Toddlers and Tiaras is a reality show on the TLC network.
The premise of Toddlers and Tiaras is
to document the preparation and journeys of the girls who will be competing in
whichever competition the episode focuses on. The episode I chose to analyze
was “Glitzy Divas”, in which the Glitzy Divas pageant was featured. There are a
few requirements for this type of pageant as stated by pageant director Bonnie
Crow, which include not being poor or chubby and that the girls must be pretty.
This pageant features dresses that can cost up to $5,000, full-face makeup,
hair extensions and encompass and age range from as young as a couple months to as old as twenty-one.
In this episode we follow Adrianna,
Madi and Ever Rose who are ages four, ten and eight respectively. Adrianna has
the least experience out of the three girls and is a bit of a tom-boy outside
of the pageant. Madi is a well known and successful competitor in the pageant
world and expects to win just as she has won the majority of the pageants she
has competed in. Through this episode we also see how each girl prepares for
the competition. Madi simply practices her routines but Adrianna and Ever Rose
have to lose weight for the competition in addition to practice. Adrianna lost
a total of four pounds and Ever Rose lost ten pounds overall. After all the preparation
we see how the girls do in the competition, as well as their mothers’ opinions
and anxieties about the performances. Once the Glitzy Divas pageant is over we
learn the results. Madi came out on top winning the Ultimate Grand Supreme
crown as well as a monetary prize, Ever Rose won the crown for most beautiful
face and Adrianna was unable to win anything. The episode ends with the girls
talking about the pageant.
Within the “Glitzy Divas” episode of
Toddlers and Tiaras we can see elements
of internalized gaze at play here. The internalized gaze is one where the
individual reflects upon themselves and in a sense determines what needs to be
changed based on societal constructs. The pageants that the girls participate
in are essentially telling them that they must look and act a certain way to
win the pageant but because these pageants are also deemed to be very feminine
it is not uncommon for the girls to take some of these pageant ideals with them
into the real world. Despite how young these girls are they have concerns with
looking fat because the competition tells them they need to be thin and they
are also learning that makeup is important to femininity because the
competition tells them that to be beautiful and ideally feminine makeup is
necessary.
Toddlers and Tiaras also demonstrates the importance of
size and the ideal image very. In this
episode size is particularly important in the cases of Adrianna and Ever Rose. The
Glitzy Divas pageant values the “Barbie” look and it is well known by many that
Barbie is tall, slender and blond. The director of the pageant Bonnie Crow even
states, “You don’t want to see a chubby child on stage, and you have to have
the Barbie look”. To adhere to these standards four year old Adrianna must
watch her weight, and her mother says at one point “Have you been eating salads
so we can fit into our dress?” Similarly Ever Rose must lose weight and she and
her mother count calories so that she does not gain weight that will hurt her
in the competition. Ever Rose states that she knows she has to watch her weight
but that sometimes she gets hungry.
Pageants like Glitzy Divas are essentially teaching girls at a young age
that in order to be ideally feminine you must also be thin.
This notion of thinness in children so young also ties into
the “impossible perfection” that Judith Mayne mentions in her article Women, Representation and Culture. Mayne
speaks about females narrow representation in early media in which women tended
to be divided into two opposing categories, one representing impossible
perfection, the other equally impossible evil (Mayne, 162). Mayne is referring to
the madonna and the whore, and in Toddlers
and Tiaras, we see elements of only the Madonna because with these types of
pageants girls are only given the option of perfect beauty and if the girl cannot
live up to that expectation she cannot compete. Such representation of
femininity can be problematic at such a young age for these girls because it
may cause them to reject their natural beauty in favor of a more unnatural one.
Even though Toddlers
and Tiaras may create a false reality for girls watching the show, it is
still a reality show in and of itself. The adults that watch the show may
understand that the ideal images of femininity presented are not realistic
especially looking like a Barbie, but the young female viewers may see things
differently. Seeing images of their peers getting glammed up to display their beauty
can cause impressionable viewers to think that they must do the same. The idea
that beauty is accomplished with makeup and expensive clothing may stick with
young viewers and leave a lasting impression on them.
I definitely agree with what you have observed through watching this show. As you have made clear in your analysis, shows like this just further emphasise how girls are being feminized at such a young age and being sucked into the ideal image the media portrays. The fact that such young girls are being told that they must be skinny to compete in a pagaent is ridiculous. I think another valuable point to bring up though is that their mothers often encourage them to participate in these events and spend extreme amounts of money to have their daughters essentially look like dolls. These ideas of beauty being passed onto to such young girls is very problematic and shows like these only make it worse considering their viewers are often young girls whom are easily persuaded.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with your observations in regards to Toddlers and Tiaras. The amount of time and effort put into making these poor toddlers turn into life size Barbie dolls is just absolutely ridiculous. I especially felt outraged when I saw Ever Rose and Adrianna had to lose weight in order to stay in the competition, especially because the judge expects little girls to be thin and not chubby. I can only imagine what these girls' self esteems will be like in the long run. I find it kind of funny how in a society where we really emphasize kids just being kids, there's still a minute amount who are encouraged ( if not coerced) into become adult like beauties and a child's body. I feel that if more parents encourage their little girls to be thin, glamorous and beautiful, this will cause pressure for other kids to become like that as well and this will create problems with their overall body image.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what you have said in your analysis. It is very problematic that young girls are partaking in these pageants because it forces them to be someone they are not. The competitions focus on how pretty and perfect these girls are and not about who they are inside. I have seen the show and it is so ridiculous."The director of the pageant Bonnie Crow even states, “You don’t want to see a chubby child on stage, and you have to have the Barbie look”." When I read this I was deeply hurt because they are children who have not even grown into their bodies yet. All this does to children is set them up for eating disorders and impossible perfection goals when they are old. I have seen parents push their children to lose weight and not just tell them to lose weight but call them names and cut very small portions of food.
ReplyDeleteI agree. This show is ridiculous. It socializes toddlers into mass media based ideals of what is deemed feminine, what is pretty and what is not. It teaches them that if they don't look like Barbie, they're ugly and kills their self-esteem. It sets up little girls to have eating disorders, body-image issues and all in all a narrow-minded perspective of what beauty is. Their mothers should be ashamed of themselves for putting their toddlers on a diet. A three year old has a malleable mind and is easily influenced. They learn by observing and imitating those closest to them, their parents. So if their mother is telling them to diet, they are creating fixed patterns that will follow them through the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteI am completely against “Toddlers and Tiaras.” I think this gives young girls the wrong perception of body image and it’s going to cause them to have low self-esteem as they get older. Madi, the girl who didn’t have to lose any weight was the one who one. Girls are defined by the way they look and it’s starting as young as eight years old. These beauty pageants are over feminizing the girls. The one girl is a tom boy and by dressing her up into something she is not, it is changing her identity. I don’t think girls should have to experience this much pressure and anxiety concerning their bodies especially at such a young age.
ReplyDeleteAs I do a lot of research on the sexualization of young girls by the media I have loathed Toddlers and Tiaras for quite some time for their age compression factor. This show perpetuates the idea that children need to be older than they really are at ever younger ages. I agree with your discussion the internalized gaze of the young pageant contestants; the idea of an eight and ten-year-old being told they have to lose weight makes me sick to my stomach. This is the age of identity development and self-exploration, and if they are being told that they are too fat the likelihood that they will develop low self-esteem and/or an eating disorder is high. The idealization of the Barbie doll is also extremely unhealthy because if she were blown up to life size given her body proportions she would have the BMI of an anorexic, as seen here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/galia-slayen/the-scary-reality-of-a-re_b_845239.html . Shows such as Toddlers and Tiaras give us a very scary depiction of what it’s like to be a young girl now. The more the media dictates how women and girls should look and act, the more terrifying this descent into achieving the standard of beauty and the cost, both financially and bodily, of doing so becomes.
ReplyDeleteI agree that toddlers are too young for tiaras. I actually watched this show one time and felt like TLC was taking a step too far. Putting lipstick and make up on young toddlers is sickening. When a child is this young there are first learning how to mix and match clothing the correct way. The problem is that they are focusing on a young childs looks too much, therefore lowering their self esteem in the future. Young toddlers like this should be praised for what they look like on the outside rather than making a childs presentation into some kind of weird contest. If it was up too me I would have them compete in a contest for naturally beauty and smile, rather then making a young child into something they are not or cannot understand. A childs innocence should be protected for as long as possible. Its the parents responsibilty and is at fault for making a young girl look like a princess instead of praising her for her true natural beautys.
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