Jordan Reiley's blog

Alright, this being a blog, I feel I’m given a slight allocation to write this semi-informally. So be it.

I don't really know why the given video actually exists. I guess it is an art form to some degree, I guess as some may put it. I just don't see it.

The attached video shows 7 year old girls doing a rendition of popular song "single ladies" by pop star Beyoncé. First and foremost, “Single ladies” states ,

"I got gloss on my lips (lips), a man on my hips (hips), on me tighter than my Dereon jeans;
Actin' up (up), drank in my cup (cup) - I can care less what you think...
I need no permission; did I mention, "Don't pay him any attention"?
'Cause you had your turn (turn), but now you gonna learn what it really feels like to miss Bey..."

None of those things apply to 7 year old girls. And secondly, the girls in this video are dolled up to appear both sexual in nature and really provocative. At least within the culture that this video this seems to be depicted within, that isn’t right. That’s really, really, really wrong. I know that the point of this posting is to take on a cultural studies approach, a sociological perspective, but this is in association to my culture supposedly; I don’t feel it’s appropriate by really any measure, at all.

And here’s the thing. It isn’t the kids doing this. OK- so they actually are doing it, they are the ones dancing, they are the ones dressed up and depicted semi-sexually though they are seven years old, but the ones throwing them through the ugly ringer are the parents. It’s pretty gross. To think that your own mother is hyper-sexualizing you as just a child, pushing, and in my sole opinion, horrible ideals upon you, is terrible. What to think once the child ages and becomes a teenager? What if the girl ends up being literally ugly? Being that she was pushed through the beauty ringer as a kid, will her mother enforce enhancement surgeries and whatnot on her once she becomes more physically mature? How does this really pan out?

It’s just that it’s not the kids’ problem. It’s actually and absolutely the parents’, and as it more appears in online and television depictions, the mothers’ faults. Why are they doing this? Why are they signing their daughters up for beauty and sexually-driven pageants as toddlers? Few complexes play into this. Foremost, the actions of the “pageant moms” As stated by Kellner’s “Cultural studies, multiculturalism, and media culture”

“Radio, television, film, and the other products of media culture provide materials out of

which we forge our very identities; our sense of selfhood; our notion of what it means to be male

or female; our sense of class, of ethnicity and race, of nationality, of sexuality; and of "us" and

"them." Media images help shape our view of the world and our deepest values: what we

consider good or bad, positive or negative, moral or evil. Media stories provide the symbols,

myths, and resources through which we constitute a common culture and through the

appropriation of which we insert ourselves into this culture. Media spectacles demonstrate who

has power and who is powerless, who is allowed to exercise force and violence, and who is not.

They dramatize and legitimate the power of the forces that be and show the powerless that they

must stay in their places or be oppressed.” (Douglas)

That’s Kellner’s introduction to his take on how popular media culture pushes ideals onto a susceptible audience. However funny enough, it actually isn’t the kids who are being molded into this hilarious clone of popular culture… it’s the adult parents. And thus, these parents are taking the popular ideals of sexuality, altered femininity, among others and emulating them almost absolutely upon their children… and with really hilarious effect. Though I cannot vouch whether these parents want to actually depict their children in such a sexual manner, their efforts do just that. Their dedication and susceptibility to popular culture have transformed them mindlessly, their inability to become a younger self and imitate popular icons such as Beyoncé, Britney Spears, etc. have basically made them take their daughters and mold them to fit their respective “dreams”, or so to say.

On Kellner’s multi-approaches- Again stated,

"I got gloss on my lips (lips), a man on my hips (hips), on me tighter than my Dereon jeans;
Actin' up (up), drank in my cup (cup) - I can care less what you think...
I need no permission; did I mention, "Don't pay him any attention"?
'Cause you had your turn (turn), but now you gonna learn what it really feels like to miss Bey..."

This single by Beyoncé was along with her Feminism effort of the late 2000s. She also embodies this factor. Beyoncé claims and put forth the notion that women have most control in the direction of a given relationship, notioned,"Cause if you like it, then you shoulda put a ring on it;"; In complete relation to child beauty pageants, and “pageant-moms” depicted as miserable, bitter, and single mothers, the two tie almost perfectly together, really. These are self-hating mothers, they hate themselves, and they want their children to be everything they aren’t. They are using their children as production values basically, to put out the message that they cannot themselves. The textual analysis lies within Beyoncé’s video, attached above. It is absolute sexuality; empowered eroticism, really. The tactful use of exploitation, but not to complete avail (Shayne 18), promotes womanly power, that which is at most a wish for the noted “pageant-moms”.

And audience reception is Beyoncé’s great appeal to most, and this includes mature 40-somethings who sign their kids up for pageants.

That’s it, though. In the end, there isn’t much to it. Just mothers dressing up their daughters. But there is definitely more to it; all beneath the surface though.

Works Cited

Kellner, Douglas. "Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture." Http://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/essays/culturalstudiesmulticulturalism.pdf. Web.

Lee, Shayne. Erotic Revolutionaries: Black Women, Sexuality, and Popular Culture. Lanham, MD: Hamilton, 2010. Print.