John Ramsey and his family skyrocketed to national prominence in , when Ramsey's 6-year-old daughter JonBenet, a frequent child pageant contestant, was found murdered. The case was never solved.
Now, in an interview with Good Morning America , Ramsey concedes that he was wrong to put JonBenet in pageants in the first place. It's just a bad idea "to put your child on public display," he says. And shows like Toddlers and Tiaras that chronicle child pageants are "bizarre," Ramsey says, as pageants encourage young children to develop problematic levels of competitiveness, and focus too much on their appearance.
Ramsey's warning brings to light an ongoing debate about the detrimental effects that pageants can have on children. Here, five more reasons why pageants are bad for children:. The girls are too young to say no "There are examples of young girls screaming in terror as their mothers approach them with spray cans," Australian lawmaker Anna Burke tells the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Clearly, pageants risk "the exploitation or potential exploitation of very young children who really do not have the capacity to express their own views.
Pageants sexualize young girls French lawmakers want an all-out ban on child pageants, says Henry Samuel in Britain's Telegraph , accusing the media and reality TV of "promoting stereotypes that transform young girls into 'sexual morsels.
Better known by her self-given nickname, Honey Boo Boo , the tyke turned to this icky potion after finding that "pageant crack" — "two bags" of the unpalatable candy Pixy Stix — was no longer providing the perkiness she desired.
Alana's mom, June Shannon, defended her daughter's strange brew on an episode of Good Morning America : "When they do get on stage you have to be alive and News reports, the show was canceled in when word got out "that Mama June was allegedly dating a convicted child molester. Meet Tricia, a particularly uninhibited pageant mom from Oklahoma City. According to the Daily Mail , this "mother of four" happily posed in a G-string right in front of her 2-year-old child SamiJo while modeling for a very sexy calendar.
I think exposing your child to whatever you can is just a really great way to be culturally diverse. Tricia even maintained that SamiJo — who, we'll say again, was 2 at the time — had something of a thing for flirty lingerie: The tyke was "obsessed with bras," she said, and absolutely "loves Victoria's Secret.
Somehow more perplexingly, Tricia believed SamiJo was gifted with ferocious business acumen when it came to navigating the heady world of showbiz: "She knows, and has full comprehension of how the business works," she bragged. The emotional landscape of children can be notoriously "hard to read," according to Psychology Today. Much like adults, young kids can appear well-adjusted and "content" when their inner lives are actually a hotbed of turmoil.
Maybe that's why Alexis's mom missed the subtle clues that suggested her 5-year-old daughter wasn't enjoying having her eyebrows waxed: "No, don't do my eyebrows! As Today reports, there's a whole lot of screaming on this particularly savage episode. The girl's mom pays no mind to her daughter's pleas, claiming her reaction had to do with a previous "bad experience.
The wax was way too hot, and it actually ripped off her skin. So she's been kinda terrified ever since then. Later, mom makes a confession: "Normally, I would just hold her down and [have] ripped it off. Be honest: What are your thoughts on "facial beauty" and its place in modern society? Just in case she'd left any room for ambiguity, she elucidated: "If you think your kid is ugly or something, you might not want to do pageants because you're not going to win or anything.
At one point in the episode, her mom Amanda chimed in with her two cents: "I think the most stressful part of the day is beauty," she said, apparently feeling no need to correct her daughter's budding Theory of Facial Attractiveness. The episode inspired Australian Broadcast Company contributor Collett Smart to write: "I actually feel sorry for Daisey, as she would not have come up with these ideas all on her own. As the New York Daily News reports, Maddie took the stage in a "bleach-blonde wig" and body-hugging pink dress with bulging, strategically placed pads underneath.
At the time, she was only 4 years old. Since its first season premiere in , the show has delighted and disgusted fans as parents dressed their tots and instructed them to act in ways that were, to put the criticisms mildly, not age-appropriate. The series has even spawned a spin-off — Here Comes Honey Boo Boo — about sassy 6-year-old pageant-circuit veteran Alana Thompson, aka Honey Boo Boo, and her self-described "redneck" family. Here are five that have helped earn the show its notoriety: 1.
She coached the kid, saying, of all things, "Don't forget to smoke! A cigarette — in a 4-year-old's mouth?!? The problem here isn't the candy cigarette, it's the pageants themselves, and the way they're "teaching girls from the cradle that their main value in this world is their looks. Maddy's dad, Bill Verst, says Jackson is exploiting the little girl, citing a episode of the show in which Jackson padded her thenyear-old's chest with fake boobs and an improbably bulbous rear-end for a Dolly Parton number.
A court-appointed psychologist sided with Bill Verst, even though he's a convicted felon on probation for DUI and child endangerment, says Neetzan Zimmerman at Gawker , so this is "a case of the pot calling the kettle a bad parent. The girl's outfit was "less revealing than gymnastics wear and swimsuits," she said. She appeared to recognize, however, that not all parents would approve. Eyebrow waxing: Outright physical abuse?
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