It’s Time For Child Protective Services To Intervene On ‘Tiaras’

The worst thing about TLC’s “Toddlers & Tiaras” is that there is a market for it. We live in a world that doesn’t just give parents an opportunity to exploit toddlers through so-called beauty pageants but also a world where such exploitation makes for a hit reality television show. That’s sad.

But the Parents Television Council has sounded the alarm about the latest horror to come from the show. A mother dressed her daughter up as a prostitute and had her compete. This is in no way an exaggeration. In fact, it’s not just a prostitute but an iconic prostitute in a “hooker” uniform.

Entertainment Weekly has the details about a 3-year-old being dressed as Julia Roberts‘ prostitute character from Pretty Woman:

”We have a serious problem when The Learning Channel* features a toddler, who probably hasn’t even learned to read, dressed as a prostitute showing off her sexy strut,” says Melissa Henson, director of communications and public education for the PTC: ”There’s no question, TV executives are complicit in robbing these small kids of their childhood. For years we’ve seen adult sexuality being inappropriately and aggressively foisted on innocent young children, but children today are being sexualized at younger and younger ages.”

The network had no comment, but the girl’s mother, Wendy Dickey, explained the outfit to EW:

”Well, at this pageant there was an option to do celebrity-wear,” Dickey says. ”And we thought about what we could wear with her being a brunette and Julia Roberts is my favorite actress of all time. I thought it was real cute to do Julia. She’s 3, if she was 10 I never would have considered this. But as young as she is I thought it was very comical.”

What in the h-e-double-hockey-sticks is wrong with this woman? Actually, from the looks of the screen shot on the promo I refuse to watch for the show I refuse to watch, I think there literally might be something “wrong” with her, if you know what I mean.

Seriously, she should spend the time and money she’s wasting on vanity training for her toddler and invest in a clue. It is literally never appropriate to dress your child as a prostitute. See, that was easy, right? Mothers who pimp out their daughters — whether for “fun” or not — are really bad people.

Also, she should use her extra funds to buy a dictionary. Later in the article she says she’s amazed anyone got upset about dressing her daughter up as someone who sells her body for money and says it was the cutest thing ever and “innocent.”

Instead of highlighting that trashy show, I’ll put up this spoof of it by Tom Hanks:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPLWKBWkn3s?version=3]