Toddlers & Tiaras - candy-coated child pornography

[Dario Western]

How many of you think that the reality show "Toddlers & Tiaras" is a sick programme?  Whilst roaming about on YouTube, I saw a clip where a little girl of about 5 or 6 was screaming and crying whilst having her eyebrows waxed. 

I shook my head in disgust and wonder how hypocritical society has become.  On one hand we talk about protecting our children from sexual predators, and on the other hand we tolerate this filth on TV where girls who have not yet grown breasts (let alone pubic hair) are being sexualised by their fugly mothers who would never win any beauty contest. 

It gives little girls very bad messages, and it wouldn't surprise me if some of them grow up to have eating disorders and end up pregnant by the time they are 12.

I say let kids be kids and don't involve them in reality TV shows like this. 

I would REALLY like to see a nudist reality TV show come about though - we've had reality shows dedicated to virtually everything else, why not us?  Cooking and squeaky clean pop music is boooooring (except if the Naked Vegan Cooks had their own reality show, or were part of a nudist reality show - lol!!).

[Dan]

How many of you think that the reality show "Toddlers & Tiaras" is a sick programme?

Pretty much everyone I would guess.

[Fitz1980]

I think that the problem with a nudist reality show would be that if they wanted to be real about it there wouldn't be that much drama.  Reality shows thrive on either manufactured (fake) drama or staged setups.

Several US reality shows have done bits where they visited a nudist resort and it was almost always played for laughs of the "look at these crazy people" variety.

Paris Hilton's "The Simple Life" visited a nudist resort & had some really contrived bit about them working as maids and than ripping off some customer when they get sick of working.  It also featured the usual jokes about how many nudists are "old," "fat" or have small penises.

"New York Goes to Work" had a really contrived visit to a nudist resort.  The idea of the show is that Tiffany "New York" Pollard (some castoff from Flava Flav's reality show) goes around doing silly menial jobs and is filmed.  It was filmed at the Terra Cotta Inn & features the usual jokes about old, out of shape nudists.  She ends up having a bunch of drama with a customer because she acts like an incompetent idiot and the customer is a very stereotypical gay diva, who's heavy, covered in body hair & doesn't even get naked.  If that's not enough to make you think that he was a plant acting out some staged nonsense consider this.  I'm on Terra Cotta's e-mail list and they were asking for extras to appear in a "VH1 reality show" that was being filmed at Terra Cotta the week before a previous ep where viewers get to vote on if Tiffany "New York" Pollard goes to a nudist resort next aired.

Ironically "The Surreal Life" actually painted one of the best pictures of nudists.  It's a show about a bunch of washed of celebs sharing a house together for a few weeks.  One ep featured a visit to a nudist resort.  Tammy Fay Baker flips out and refuses to enter.  The rest of the cast enters and plays vollyball with some residents.  Porn star Ron Jeremy & "Real World" cast member Trishelle even get naked.

[TheSeane]

Gonna agree with Fitz on this one.

I have a bunch of friends who are in the entertainment industry so I hear quite a bit about this stuff on a weekly basis.  E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G is scripted on those dumb shows.  Thankfully my actor buddies are always smart enough to not get involved.  The production crew will always cater the shows to what they think the American public would like to see... bleh.. this is why I don't ever watch TV 

[Raphael]

I know this thread is old.
Fortunately I don't know the program mentioned in the subject line!
I just want to highlight this post to bring the following comment into focus:

Gonna agree with Fitz on this one.

I have a bunch of friends who are in the entertainment industry so I hear quite a bit about this stuff on a weekly basis.  E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G is scripted on those dumb shows.  Thankfully my actor buddies are always smart enough to not get involved.  The production crew will always cater the shows to what they think the American public would like to see... bleh.. this is why I don't ever watch TV 

And that certainly doesn't just apply to American television!
It's just scary how many people are unaware and believe everything that is shown on TV.

I'm sure the scripting thing doesn't just apply to dumb shows like this, but even seemingly real shows contain more staged scenes than many people realize.

[Fishandchips]

How many of you think that the reality show "Toddlers & Tiaras" is a sick programme?  Whilst roaming about on YouTube, I saw a clip where a little girl of about 5 or 6 was screaming and crying whilst having her eyebrows waxed. 

I shook my head in disgust and wonder how hypocritical society has become.  On one hand we talk about protecting our children from sexual predators, and on the other hand we tolerate this filth on TV where girls who have not yet grown breasts (let alone pubic hair) are being sexualised by their fugly mothers who would never win any beauty contest. 

It gives little girls very bad messages, and it wouldn't surprise me if some of them grow up to have eating disorders and end up pregnant by the time they are 12.

I say let kids be kids and don't involve them in reality TV shows like this. 

I would REALLY like to see a nudist reality TV show come about though - we've had reality shows dedicated to virtually everything else, why not us?  Cooking and squeaky clean pop music is boooooring (except if the Naked Vegan Cooks had their own reality show, or were part of a nudist reality show - lol!!).

Absolutely! I hope it's stopped and not repeated anywhere

[Totallynotbev]

I think calling it pornography is a little dramatic. My understanding has always been that it's scripted, but that doesn't make it any less of a shitty, problematic show. I'm not sure if it's still airing, but it should've never made it past the pitch stage.

[Fishandchips]

I think calling it pornography is a little dramatic. My understanding has always been that it's scripted, but that doesn't make it any less of a shitty, problematic show. I'm not sure if it's still airing, but it should've never made it past the pitch stage.

Yeah maybe dramatic but it was a shit show dolling up little kids like that just the idea of such show is disgusting