You don?t really need me to tell you that the toddler beauty pageant world is messed up. But when I read this press release about new observational research of the show, I was still pretty disturbed.
Martina M. Cartwright, a dietitian and adjunct professor at the University of Arizona, attended two live tapings of the television reality show, ?Toddlers and Tiaras.? She also hung out at many toddler beauty pageants. Her observations are being published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. They are not pleasant.
At competitive pageants, Cartwright frequently noted parents who spent more money than they stood to win if their children finished first. And of course there was the obvious nastiness, the sexualization of baby girls.
In one competition, Cartwright saw a toddler wearing a Playboy bunny costume. She was carried to the stage by her father, who was dressed as Hugh Hefner.
?Everything was based on what these kids look like and the way that these children were displayed or dressed,? Cartwright says. ?They were fully made up; they looked like adult women, pint-size. They were judged on personality, but none spoke a word.?
But there?s another wrinkle I didn?t know about. To keep very young children going hour after hour, parents are jeopardizing their kids? physical health. After a little girl?s face has been painted and her hair elaborately styled, there is the danger of things getting mussed by a nap or rest. So parents deny their children opportunities to rest or sleep. To keep them awake, they give their children stimulants.
Cartwright says she saw several parents giving their toddlers high-caffeine ?energy drinks? and Pixy Stix candy, also known as ?pageant crack.? One mother is quoted as saying, ?We?ve gone through two bags of crack and two cans of energy drink so she can stay up for crowning.?
The practice seemed very common. ?The smell in the hallways was so sweet,? says Cartwright, ?it was like being in a carnival.?
Cartwright doesn?t advocate an outright ban on toddler pageants. But I don?t know. Based on my understanding of developmental psychology, I can?t see how a toddler can properly consent to such a life. A young child has no way to reckon the costs and benefits of participating. If she?s been raised in a pageant environment, she can?t even know what an alternative, normal life, is like.
Even if a little girl isn?t being abused, even if she isn?t being denied rest, sleep, playtime and educational opportunities, even if she isn?t being dosed with dangerous levels of caffeine and sugar, how do we know if she will look back on her participation favorably?
Perhaps when she is older she will decide toddler beauty pageants distort children?s values and contribute to an atmosphere that encourages child exploitation and pedophilia. Maybe she?ll blame pageants for distorting her self-image, for making her feel her worth depends on the way she looks. She?ll wish she hadn?t done it. But she won?t regret her choice, because the choice was made for her.
A toddler doesn?t make informed choices about participating in beauty pageants or appearing on reality television shows.
Is it morally acceptable to turn a blind eye to toddler beauty pageants ? to shrug and say it?s none of our business? I don?t think so. Cartwright describes some pretty disturbing things, and despite years of bad press, the people involved in this bizarre world of toddler exploitation have failed to address the problems. Even Hollywood, which is unregulated by child labor laws, puts official limits on the hours that toddlers can work.
I have hoped that the public outcry against the industry would prompt pageant organizers to regulate themselves. But instead I just see more exploitation, and the specter of defenseless little girls being made the butt of ?boob? jokes by adult comedians.
If it happened on the streets or schoolyard it would be bullying. But when it happens in the popular media it?s just?news.
Can we do better? Can we do something about this problem? Perhaps you, the reader, would like to tell me.
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More reading
If you?re wondering what research tells us about the effects of sexualizing little girls, check out my article for Parenting Science.
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