For Some Girls, Life IS a Fairytale: Toddlers and Tiaras

This week's cover of People magazine featured an article on the TLC series Toddlers and Tiaras.  We discussed this television show in class on the first day, but I think it is important to continue discussing this controversial show.  The article states that after three years of the show "viewers and pageant skeptics have been expressing horror at an industry that is now accused of "sexualizing" young girls."  My question to this is: why now?  What has changed in the show in the past three years that now all of a sudden the girls are being sexualized?  Throughout the series the girls have been sexualized while they play "dress-up" and have been infantalized whenever they actually do "act" their age (i.e. crying, temper tantrums, etc.). We discussed this as an example of the absence of "girlhood" on the show.  It appears that Toddlers and Tiaras only promotes the binary of being an infant or being a grown adult, and there is no place for "girlhood". 

Interesting enough, one dissenter of the show was quoted saying...

"Little girls are supposed to play with dolls, not be dolls," New York-based licensed clinical social worker Mark Sichel tells PEOPLE in its new issue, on newsstands now. 

Although he argues against the sexualization of the young girls, he seems to fully support the other gender stereotypes that exist in our society.  Little girls should be able to play with whichever toys please little girls the most.


Mr. Sichel does point out another problematic activity in the show-- the use of 'padding, fake hair, flippers (faux teeth) and spray tans to (re)create celebrity look-alikes'.  Not only does this promote young girls to use and consume these products; it also promotes the adulation of celebrities at a young age.  This contributes to the consumer culture marketers have built around young girls, including the marketing term "tweens" (which I am sure to discuss later in the semester).  It also sets a false and unachievable beauty standard for girls to hold themselves to, which can further contribute to the psychological and physical health risks (anorexia, low self-esteem, poor body-image) that we find in young girls today.