Not since the coverage of JonBenet Ramsey in 1996, have we seen so much media attention paid to child beauty pageants. Only this time, it’s for a profit. Reality TV, documentaries and talk shows have all capitalized on the subculture, especially recently.

Baby Beauty Queens (BBC)

This feature-length documentary, created by the BBC and People Documentaries, looks at contestants with a greater depth than most reality shows.
To stream the full film for free on YouTube, see Parts [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] and [6].

Toddlers & Tiaras (TLC)

“Toddlers & Tiaras” shows how pageantry can breed conflict and resentment between mothers, daughters, and sisters. (Each featured clip is under 1:30)

Mother/daughter pageants seem less about bonding and more about beating down the competition.

With mom picking favorites, AshLynn fades into the background, while BreAnne can barely fit her head through the door. It’s a good thing pageantry pays well; they’ll need it for therapy in a few years.

Megan has no problem telling America where her priorities are.

Conor Knighton from Current InfoMania recaps more pageant show highlights, in his segment “Itsy Bitsy Beauty Queens.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 8:59 PM and is filed under Film & TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.