everywhere, including on campus, already struggle enough with physical and emotional insecurities about their looks and bodies.
College also has a lot of pressure with how you look and people often times are very judgmental when it comes to what someone looks like. Society has turned beautiful into a whole new perspective and into something it is truly not.
Girls are often told a certain way to dress, what size we should be or what hair color we should have. By broadcasting TV shows like this, TLC is condoning and exploiting this kind of behavior. It can be a good laugh but some little girl sitting on her bed with her Barbie dolls watching this show really thinks this is what it takes to be beautiful or noticed. She may look over to her doll and say to herself, “I don’t look like this, so I must not be pretty.” That young girl then will be the one to grow up and starve herself, cry because she doesn’t feel beautiful or become shy because she’s insecure.
I’m waiting for the day society changes its views and opens its mind to individuality and gets out of the “model” stick figure girl or the ripped tan muscular guy image we all know of. People are obsessing over trying so hard to be something they are not. I think shows like this can be entertaining, but people are not realizing how those watching are affected, and better yet what those kids have to deal with on a daily basis just to please their mothers.
This just proves society is completely out of control materialistically and obsessive over looks. A mother who could do this to her daughter is not only wrong but needs help. Girls everywhere are constantly comparing themselves to other girls and at this rate in a few years middle school girls will be on waiting lists for a nose lift or Botox.