Strollerderby

It's hard to believe that parents do this to their little girls. I just don't get it.

I think you forgot to finish your 3rd paragraph.

I totally agree that these pagents are weird, but these kids are not as scarred as you think.  I went to high school with a girl that did pageants from the age of three and was still doing them in high school and she was doing fine.  She was an honor roll student who also was part of the drill team and many school clubs.  You should actually watch Painted Faces a British documentary about pageant kids and they also went and reinterviewed all the girls ten years later and you know what they had their shit together.

The tanning and stuff is horrible to do to kids, but I hardly think these kids are ending up in therapy forever specifically because they were pageant kids.  And the assessment that this somehow encourages is pedophilia is just ridicuous.  They know what pedophiles are right?

One of my sisters put herself through law school doing pageants. Most of those kids love doing it.  It is not all bad and you cant make a child participate.  There are benefits for them. They learn public speaking skills, a talent such as dnce or a musical instrument, they learn to compete and lose gracefully.  Later they often represent a platform which they do a lot of work towards.  My sisters' platform was Domestic Violence.  She spoke publically at many forums about the issue, volunteered many hours to shelters and fundraisers and eventually became a lawyer defending the rights of women a children against their batterers.  She brought a serious issue to the public forum.  It is not all about pretty dresses.  Since when is a fake tan abusive?  Not every family eats granola bars, wear Birks and recycles.  Stop being so judgemental. And those children are not behaving in a sexual way at all.  It is a sad day when a child can not prance around dressed pretty because this Puritan nation thinks it s sexy.

I think when they say it encourages pedophilia is how the girls are dressed up beyond their ages. It's never right to put make up on girls so young. And one the of the mothers shaving a 6 year old's legs? Just wrong. Nothing against the whole pageant scene, if you wanna be objectified for a good portion of a silly contest, go for it. It's just how at too early of an age these girls are being taught that to be heard and accepted they have to care so much about their appearances.

When I see a mother putting a girl too young to make that choice or are at an age where they just wanna make mommy happy put her child through something like that, I see a woman who is trying to validate herself through "LOOK WHAT A PRETTY GIRL I MADE!! MY GENETICS ARE AMAZING!!". Bah. *steps off soap box*

My daughter & I love pageants, Yes they have become over the top with some of the stuff that they do, but it is their choice to put their daughter in a pageant. What gives you the right to say its wrong? I think the Jon Benet' thing just gave pageants a bad name b/c she did do pageants.

There are numerous children that have been molested and abused that do not do pageants. Do you have a theroy of why they were?? It is SICK people out there and your child is not safe no matter what sport you put them in. Perverts are on every corner.

i get what you are saying, i have seen the show many times. i do think that some of the things they do to the kids is a little extreme. but in their defense, i dont see the kids objecting. in fact they all seem to very much enjoy it. they love wearing the dresses and the makeup, they love being out on the stage and winning the trophies.

now i would never shave a 5 year olds legs, send them into a tanning bed, make her wear a "flipper", or do up her hair and face like a porcelin china doll. but if the girls like it, i dont see the problem with it.

also, the mothers always say, we are only going to do it until she doesnt want to, the second she says she doesnt want to do pageants, we are done. in one episode, one of the ladies who runs the pageant also mentions that no one but families are allowed in the rooms during the pageant. and because the girls are always running around with their families, they usually only end up performing in front of the judges and their coaches/parents.

honestly the people boycotting the show are not going to do anything. getting it taken off the air is not going to stop the girls from doing pageants. so really what is the point... you wanna make a difference, raise money to cure cancer, help save kids who will probably never get the chance to be in a pageant.

I absolutly dont see any problem with pageants. If you are a good parent and let your child know that it is just a competition, just like any other sport, what is the harm? As long as it doesnt stem out from pageants..like as long as you dont let them continue with the big hair and fake stuff just in everyday life. I have a 3 MONTH OLD that is doing pageant. She started when she was 2 months...i DO NOT put make-up on her and NO she doesnt know what us going on but i do it to give her an edge.. pageants are confidence boosters and help with self-esteem and gracious losing...and not every parent is like the ones on the show...like myself, and a few others i know. But it is like any other compitition. It calls for preperation and time and money. So i do get as little coo-coo in the days leading up to it. But i would be that way if it was cheerleading or a dance class or softball...or ANYTHING!! It is a sport. And i agree with above comments...pageants are a long-running tradition. They arent going to stop. So accept it..And noone is forcing anyone to watch them! So dont watch it if you dont like it..And i am the same way as most parents involved..as soon as my daughter says 'mom i dont wanna do pageants anymore', then we are done...and that is the point-of-view from someone who is actually there, doing pageants, not someone who just looks in from the outside.