Toddlers and Tiaras

[Coconut Flan]

Talking to people who have actually been to some of the pageants and some things are scripted or staged especially the being late type stuff. At least in some cases some things are set up and filmed after the pageant is over. TLC is kind of low on the reality and truth scale.

[blatantlyeggplant]

I found this article while googling one of the pageant directors - hollywoodlife.com/2012/02/08/toddlers-tiaras-fake/ - she says she was actually asked to stage some pageants specifically for the show. I think that was probably the case for the pageant in the last episode of Honey Boo Boo, too. They miss the "big pageant" they've been building up to the whole time and then there's miraculously a pageant being held in Georgia the next weekend.

[lilith]

I couldn't helpmgoing on a Toddlers and Tiaras marathon on YouTube when my interest in it first flared earlier this year. It really is train wreck television, but there is something compelling about it. I can't imaginenwhat possesses parents to do it at all, let alone get somobsessed with it.

I saw an episode with a surgically enhanced mother who had married a much older (wealthy) She spent an absolute fortune preparing her twin babies for pageants. Real babies, like 9 months old. And one of them actually won the ultimate grand supreme, buch to the (IMHO justified) outrage of the other mums, whose kids did full on routines. This baby was just dressed up and dangled from her mother's arms. That one was rigged, without a doubt. I've seen babies win prizes in other episodes, but not the major one, it was just ludicrous. And that this woman had had such a step up in her opportunities in life, and the best dream she could think of for her baby girls was for them to be in pageants was so sad.

[blatantlyeggplant]

Ohhh yeah was one of them called Alycesaundra? That woman's crazy even by Toddlers and Tiaras standards. She applies to be on any reality show going, I think she's been on at least three.

[lilith]

I didn't know that, but it figures. I felt bad for all the other mums, many of whom don't seem to have much money and whose daughters put in real effort and are invested in the competition.

Apologies for appalling typing in previous post (and probably most of my posts today). I'm on tapatalk on my iPhone, and I'm terrible at typing on my iPhone cause I'm so used to my iPad, and tapatalk doesn't seem to have a preview and edit function. I keep hitting m and n instead of space and creating gobbledygook.

[wendy-sparkles]

Unfortunately then first episode of T&T I ever saw was one of those with heartwarming contestants - a little boy (Brock I think?) who just loved to dance and perform, and his mum who was like, this isn't what we expected, but we support him, and if other people can't deal with that they're not real friends. There have been some other contestants - girls with alopecia, dwarfism etc., for whom the performing does seem to help their self esteem. That's how they suck you in!

I love how blatant the performance aspect of it is - I actually think the glitz pageants, where winning is about how fabulous your makeup, dress and hair are, are much less gross than the natural ones, where it's straight up how 'facially gifted' a kid is. My top episode in terms of demonstrating femme performance is from the most recent season where they had drag queens as judges. I like the part of it where it's about competing feminine performance - that's where I see the comparison to sports coming in to play. Like, I think there is a feminist reading that could be had of the show.

The trainwreck terrible parents are the best though, although I think most of them would be terrible parents with or without pageants though - with the exception of the two poor kids whose mum had them to enter them in pageants. At least their dad seemed to like them though.

[snarkbillie]

i've been having a bit of a Toddlers and Tiaras binge on youtube the last few nights. I thought nothing these parents could do would shock me anymore, and then I watched an episode where a mother admitted she had only had her children so she could enter them in pageants. :shock: So now I'm just going to assume they're all paid actors reading a script, so that my head doesn't explode.

One of my husband's relatives signed her first child up for a pageant while she was in the womb. She had her first "on stage" appearance in a pageant at 36 hours old. She won a dinky crown (some kind of princess that all the kids got) and then mama was hooked. Poor girl goes to a different pageant every weekend. False eyelashes, fake tans, hair pieces, fake nails, etc. before she was 3 years old. She's in first grade now and the poor child has fake teeth! I think it's terrible. The second one was born, same shit so far. They seem to only be valued for what the look like.

She's tried to get me to put my kids in pageants and I refuse. It's sick.*

*at least the way she's doing it. I hear there are more low key "have an actual talent, wear a normal dress" pageants.

[doggie]

it reminds me of mega churches. the People behind the pageants fleece the gullible ego driven parents and all the kids get is a cheap trophy. only the people behind it get much of anything real out of it.

[Aisling]

These things set my teeth on edge. Isn't there some woman with twins, I don't know if it's on T&T or something else...but she had a tour bus etc for the girls, with giant photos of them emblazoned on the side. Ick.

[persuas1ve]

Yes, the twin--mom w/ the wealthy older husband has been on at least twice and each time gleefully revels in their excess. She irritates me because, like so many of the moms, their expectations for babies and toddlers is impossibly high. I've been watching this train wreck, err, show since the beginning and its definitely a guilty pleasure.

[wendy-sparkles]

Yes, the twin--mom w/ the wealthy older husband has been on at least twice and each time gleefully revels in their excess. She irritates me because, like so many of the moms, their expectations for babies and toddlers is impossibly high. I've been watching this train wreck, err, show since the beginning and its definitely a guilty pleasure.

In the more recent episode she was on, it kind of seemed like her older kids really adored her though. She must've done something right, although she's another one of those parents who seems buy into the winning child/losing child dichotomy. Plus, I like the rich ones, because the blatant waste of money makes me laugh rather than cringe.

[ILoveJellybeans]

One of my husband's relatives signed her first child up for a pageant while she was in the womb. She had her first "on stage" appearance in a pageant at 36 hours old. She won a dinky crown (some kind of princess that all the kids got) and then mama was hooked. Poor girl goes to a different pageant every weekend. False eyelashes, fake tans, hair pieces, fake nails, etc. before she was 3 years old. She's in first grade now and the poor child has fake teeth! I think it's terrible. The second one was born, same shit so far. They seem to only be valued for what the look like.

She's tried to get me to put my kids in pageants and I refuse. It's sick.*

*at least the way she's doing it. I hear there are more low key "have an actual talent, wear a normal dress" pageants.

That is awful, putting a day old baby in a beauty pageant?

That poor kid has no childhood, theres no need to put false eyelashes, hair, nails and fake tan on a two year old, two year olds are cute natural.

Beauty pageant kids creep me out, theres something about seeing a child dress as an adult that is just wrong, and I once had a creepy nightmare about people stealing kids and turning them into creepy dolls and forcing them to perform on stage.

[Aisling]

I sat and watched it for ages last night.

It's extra creepy. I find it creepier, in fact, than just the plain old "oh there's a seven year old in a miniskirt, being sexualised". Because some of the costumes are so....adulty adult, crossed with frilly Victorian doll,with the giant hair. The overall effect is really strange.

Also my daughter is around the age of some of the girls, and I just can't imagine the stress she would be put under if that was her life.

[Kitty]

Yeah, I have no idea what the judges and parents are looking for with those ridiculous dresses and Jchelle-esque hair. Or those weird dance routines. It's a mind screw.

It's one thing to put some light makeup on a kid for a dance recital, or to put them in stage makeup and a costume for a school play... It's another entirely to load them up on caffeine, make them wear fake teeth, get fake tans and wear costumes that look like mini adult sexy Halloween costumes.

Actually, typing this last paragraph made me wonder: those girls are probably on their way to eating disorders anyway, but what if the adults around them are trying to keep them skinny by using caffeine and other stimulants? That's a very scary thought. You wouldn't need a lot of expensive ADHD drugs or other things that would make an adult jittery, just give them candy and Mountain Dew. Those girls are always so hyped up and crazy on the "gogo juice" that I really don't see the point of giving them such a strong stimulant before something that's so important.

[galaxygirl]

She won a dinky crown (some kind of princess that all the kids got) and then mama was hooked. Poor girl goes to a different pageant every weekend.

That's how they hook you. Give the first-timers a crown and hope that sucks them in enough to continue to spend way too much money on pageants and all the crap needed for it. T&T is my guilty tv pleasure, in a trainwreck kinda way. I usually feel bad for the kids that are practically being forced in by their crazy parents(usually moms, but have seen crazy dads as well). If the kid genuinely enjoys it, I have a lot less problems with it.

[Coconut Flan]

It's back for another season and the first episode features our favorite scam artist Annette Hill.

[ILoveJellybeans]

This is just disgusting. Im watching one about an 18 month old, who is screaming as she doesnt like having make up put on and doesnt like her fake hair. It seems to be all about toddlers this time, none of the kids look older than three, yet so far I have seen someone give a baby a sip of mountain dew, and someone feeding a two year old a baby bottle of something they called "super juice" or something like that. I wouldnt be suprised if these kids turn to drugs at age 13 as theyve been taught that to stay awake for pageants they need things that keep them awake.

[Coconut Flan]

Many of us have wondered why TLC is still showing the Duggars after the scandals and ridiculously boring episodes of the last season.  I think we have the answer in the return of Toddlers & Tiaras.  All creativity has left the offices of TLC. 

Toddlers & Tiaras is returning after about a three year hiatus on August 24. 

[tcach]

I can only watch my guilty pleasures when I am at my parent's house. T and T was one of the first. Last weekend there was a oneoff show called Baby Body Builders.  The similarities between it and Toddlers and Tiaras was remarkable.

[MarblesMom]

This show is so disturbing to me.... I saw the commercials last night and was aghast they are bringing it back... ugh.

TLC must want to grate on every last nerve their viewers have - specifically, them aim for hate-watchers, me thinks.

[PennySycamore]

I was watching Investigation Discovery this afternoon and they showed a promo for a show that I thought was going to be a re-examination of the Jon-Benet Ramsey murder case.  Nope, it was a promo for the new season of Toddlers and Tiaras!

Btw, I've recc'd a few posts that were several years old.  Included in that was a post by our dear late helpmeet, Arete.  

[RosyDaisy]

TLC is having a fucking marathon of this show today...ugh!

[tcach]

18 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

I was watching Investigation Discovery this afternoon and they showed a promo for a show that I thought was going to be a re-examination of the Jon-Benet Ramsey murder case.  Nope, it was a promo for the new season of Toddlers and Tiaras!

Btw, I've recc'd a few posts that were several years old.  Included in that was a post by our dear late helpmeet, Arete.  

Actually, I think there will be a series about the Jon-Benet murder on CBS in the fall. As a matter of fact, I was never aware of child beauty pageants before that.

[PennySycamore]

1 hour ago, tcach said:

Actually, I think there will be a series about the Jon-Benet murder on CBS in the fall. As a matter of fact, I was never aware of child beauty pageants before that.

Yep, there's going to be a CBS series focused on the case this fall as well as something on Discovery ID. Jon Benet's brother Burke has either talked to Dr Phil or is going to.  The article in People is well worth reading, if you haven't already.   I think I was maybe aware of child beauty pageants before JBR's murder, but didn't know how incredibly creepy they could get.  JB should not have been tarted up so much.  That's just not right.

[iheartchacos]

Well...that was awful. They've managed to make it even more ridic.