Toddlers And Tiaras Analysis

From the ancient Greek mythology of the “Judgment of Paris” to the selection of the May Day Queen in the United States, it is clear that the narrative of “beauty contests” amongst women is not a recent human construction; rather, its long history may in fact partially explain how we have come to normalize the judgment of female bodies. Nevertheless, the issue is even more problematic when we extend this practice to the bodies of extremely young girls. Three-year-old Paisley Dickey made headline news when she walked out to the pageant judges dressed as Julia Robert’s prostitute character from the movie “Pretty Woman.” This event was highly documented on TLC’s show “Toddlers & Tiaras,” gaining even more attention after it was covered by the news. …show more content…
It is the proliferation of such images that can function as an educational site from which children learn about the gender roles that they may assume in adult society. Young girls may idealize unrealistic expectations of the ideal woman and how women should “do their gender,” posing important social and psychological implications in their adult life. Hence, in this paper, I will be examining the representation of Paisley Dickey in a scene taken from an episode of “Toddlers & Tiaras.” I will inspect how she demonstrates the sexualization and adultification of young female bodies in child beauty pageants as influenced by the discourse of beauty and innocence, as well as how gender, race, and class plays into this complex issue. Furthermore, I will also express how childhood pageantry reinforces normative gender scripts and its role in a larger historically-rooted discussion regarding the commodification of the myths of beauty towards young