Toddlers and... Sexuality?

            After mentioning Toddlers and Tiaras in class, I knew I had to blog about this show. I watch TLC from time to time, and I have always seen advertisements for the show. I’ve never watched an episode because I’m a bit too creeped out by the whole idea. The previews usually show little girls acting like spoiled princesses, and act as if they were teenagers. The idea of having a young girl dressed up in piles of makeup and wigs is quite unsettling. 

            I remember seeing this preview before, and as I watched it again, I was reminded how shocked I was when I first saw this. The young girl, Karmen, is forced by her mother to do a spray tan at home. Her mom also had bought her “flippers”, which are fake teeth to have her teeth appear larger (as hers are still baby teeth – which they should be!).

            When they show clips of Karmen getting ready backstage, she narrates how the steps her mom takes when she does her makeup – eyelashes, eyebrows, eyeshadow – something a girl her age shouldn’t know so much about. She states, “My mom does my makeup because she wants me to look pretty”. That shows how Karmen has been raised to believe that appearances are very important; something that shouldn’t be set in one’s mind, especially at her age. It seems that not only has the media targeted young girls to think this way, but has reached out to mothers who believe their daughters should behave this way and thus encourage this behaviour.

            It is important to embrace children as youth, and not try and grow them up so quickly. As discussed in class, young girls are being targeted by the media with products that seem as though they should be sold to older, ‘hot’ women. It is with shows like Toddlers and Tiaras that show how corrupt our media has become, and the effects it has on younger generations.