The ugly side of kids’ beauty pageants

The gruesome sight of little kids wiggling and pouting in ghastly beauty and talent pageants chills my blood.

They are frightening mothers reliving their own ambitions through their kids. They push, cajole and at times even threaten their teeny children into performing some truly hideous routines.

It was something I thought would stay in Middle America and never transfer over here.

I reckoned we were far too sensible to be sucked in by the exploitative tawdriness of it all. I was wrong.

A documentary called, with weary inevitability, Blinging Up Baby shows British children under six taking part in our versions of these pageants, caked in make-up and wearing expensive dresses more suited to grown women.

It’s nowhere as bad as some of the ones in the US where tiny little girls wear scanty outfits that would be rejected by any self-respecting pole dancer.

These little ones strike inappropriate, almost sexual poses, and it’s all very uncomfortable indeed.

Surely most of us would have a real problem with children performing in this way and I simply do not accept the explanations from parents that their children “enjoy the attention”.

While a few kids might look as though they are having fun, most look bored, uncomfortable and unhappy.

Their mothers spend a fortune travelling to events, buying costumes and make-up and they spend countless hours on preening and primping their daughters’ hair and applying their make-up.

Up for grabs is nothing more than a cheap and tawdry award, usually bigger than the poor little mite who was awarded it.

I really don’t want to see this sort of thing over here. It makes little girls think that the most important things in life are what you look like and it is sexualising their behaviour at a shamefully young age.

I remember seeing a video of a little girl in the US wearing a cowboy outfit with cut-outs on her bottom and thighs.

She was strutting around the stage like a stripper and her baby face was covered in thick pan stick and eye make-up. She also looked dead behind the eyes.

It was a vision that has haunted me and I often wonder what happened to that child.

I certainly don’t want that to happen to our children.