A pageant? In the mall? With a 2-year-old boy? It was a recipe for disaster, hilarity, or both.
I’ve always been intrigued by the drama of pageants. They are a microcosm of how women are treated in society. Stripped of any form of “political correctness,” they offer a glimpse at how girls are expected to perform the artifice of femininity.
Girls pay an exorbitant amount of money just to be oversexualized, objectified, and judged.
And boys? They win just by showing up.
(I suppose a silver lining could be that… it’s fun to see all the sequins and rhinestones?)
JonBenet Ramsey’s murder 20 years ago propelled the world of children’s beauty pageants into Americans’ consciousness.
Since then, movies likeDrop Dead Gorgeous and Little Miss Sunshine, documentaries like Living Dolls, and the controversial television show Toddlers and Tiaras have filled the public’s need to mock and gawk at these girls. And they’re almost always girls.