Don't they realize that by promoting the sexualization of little kids, they are promoting the victimization of little kids? Not to mention that these girls are being fast tracked to anorexia and self esteem problems.

I get that VH1 wants to make money off a freak show, but this is incredibly irresponsible and marks a new low for US reality TV.

Wasn't Britney Spears pushed into beauty pageants as a little girl?

Even if it's not a JonBenet Ramsey problem, these pageants are a bad idea.

When the page first loaded I thought those were Bratz. Seriously.

This stuff is disgusting for all the child exploitation and body image reasons, of course. I also hate how these pageants and the coverage seem like legalized versions of child modeling websites. You want to encourage deluded pedophiles in their erroneous beliefs by posing your children as "little adults"?

*Shudder*

Wow, they look older than me and I'm four times older.

Oh dear. Looks like Crazy Doll Lady is at it again.

Here is her website: http://www.naturalbeautiescontest.homestead.com/retouch.html

And here are the hilarious legal threats she sent to Something Awful, who dared to parody her masterpieces:
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/legal-threats/crazy-doll-lady.php

'You want to encourage deluded pedophiles in their erroneous beliefs by posing your children as "little adults"?'

I don't support this nonsense about beauty pagents - regardless of the contestants' ages but certainly not for children. But... Pedophiles are attracted to children who look like children, not children who've been dressed and made-up like adult women. A pedophile would prefer to see these girls in a cute little outfit, clean-faced and their hair in pigtails. I think this trend of dressing up children as adults has the disturbing consequence of sexualizing children for people who are not pedophiles. It makes me think of all the Olsen twins turning 18 countdowns and the leering at Lindsay Lohan when she was under-age. Those men may have been pigs but they weren't pedophiles.

In any case, this is disturbing. The little personalities that they ascribe to the child contestants is disturbing too. What 6 yr old is a 'flirt' or a 'diva.' Their children, for crying out loud.

I have a four, almost five year old, and this just churns my stomach. I think my little girl is beautiful - but in her pig-tails and mischevious sparkle in her eye - not because she is wearing more make-up than I am. She wants a Bratz doll and I won't buy her one because I feel they are over sexualized and look a way that I don't ever want her to. These girls are living Bratz dolls. Beauty pagents for little girls are about money only. I mean, a spray tanner? Seriously? Fake teeth maker? What are these girls learning? That even at the age of 6 they are not pretty enough or perfect enough. They need to be made to look completely different. And the titles they give them? The diva? The flirt? I fear that in 10 years they will be the anorexic and the drug addict.

Gross gross gross.

In response to SamBarge-
The "flirt" label got to me too.

I don't know what pedophiles are or aren't attracted to, but it seems to me that promoting the sexualization of little girls could dangerously skew someone's perception of little girls' willingness to participate in sexual activity.

AHH! when i first saw those pictures...I thought they were the "after" pictures ---edited by crazy doll lady (btw i enjoy that thats her name now...heh.)

this is gross. :(

Suggesting that a 6 year old is a flirt IS the stuff of pedophilia. Just who is she supposed to be flirting with?

pageantheads are freaks.

that somethingawful linkage is brilliant, thanks for posting it, DrkEyedCajn. it's hard to believe anyone could possibly be that stupid, but then again it's the internet.

*gag* I thought maybe they were new American girl dolls or something at first glance.

Blech.

It is true that many pedophiles are more drawn to "natural" children but this isn't always the case. If you know anything about the world of child modeling, there's obviously an "interest" in this kind of dolling up of small children.

The danger I see is that the language pedophiles use to defend themselves usually includes reference to the sexualization of children by the mainstream. If the mainstream sexualizes children, why shouldn't they lust after them? Secondly, if it is acceptable to sexualize children why shouldn't the children be sexual? With adults...

Yeah, I know it sounds f'ed up but this is how the movement thinks (and there is a movement). And you know what, they have a logical point. If we want to try and keep our children from being abused by adult sexualities, don't market them and market to them with adult sexuality and body standards. Lingerie for pre-pubescents, where is this going? It's only making children more vulnerable and giving sex offenders justification fodder. We even see judges blaming underage victims in rape cases.

There is a difference between hiding and vilifying sexuality to children (which also makes the vulnerable) and giving children time to be children. Why kind of hypocrisy is going on when there can be an ad for Search the Sex Offender Registry below a "Sexy French Maid" child costume?

Hang it up, Cronenberg. You can't compete with "reality."

In general I am not a fan of beauty pageants, but for children it is beyond disturbing. The way they categorize one of them as "the flirt" really sickens me. I don't care if it is supposed to be cute, it is not cute. A 6 year old cannot be a flirt and to even suggest something like that in a humorous way is detrimental to all children. PUKE!!!

"In any case, this is disturbing. The little personalities that they ascribe to the child contestants is disturbing too. What 6 yr old is a 'flirt'"-SamBarge

WORD.

So sad. I can't believe these people think that a six year old's skin isn't perfect enough, so it has to be airbrushed to look like plastic. I guess that's fine if you want a little Stepford child. Poor kids.

I've seen the crazy doll lady's website before. I just...can't believe that. What kind of parent does this?! I think this belongs in the catagory of emotional/mental abuse of a child. The parent is telling the child, you are not good enough. You are ugly. You are imperfect.
I'm 25, and if my mom photoshopped my picture like that, I would freak out (for a number of reasons). Can you imagine what it feels like for a 5 year old?

Holy crap! I thought those *were* dolls when I first glanced at them! Ick.

I would be very upset if my mom photoshopped my pictures. I mean, there were some that I thought were hideous, but they were me, not some idealized version of me. I take hundreds of pictures of my daughter all the time, because I want to remember those memories and what she looked like at that time - not what she would look like if she were a doll.

If ever there were an argument for forced sterilization of certain individuals, this phenomenon would be it.*

*I am not pro-forced-sterilization.

I agree completely that this is sick in a lot of ways, mostly because of all the negative things it teaches girls about their value and worth in society.

But I think we need to be really careful about saying that promoting sexualization of young girls promotes their victimization. It really is just one step away from blaming a rape victim for wearing a short skirt. Instead, we're blaming the mother for putting the girl in a short skirt. Pedophiles justify themselves any number of ways, but really, it's not the makeup and fake tanner that makes them hurt kids.

I think that two things are going on in the sexual objectification of little girls. One is that the ideal of female beauty is almost pre-pubescent--the very large eyes, the tiny nose, the perfectly smooth skin, the hairlessness, the thinness (well, except for breast implants, obviously). We've talked about how damaging this is for adult women, but I think one of the more overlooked effects is that associating such a look with sexual desirability is that it primes us, culturally, to associate the way children actually do look with sexual desirability.

As a group, children do have small noses, large eyes, smooth skin. They are hairless; many of them are thin. And we've been associating such traits with female sexual objecthood for some years now. That is problematic.

But another is this conscious sexualization of young girls. Calling a six-year-old a "flirt" is offensive. I don't necessarily think it promotes or causes victimization, but it does, I think, move that kind of victimization closer to the cultural norm, and that is disturbing to me.

What's interesting and horrible is that we have a culture which, on the one hand, promotes the sexual objectification of children through these beauty pageants and by associating pre-pubescent features with female desirability, and by providing sexual Halloween costumes to little girls on the one hand--but on the other we have this manic denial of childhood and adolescent sexual subjectivity! Abstinence-only education, preventing children from having access to birth control, refusing to talk about masturbation in sex-ed (I can't be the only person who remembers that!)--these are all tactics based on denying that young people have sexuality of their own.

I can't help but think that these things are linked, that by adopting a cultural ideology that, in the face of all the evidence, claims that children are "pure" without sexual desires that need be taken seriously (for the record, I am not claiming or implying that children should be having sex), that they then become sort of blank vessels for the focus of other people's desire, people who use the child's supposed sexual emptiness as a screen for their own issues.

I can't help but think that these things are linked, that by adopting a cultural ideology that, in the face of all the evidence, claims that children are "pure" without sexual desires that need be taken seriously (for the record, I am not claiming or implying that children should be having sex), that they then become sort of blank vessels for the focus of other people's desire, people who use the child's supposed sexual emptiness as a screen for their own issues.

That's really it right there. There is not just one sexuality. There is child sexuality and there is adult sexuality. The two are very different yet often equally powerful things. People deny the existence of child sexuality while projecting (in the case of pedos, inflicting) adult sexuality on children. We need to honor child sexuality (and the transition from one to the other in adolescents) and address the needs of it (proper sex education, etc) without mucking it up with adult sexuality. I believe it is important to understand the two as being two different things.

Also, victimization can happen to anyone, but it is a parent's responsibility to make the child less vulnerable. As adults we know how to decrease our risk of being victimized (don't drink anything you haven't mixed yourself, travel in well lit areas). Children don't know how to do this so adults need to do it for them. Teaching a child to mimic adult sexuality and allure when they have no idea of what they are doing is irresponsible and dangerous.

Holy crap! I thought those *were* dolls when I first glanced at them! Ick.

Me too! It makes me ill...

i saw this vh1 special a while ago and my roommates and i were literally gagging the entire time. it was such a creep show, especially when they dubbed one of the little girls as "the flirt".

but throughout the entire thing, i couldnt tell if vh1 was trying to expose the creepiness and fucked up-ness of it all or if they truly supported it. the editing kind of made me think that they were trying to show that this whole thing was going to fuck up these girls and was mostly for their mothers who wanted to live vicariously through their children.

but then again, vh1 is not really the most socially aware and feminist network in the world...

This is totally creepy... I feel nauseous.

If someone tried to put my niece through this I'd kidnap her and they'd never find her. I'm not kidding.

Sorry. For some reason, today it's my mission to post links. This is by far the piece de resistance of Crazy Doll Lady's collection.

"From Sad to Serious": child abuse documented.

http://www.naturalbeautiescontest.homestead.com/retouch1aaaaa.html

Damn, those girls are probably wearing more makeup than I ever have, even on my wedding day. I guess now I can kind of appreciate why my parents were strict about that kind of stuff.
The sad thing is that the money these parents are spending on these pageants (costumes, coaches, hairstylists etc) could be spent on more worthwhile and less creepy activities like piano lessons or little league. If I had that kind of money to throw around, my kids would probably know how to play every instrument ever invented

I've actually seen this. I can't help but be fascinated by things that scare the hell out of me.

The "mothers" on this show are awful, of course. They live vicariously through their children and just exploit them so much. Way to kill a six year old's self-esteem by telling her she isn't good enough unless she has a fake tan, fake eyelashes, and skimpy clothes. SICK.

"Oh dear. Looks like Crazy Doll Lady is at it again.

"Here is her website: http://www.naturalbeautiescontest.homestead.com/retouch.html

"And here are the hilarious legal threats she sent to Something Awful, who dared to parody her masterpieces:
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/legal-threats/crazy-doll-lady.php"

Yeah, I remember that whole thread on Something Awful.

"Also, victimization can happen to anyone, but it is a parent's responsibility to make the child less vulnerable. As adults we know how to decrease our risk of being victimized (don't drink anything you haven't mixed yourself, travel in well lit areas). Children don't know how to do this so adults need to do it for them."

Indeed. Isn't it obvious that adults shouldn't put kids in frilly lingerie, wedding dresses, school uniforms that are way closer to that "naughty schoolgirl" fetish costumes than real nurses' work scrubs are to those "naughty nurse" fetish costumes, etc.?

wow!I was browsing the archives and this caught me. I never got it, why you guys in the US ( I´m from Argentina) have this kind of pageants? I´ve seen them on tv, but being there kinda makes them unreal, I didn´t quite believe there could be mothers who present their girls to one of this F...things!
I mean, I thought they were dolls first! there´s nothing as sweet as a girl in ponytails and a fresh, natural face. No wrinkles, no make up, I don´t know. I mean, you tend to take children´s rights so much into account( at least that´s what t looks like from here), why do you allow this? Please, do something! I don´t know whether pedophiles like them like this or not, but there´s no way one can accept this as natural! I mean, what´s the fun in making girl look like a twenty year-old woman? what will they become if at six they´re already being exposed to look what they´re not?
It really, really, really makes me sick! WTF are their parents thinking?? or is it just a way of making their own frustrated dream of being famous true? I mean, this is when I agree with those who thnk some people SHOULDN¨T have kids!!

I am SO CREEPED out by the tag "The Flirt" are you fucking kidding me??? These parents suck at life.