High Glitz Or Child Tragedy?
Posted by: Jessica Goldberg
Filed in:
entertainment
3:50PM, Wednesday November 4th 2009
The coffee table book High Glitz would seriously freak out anyone who sat down on my couch. The collection of images shows beauty queen toddlers posing for the child pageant sub-genre called Glitz. These tots get glamour makeup, front teeth veneers, and couture costumes before being photographed. It speaks from an era I hoped didn’t really exist. So, are these beautiful images or child abuse? You’ll have to be the judge. I say somebody needs to take these kids outside to make mud pies. [Lil Sugar]
Did this inappropriately gorgeous lovechild of Oprah and Scarlett O’Hara learn to look so sad from holding up her head under all those pounds of hairspray?
This patriotic concoction, along with those French tips, isn’t so ironic as it is dangerous for a kid who only recently learned not to stick crayons in her eye.
This little girl seems scared that when she stops smiling they’ll take her puppy away.
TheFrisky.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network
equnsuocha
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 04:07 pm: [report]
This is akin to child pornography I say. There is nothing wrong with pageants for kids per se, I think they are rubbish, but whatever. But with the make up chemicals, rehearsals, stage moms, pressure its all so horrible and should be considered abuse no matter how much the mother’s claim the daughters “love it”
pinkjellyfish
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 04:08 pm: [report]
Airbrush much? That first child’s face looks like it was completely re-sculpted in Photoshop. They should just dress up some life-size dolls, they’d get the same effect. Poor kids.
Jillybean
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 04:09 pm: [report]
I try to stay away from definitive statements, but I find myself agreeing with equnsuocha - there is abuse here.
Kids should be out playing in the dirt - not practicing football for hours into the winter nights, not sitting BHS teaching exams, not getting all dolled up for pageants - there’s plenty of time for all that jazz when you’re older, let kids be kids!
spatula
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 04:19 pm: [report]
Ewww they don’t even look like kids, they look like dolls It’s so so so creepy. also, does it damage their poor little baby teeth (and nails) to put veneers on them like that?
MuchoMacho
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 04:23 pm: [report]
theyre called “flippers” according to the retarded toddlers and tiaras show my gf loves (loves to watch like we love to slow down and watch car wrecks)... theyre like a mouthguard you put on over your teeth, and slide out when theyre done. i hate the bitcho moms who force their kids into this, and the way they act (especially the ugly ones, for some reason), but i dont hate them any more than the a-hole wrestling dads who slap their 5 year olds around at tournaments for losing matches… its poor parenting, but i dont think it should be against the law or anything.
SueSue
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 04:54 pm: [report]
I can’t decide if it’s legalized child abuse or child pornography.
LiciMama
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 05:10 pm: [report]
Just creepy. I just want to wash the makeup off and give them a hug. It’s just exploiting those kids.
equnsuocha
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 05:12 pm: [report]
MuchoMacho
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 05:13 pm: [report]
lol @ equn… mandatory licensing to have kids!!!
equnsuocha
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 05:56 pm: [report]
Yes let’s legislate everything, i am on the band wagon now! LOL seriously though WTF are these parents thinking about?
stormygirl
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 06:56 pm: [report]
OMG, WTF?! It’s the coffee table book for pedophiles! (creepy) @eunsuocha- you are so right. what is wrong with these parents?
AlisonNoelle
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 06:57 pm: [report]
Oh dear God.
kellieann
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 07:00 pm: [report]
People from the south…
DancingGeek
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 07:03 pm: [report]
It makes me think of that poor Jonbenet Ramsey.
Ginger
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 07:40 pm: [report]
Anyone who buys this book is probably going to be put on an FBI watch list.
Katrina
wrote on November 4 2009 @ 10:23 pm: [report]
I noticed that when airbrushing the first girl, they lightened her skin. So sad :(
And is it just me or does the last picture look like a 35-year-old?
Cat_D
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 12:38 am: [report]
@kellieann I’m from the South, and I think this is disgusting and sad.
whatshesays
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 01:42 am: [report]
I was in a dance company growing up and a lot of the young girls my age were doing these pageants. I always asked my mom if I could try it too because obviously whatever my friends were doing was awesome right?
By some amazing mom-magic-trick, I have no idea how she managed to get me to forget all about it but- thank GOD- I had no part in any of those.
In my observation it brought out a highly critical environment, not only with body image, but it also had girls who were WAY too young concerned with looking sexy.
Oreo
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 06:51 am: [report]
I think that pageants are absolutely wrong and are definitely a form of child abuse, but to call it “child pornography” is to cheapen the horrors of the children who are actually victims of child pornography.
It also sends quite an anti-feminist message. If children wearing makeup is “child pornography”, are adult women who wear makeup to work being pornographic?
Child abuse? - absolutely.
Inappropriate? - you bet.
Pornography? - offensive misuse of the term
BlueVibe
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 09:11 am: [report]
I’m from the South, too, and I’m horrified.
Oh, I don’t know. I’ve only seen the ads for “Toddlers and Tiaras,” but there seems to be enough suggestive shoulder-and-hip wiggling on there that, while not literally pornography, I think it’s getting into a questionable gray area. The whole toddler-pageant thing is pretty disgusting.
lawyrgrl
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 10:15 am: [report]
Some people should be told that children are not on this earth so that you can live your life through them. That you never got over not being a beauty queen/football star/cheerleader/ect… does not mean that our child has the obligation to suffer.
lawyrgrl
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 10:18 am: [report]
*your child - not our child. Damned keyboard!
MuchoMacho
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 10:23 am: [report]
@lawyr - agreed completely. makes me sick to my stomache when im coaching or refereeing at a kids wrestling tournament and i see these jag-bag dads screaming at 5, 6, 7, 8 yr olds about losing matches. kids crying. i had one of them walk out onto the mat while his sons match was going on to yell into my ear that his son was pinning the other kid. i blew the whistle, stopped the match, and told the guy that if he didnt get off of my mat and out of my gym i would DQ his son from the tournament. felt terrible for the kid, but sometimes parents need to be parented too. but. good things come from this kind of stuff too. best story i ever watched happen - this 5 or 6 year old kid is getting taken down at will by the other kid. takes him down. lets him go. repeat. if youre in high school or college, there is basically not a worse way to lose a match. extremely embarassing. so it ends and the kid loses pretty big. im watching the kid, expecting him to break down in tears and he walks up to his dad and says “dad! did you see how good i was at escaping him!” lol… he might never be a wrestling champion, but he’ll end up as a better human being.
AlisonNoelle
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 12:27 pm: [report]
@Mucho. That was a great little story about the escape artist. Sooo cute and makes me feel better to know that there are some people out there who still just want their kids to have FUN. My oldest plays football and I cannot count how many times I’ve heard “You should’ve done this or shouldn’t have done that or how the hell did you miss that?” Whatever happened to sportsmanship? Not just from kids but from parents as well. Totally off subject I know.
RobinUncommon
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 01:41 pm: [report]
I don’t know how anyone could see this as fun. I you have to poke, prod and bribe your kids to get the end result, it’s not worth it…
VeronicaVaughn
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 03:47 pm: [report]
Goodness! Let these children be children! My dear!
Meg
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 04:22 pm: [report]
It’s just horribly wrong to see little girls that primped. Children should be children. And being naturally cute is what little girls should be allowed to do. All that makeup and airbrushing just makes them look so fake and sad. I don’t know how any parent would want this for their child.
DancerNinja
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 07:21 pm: [report]
Those fake nails and that “come hither” look on the second picture will likely haunt me in a Chucky’s Bride way after the sun sets.
k_roja
wrote on November 5 2009 @ 08:34 pm: [report]
Does anyone have any idea whether this is a satirical book or not?? It certainly looks satirical, only because these people CANNOT POSSIBLY BE SERIOUS. It has to be satire. It just has to be.
ootie grl
wrote on November 6 2009 @ 08:29 am: [report]
Those pictures are creepy. Pedophiles all over the world will be running out to buy this book. Kids are supposed to look and act like kids. They arnt living barbies to play dress up with. eeewww.
lindseylee21
wrote on November 6 2009 @ 08:36 am: [report]
@kellieann - Oh F#CK YOU. I’m pretty sure there are just as many stage moms in the north as there are in the south. And most of us down here below the Mason-Dixon Line think this is pretty disgusting and sad (do you even know what the Mason-Dixon Line is, you ignoramus?). Those little girls could be from anywhere so how dare you insinuate that only Southern people do things like this? People like you who generalize into smug little categories are just perpetuating their own stereotypes. Next time, think for a minute before you go accusing entire groups of people.
gaylejack
wrote on November 6 2009 @ 07:48 pm: [report]
As long as there are Moms (MILFS) and Dads (Jag-Bags, great term BTW)living vicariously through their children, parenting like this will continue. I’m currently completing a novel about this very thing…I hope ya’ll read it (From Texas Kellie, and it happens everywhere) I know, that was a pitiful plug for my book, but at least I was couth enough to not reveal the title…yet
kevinh
wrote on November 9 2009 @ 02:18 pm: [report]
disturbing to say the least.
txninmn
wrote on November 9 2009 @ 09:12 pm: [report]
So I had to look this up on Amazon. Much to my dismay, it’s not satire.
The authors, between them, have written for Playboy, books on war, one called ‘The Art of Seduction,’ and one co-authored by 50 Cent. (If you want further creepiness, read the review posted for the book. But I warned you.)
Amazon states that ‘as many as 100,000 girls’ participate in these pageants every year and that these pageants are a ‘reflection of American culture itself.’