Anyone else totally caught off guard by France’s impressive new legislation banning child beauty pageants? Yeah, me, too. Because as I much as I adore the country and its people (I lived there for two years in my late twenties and also worked for the French company Club Med), its contemporary pop culture has never… Continue Reading →
Miss America contestants: the judgement’s never over
This might not come as a huge surprise, but I’m not a big fan of beauty pageants. (Weird, right?) I understand that some of these competitions have scholarships that are really helpful for some winners, that some contestants do have real talents that they can showcase, and that some use the platform to push good… Continue Reading →
Gallery of Winners: “America the Beautiful” exposes some ugly truths.
Produced by: Sensory Overload Productions DVD available in Fall 2009. See the film’s web site for more details. Questions to Consider: * Is America obsessed with beauty? * Do the beauty and fashion industries need to promote the thin body ideal to be successful? * What are some mixed messages that girls get about their… Continue Reading →
Gallery of Offenders: “A pageant girl is someone who gets on stage, smiles, and when they get off stage, they don’t [smile].” —Brooklyn, 10-year-old pageant contestant
Questions to Consider: * What are the criteria on which pageant participants are judged? * Do the girls seem to enjoy being in pageants? * What skills or lessons are the girls learning? * Why do you think Toddlers & Tiaras was renewed for a third season? What We Think: Who at TLC came up… Continue Reading →