Child abuse on TV: Toddlers & Tiaras

I hadn't actually seen full episodes of Toddlers & Tiaras until recently, and if possible, I'm even more disgusted with the child beauty pageants as I was before..

Lots of little (mainly) girls who are very tired and uninterested, and look like they'd rather be anywhere else, just doing child stuff - you know, playing with toys, watching cartoons, doing stuff with friends and/or siblings, etc.. But their obsessed (and often, obese) mothers (and some fathers) have decided that their child will be a beauty queen, and that's ALL that matters.. It's like they don't even see that their child is suffering / not having any fun at all, or if they do see it, they are totally ignoring it..

Children are dressed up to look like cheap whores, before they have even learned to walk.. When they are old enough to walk, they're taught awful routines, and everything is fake.. Fake tan, fake hair, fake teeth (to hide their own teeth).. Tons of makeup, trailer park whorish glitter outfits..

One mother had decided that her daughter was going to do pageants, before the child was even born, and when the child was born with some health issues, the mother actually described her child like this: "she looked like she had Down syndrome.." - with a mixture of shame, disappointment, and revolt on her face.. "I was so upset that she wasn't the cutest little thing.." Priorities, eh? (And how could any mother say something like that, of their own child?!? Besides, all Down people are cute as they tend to be sunnier than the rest of us.)

There's so much wrong with the whole child beauty pageant idea, that I don't even know where to start..

It gives children some very fucked up values while destroying their childhood. Many of those parents seem to hand out parental love like dog treats - when the child performs well, they get some love, but when the child messes up the routine (or otherwise fucks up their obese & obsessed mother's big plan), they get a frowning and upset mother..

This form of child abuse is banned in France, and other countries should ban it as well. Let children be children. There's nothing wrong with organising events where children can perform stuff, but only if the children actually want to perform, and they should be allowed to be themselves - when you put fake tan, fake hair, and tons of makeup on a child, and dress them up all tarty, it really gives them the message that they are not good enough as themselves. That creates some very shallow people..