14 DAY TRIAL // TLC's reality series on the world of kiddie pageants, “Toddlers & Tiaras,” has never really stopped coming under fire from all sides for some of the things it portrays. This time, though, a line has been crossed.
Much of the criticism directed at the show revolves around the impression that the mothers are pushing their young girls into beauty pageants, thus robbing them of their childhood.
At the same time, they're teaching them that only outside beauty is important and, as such, they (the little girls) should enjoy it while it lasts.
This last claim was always denied by mothers, who insisted they also urged their kids to get a proper education and to have a meaningful life, independent of their performance in the beauty pageant circuit.
Their arguments were proven false on the latest episode of the show, as The Huffington Post can confirm (a video is also available at the link).
Daisy Mae, a little girl from Camden, Indiana, for instance, believes that “Facial beauty is the most important thing in life.”
As she sits in the makeup chair, about to get a makeover to go up on stage, Daisy also has a word of advice for other parents: don't enlist your child for one if you think she's “ugly.”
“If you think your kid is ugly or something, you might not want to do pageants because you're not going to win or anything,” Daisy muses.
On the same show, another diminute beauty queen also confirmed what audiences knew all along: in most cases, it's not the kid's choice to be in the pageant because the mom calls all the shots, sometimes even against her daughter's will.
“My mom is just so jealous to me!" 5-year-old Bridget says, almost throwing a tantrum. “She just wants to be on stage,” she adds.
That being on the circuit and on the show is depriving these girls of a normal life became a hot topic again not long ago, when Eden Wood, a former contestant (she retired at 6), revealed in an interview she had two “best” girlfriends but could only remember the name of one of them.