I'm watching the "Little Beauties- Kiddie Queen" on CMT. It seems so sad..?

Question

This show is about 6-year old girls competing in beauty pageants. These girls are adorable w/o all the "fixing up" their moms are doing to them. But, I'm watching and the moms are doing everything from spray-tanning them to giving them "false teeth" to cover up the gaps in their teeth from loosing teeth. After the winners are announced, one little girl asks her mom "Am I number one?" That just broke my heart. I just thought "Can you not show your child how special she is w/o giving her a crown??"

I don't agree with beauty pageants. I really don't understand why parents want to do this to their children. I have a 2 year old that, from the day she was born, people have just made a fuss over her and said she looks like a porcelain doll. I know she's a beautiful girl- and I want her to know she's pretty. But I don't want that to be the focus.

Is it parents (moms, especially) trying to make up for something they think they lack? What is it that makes parents do this??

I feel horrible for saying this, but most of the moms are overweight and not very attractive. I hate to think that they are putting their little girls through this to make up for what they can't do. If that's the case, that is so sad.

Answer 1

i am not a fan of child pageants either. maybe the kids like it but, i think there are better ways to promote confidence in young girls. i don't think i'd have as big a problem with it if the pageants were different. i don't understand why they have to make them look like short adults. why can't the pageant promoters just see them as little girl's? that's what they are. they look like little barbie doll's. to me, that's disgusting. all that says to the girl's is that they aren't good enough or beautiful enough on there own. they need ton's of crap and expensive clothes to be special. i wish they didn't exist at all.

Answer 2

I think so too. I think in all of us we live through or children. Not because we were teased, etc. Just because we want soo much more for our children. On the other hand, these beauty pageants are just down right wrong. Beauty should be just appearance not makeup and capped teeth. I have seen these pageants before too and I about went throught the tv. I mean what kind of mindset will they grow up with. They will either think that they are not good enough just the way they are or beauty is everything. I hope it gets abolished or better guidelines.

Answer 3

I just watched that with my 9 year old twin girls. They thought the girls were very pretty and I know it made them feel less than perfect because they aren't doing that. They are 9. Crazy. But at least we could talk about it and how to have a realistic body image. And at 9 I can't stand it when one tells the other she is ugly...too much for me.
So, no I don't understand it. I have three daughters and wouldn't want to do that to them. They are great and they know it from within. But now we have to work on their self esteem so they don't feel because I don't dress them up and play real life "Barbie" with them that they are still okay.
I think those moms are making up for something they lack in themselves. Too bad they need to put their daughters through that. Before tonight my daughters didn't even know such things existed...so how do their daughters ask to do that?

Answer 4

Hi there, I totally agree with you. I've seen that (or something similar) before on television...and I also agree with the other poster about Jon-Benet. The only thing that I can maybe justify about the pagents is if they use any of the money for a savings account to send them off to college, and not for other beauty pagent stuff (which unforunately a lot of them don't do). Now if were an older child, and they wanted to do it because THEY wanted to do it, I would probably let my child do it as long as it didn't distract them from normal childhood. Great question.

Answer 5

I think you are right about most of the moms on there being overweight and unattractive. My oldest sister and a couple of my friends were in beauty pagents when they were little in Chicago, Illinois and my oldest sister wanted to stop doing it because she said it made her sad. I think it isn't what the child necassarily wants to do it is the parents trying to make their child look like they're the best even though they are without all that makeup and expenisve clothing on. My sister had a dress that costed $700 I think it is just a waste of money myself.

Answer 6

This dates back to the '60s, it replaced into much less stressful to layout clothing for females in the event that they did not have inconvenient bust or hip curves to result the strains so fashions have been picked who did not have those characteristics. As magazines confirmed those clothing on those fashions total generations of females observed them because of the fact the ideal of what a woman could be and sought to emulate them, which in turn shown to the assorted media that this replaced into what the standard public wanted perpetuating an unrealistic and pointless cycle. As to allure, i like a woman who sounds like a woman in comparison to an imitation guy, i think of many extra adult adult males do than do not, yet it is not what sells tickets or merchandising money so as that isn't what we are possibly to work out any time quickly.

Answer 7

I have noticed this as well. Look what society has come to! Capitolizing on our youth, turning them into miniature adults for fun and adoration! No wonder there are pedophiles in the world. On the flip-side, it is a free country (I'm assuming you're American).

Answer 8

I think it is the mothers trying to make up for something they couldn't do. Its so sad becuz those girls are going to be scarred for life and may never know what life and true beauty is all about.....

So sad. Those mothers should be punished severely!!!!