A Brief Tirade

I just finished watching a TLC show about toddler beauty pageants.

I know, I know. What part of human nature makes us slow when we see a car wreck and stop flipping channels when there's a show about toddlers in glittery makeup?

There are many, many, many bad things about toddler beauty pageants. But mostly, for me, it was the moment when the two year old won "first runner up" (i.e. first loser, no cash prize for you) and they gave her this big old trophy and her daddy bemoaned, "Now I have to explain to her that she won NOTHING!" Um, dude, she got a big old trophy. And she's two. She thinks she totally won. At least his kid wasn't crying like several of the other toddlers (and I mean crying from the intensity of the situation, not crying 'cause they didn't get a cash prize).

I thought I was raising Sydney in a progressive world where feminism was more a way of life than a political movement. I remind myself that part of feminism is a woman's right to chose her life, even if that means objectifying her physical form in a beauty contest. So I hold back judgment on the whole Miss America business. Those women want credit for their beauty, I want credit for my character, tomay-to, toma-to. But toddler beauty contests? I just can't stomach them.

And since I have at least one vague childhood memory of a local pageant that my mother entered me into where I pitched a big old fit over being put into some fancy smancy dress and having people look at me, I feel totally justified in my judgment.

So, here's to all of the beautiful children in our lives. And all you loving parents I know who would never participate in such a circus.