Toddlers and Tantrums

A couple of nights ago I was channel surfing and came across a reality show called "Toddlers & Tiaras". The show delves into the world of children's beauty pageants, showing the good, the bad, and most certainly the ugly. To me, there's nothing positive about these terrifying taffeta fests. Families spend too much money, the girls are taught that fake beauty is valued, and tempter tantrums run rampant. I've seen pictures prior to this show of girls spray tanned, in heavy makeup that must have been applied with a trowel, the ridiculously expensive dresses, but some things still shocked me.

For example, all the girls wear something called a "flipper", a mouth cover of plastic pearly white teeth so that judges won't see a seven year old's normal smile with a missing tooth or one growing in. Because that would be too ugly for words, right?

My FAVORITE part (and I mean that sarcastically) of the show was the INFANT TALENT COMPETITION. Yes, you heard me right. INFANTS. What kind of talents does an infant have you might ask? Well, the winner of the competition is in my sketch for today. She was no more than six months old, dressed in a golden fluffy dress and sitting in a cauldron with a four leaf clover strapped to her head. Apparently, infants are VERY good at sitting in CAULDRONS. At least this one was. Sigh...

I also drew "The Diva", the girl on the right was six years old, and had as many diva tantrums as Whitney Houston. She strutted the stage with her arm on her hip, pursing her lips while batting her eyes. When she didn't win the big crown, but was crowned a runner-up, she threw an absolute fit. The girl in the orange dress in the middle was probably no more than three....terrified to be onstage, near tears as she followed her mom's antics in the crowd of putting her arms out and twirling around. And finally, Morgan, the girl on the bottom left. Yes sir, she was the big winner. The spray-tanned, bleach blond fake haired, skimpy outfit and flipper wearing Salt Lake City girl won the judges hearts. This was her pose to the camera when she won, throwin' up a gang sign as she said "I GOT THE BLING!"