Toddlers & Tiaras ->
Teens & Therapy?
July 29, 2009
by Judy Silver
|Hat tip to Mark
Photo by Rebecca Drobis
TLC network has launched its second season of Toddlers & Tiaras, a show that follows little girls as they don spray tans, hair pieces and false eyelashes in their parents’ quests to win beauty pageants. The tots also learn to strut, and according to the promo video on the TLC site, shake their booties. 
I found particularly heartbreaking the video of two-year-old Roni, who’s mother taught her to crook her finger and say:
Hey judges, come here, baby.
In their coverage of the new season, ABC points out that
A 2007 study by the American Psychological Association linked a premature emphasis on appearance with “three of the most common health problems of girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression.”
But is the problem even worse than that? The Facebook group “Help Ban the TLC show ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’” asserts that the show is “promoting pedophilia.” My first reaction was skepticism, not only because I know nothing about the root causes of pedophelia, but also because the target audience for this show show couldn’t possibly be grown men — or could it? 
The advertisement that I saw run before and beside Roni’s video on TLC’s website was for Mobil 1 motor oil. Hmmm….. On the other hand, I also saw ads for Bank of America Home Loans, Pur Water filters, and Suzuki.
And then there’s this shot from the promo video of the less-widely available WeTV show Little Miss Perfect.
You can contact the viewer relations department of TLC parent Discovery communications here. If you’re interested in watching Toddlers & Tiaras to note actual on-air advertisers, it comes on tonight at 10:00 pm. Please come back here and post what you learn.
Meanwhile, here’s Chelsea Handler’s take on the subject:
The sexualization of our daughters is starting younger and younger. Very sad state of affairs. Thanks for writing Judy.
Again, Consumer rights are what is needed. Instead of writing letters we need the option to call up and say remove TLC from my channel line up and my bill today. Here is a link to a cable choice web site. http://www.howcableshouldbe.com/ Of course it is run by actual conservatives but I have to wonder if it would be beneficial to work with people who don’t conform to feminist ideals to get some actual consumer rights for women?
By the way if you check out the cable choice web site take a look at how much you pay for the most malecentric basic cable channels like sports and then check out how much you pay for anything that is supposedly a “women’s channel”. Clearly women are getting screwed by this system and are subsidizing content they never watch and probably find offensive.
According to one of my psychology teachers, a person’s sexual orientation develops from what the person has learned to associate with sex, so I also believe these pagents promote pedophilia.
- that video seems to be a CPS issue in my opinion
I heard that most pedophilia is actually facilitated by parents and family members who have access to children and then share them with other pedo’s. This is very similar.
MediaCurves.com just conducted a study with 300 viewers of a video featuring the recent controversy surrounding child beauty pageants. The results showed that the majority of viewers reported that “disturbed” and “sad” were the emotions the felt most while watching the video. The study found that 84% of viewers reported that they felt the long-term effect on contestants was negative. For more in-depth results, please visit http://www.mediacurves.com/Cul...../Index.cfm.
Thanks,
Ben
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