TLC - Toddlers and Tiaras - group trying to cancel show

[Catty1]

http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/toddlers...rs-tiaras.html

Facebook group seeks to remove show from the air.

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/506914

"I was completely disgusted. Just the way they seem to be sexualizing the toddlers ... The way they gyrate their hips, the way they open their mouths, the way they pucker their lips at the cameras, the judges.

"These girls should not be moving that way."

Karrin Huynh, 17




http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...Story/National
Student sees red over tiny girls dancing in bikinis
St. Catharines teen starts Facebook group to have the program Toddlers and Tiaras removed

KATE HAMMER

February 4, 2009

As though the hair extensions, fake eyelashes and skimpy bikinis weren't enough, hip-grinding dance moves were the final straw for 17-year-old Karrin Huynh. But she wasn't the one being asked to preen, dance and smile for the cameras: It was a four-year-old girl on the cable television show Toddlers and Tiaras.

Ms. Huynh, a Grade 12 student at Governor Simcoe Secondary School in St. Catharines, was so disgusted by the show that she started a Facebook group to get the show off the air. Barely a month later, the group has more than 600 members in Canada and the United States.

"It's The Learning Channel, and it's a family channel, so you have little kids watching this show and seeing these living dolls being paraded on stage," she said. "And society wonders why girls have low self-esteem and low self-confidence when they're sitting at home wondering, 'Is this what I'm supposed to look like? Is this what I'm supposed to be?' "

After seeing commercials for the show's premiere, and then watching episodes posted on YouTube, Ms. Huynh started a petition to have the show removed.

A classmate, Lesley Cornelius, helped start the Facebook group, and hundreds of people became members.

One member e-mailed Discovery Communications, the media company that owns TLC, and received a thank you for the remarks, but the company didn't address any of the group's concerns.

"Maintaining the integrity of all of our networks is our primary goal," reads the e-mail, from viewer relations. "It is these types of comments that contribute to creating change and improving our programming."

Ms. Huynh said that though some feel the show is only examining, rather than glorifying, children's beauty pageants, their minds are changed when they check out the Toddlers and Tiaras website.

There, in a feature called "Rate the beauty queens," visitors can score photographs of pageant contestants on a scale of 1 to 10. Many have an average score of below 4.

[pomtzu]

I agree!!! It should be taken off the air. I can't believe the way the mothers exploit these children. Perhaps Jon Benet Ramsey would still be alive today if her mother hadn't taken her down the same road that these little girls are on! The true beauty of children is their natural beauty - not being made up like Anna Nicole Smith!

[caseysmom]

Good for them!

[Grace]

Many years ago, while working in the ER, a mom brought her daughter in because she had knocked out one of her front teeth. Now these were baby teeth, so a permanent would be coming in one day. But the mom was hysterical - the little girl was going to be in a pageant in 2 days and had to be perfect. She wanted us to put that tooth back in until after the event.

Needless to say, we did not do it.

[Twisterdog]

What is wrong with people?

I was shopping for my great-niece's birthday present a few years ago. She was six years old. So, I think I'll get her some clothes ... wrong. I seriously could find nothng in the store that was remotely age-appropriate - I found belly shirts, booty shorts, shirts that said, "I LOVE FOOTBALL players!" and "SEXY!!" and "I'M A FLIRT when my boyfriend's not looking!" - all in a child's size 6X mind you, for a child in kindegarten. I gave up.

At one time people sexualizing of young children were called perverts or pedophiles ... now they are mothers and primetime TV producers?

[RICHARD]

Agreed,

People should wait until the kids are at least in Jr. High school to let them wear a shirt like this one I saw-


I am home,
Take me drunk.

---------------

Then they wonder why kids are victims of perverts.

Morons.

[Karen]

I have heard of the show and resolved not to give it one minute of airtime in my house. Who the heck decided little girls need make-up and hair extensions to be considered beautiful? Most little girls are already beautiful just the way God made them - "tarting" them up just makes them scary!

[Taz_Zoee]

I hate to admit it, but I actually did watch one episode of this show. The episode I saw showed the youngest girl at 7 years old. And she actually didn't wear a lot of make up or poof her hair three feet out from her head. I did not watch the entire show though, now that I think about it. Because I don't know who won.
But I agree, it is horrible. And the moms say - She loves it!! Really? I've seen other specials on this where the little girl is crying her eyes out and the mom is screaming at her. The problem is they wanted to be beauty pagent queens but couldn't so they are living vicariously through their daughters. Its just sad.
Oh, on Toddlers and Tiara's the mothers compete too!! They are ALL competing for the $5000 prize. Not in separate age groups, but all together. There's only ONE winner. Can you imagine being happy that you beat out a 4 year old???

[Catty1]

They have little boys too. But I think this is a show that 60 minutes should do.

Nothing like feeding the pedophiles in our world....

[Daisy and Delilah]

I mentioned the questionable shows TLC is running in another thread. Okay....so they're going for the big ratings......have they considered the messages they're sending out? As if we don't have enough problems raising our children anyway. Why would anybody want to cram this nonsense down young children's throats? It's insanity!!

[cassiesmom]

I mentioned the questionable shows TLC is running in another thread.

D&D, where is the other thread? I saw a commercial for this show with the preschool girl beauty pageants. It's not the show that makes me as mad as the idea of what these little girls are expected to do.

[Daisy and Delilah]

D&D, where is the other thread? I saw a commercial for this show with the preschool girl beauty pageants. It's not the show that makes me as mad as the idea of what these little girls are expected to do.

Elyse, I think it was the one about the woman that recently gave birth to octuplets. I can't seem to remember for sure. TLC is seemingly supporting the family with 18 children, men with multiple wives, etc.

[blue]

Wasnt it HBO that had the show about the poligamist family?

[Medusa]

Wasnt it HBO that had the show about the poligamist family?

That's a series called "Big Love". TLC did a show where a journalist interviewed polygamist family.

[Medusa]

Beauty pageants for children send the wrong message not only to the children but, as others have mentioned, they encourage pedophiles. It's always creeped me out. I read just yesterday that My Space has removed 10,000 registered sex offenders from their site. It's mind boggling and so scary to raise kids today. Parents need to be hypervigilant.