Pageant Girls

Watching Little Miss Sunshine the second time (Zach wanted to see it) I realized that the obscenely displayed girls in the Little Miss Sunshine contest were real Pageant Girls. I'd seen those overly made up faces before!

Which raises the question: what were their mothers thinking?

Ok, so that's assuming their mothers can think and since they are pageant girls that's already a big stretch. But did they realize what the movie was about? Either they thought it was going to be a complimentary portrait of the pageant world, they weren't paying attention, or they were so consumed with getting exposure for their daughters (and the reflected glory for themselves) that they just didn't give much of a damn.

I've occasionally wondered what pageant girls grow up to be. It's like sexual abuse in more than one way. Some will grow up and repudiate their mothers, the abusers, and others will grow up to repeat the pattern, to think that this is acceptable. These girls will have a harder time escaping their pasts (if they so choose) because this is going to live on DVD forever.

Now part of me wants to excuse some of it away. To say 'Oh well all pageants don't reach the bleaching, teasing, hairspraying, body make upping pinacle that was portrayed in the movie. Some Moms just think it's a way to spend time as a family and teach their little girls poise in public.' but isn't that like saying some sexual abuse is ok because it was just fondling, and the abuser thought the child enjoyed it, and it's not like there was penetration or he got her pregnant or anything?