Toddlers and Tiaras
♥ | This article is dedicated to Kailia Posey, who committed suicide at the age of 16, 1 month later after her birthday (April 19, 2006 - May 2, 2022). |
The following work contains material and themes that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images that may be disturbing to some viewers. Mature articles are recommended for those who are 18 years of age or above. If you are 18 years old or above, or are comfortable with mature content, you are free to view this page; otherwise, you should close this page and view another one. Reader discretion is advised. |
Toddlers and Tiaras | ||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Toddlers & Tiaras, also known as Another Toddlers and Tiaras, is an American reality television series aired on TLC from January 27, 2009, to October 16, 2013. After a three-year hiatus due to much controversy, Another Toddlers and Tiaras aired the sequel on August 24, 2016. The show follows the personal lives of families of contestants in a child beauty pageant. Like many shows about children's pageants, it generated controversy for dressing the children provocatively. The show led to other reality show spin-offs: Eden's World, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, and Cheer Perfection. On November 23, 2016, they cancelled the show after its seventh season.
Why It Lost the Pageant
- To get the elephant out of the room first: This show is considered as softcore child pornography by US law standards because the children (especially underaged girls) were forced to wear revealing outfits and do sexually suggestive poses or dances despite them being (as the title states) toddlers. In other words, it's a pedophile's/groomer's/child molester's dream come true!
- The mothers are absolutely horrible and disgraceful, disgusting, nasty and poor excuses of "humans". They're cruel, selfish, and abrasive, and often abuse their poor children by yelling, cursing, insulting, beating, and forcing or bribing them to do something for the pageants they (the kids) didn't want to do to begin with. They always argue with each other and complain about almost everything, make fun of their children's bodies, and had a nasty habit of physically/verbally abusing, neglecting, and telling them off just for being scared. We're pretty sure some of them have even been arrested for multiple counts of child abuse after the show ended.
- The mothers constantly force-feed their children Pixy Stix and Mountain Dew, and that much sugar and caffeine can be harmful to someone that young.
- There are also signs of animal cruelty. In one episode, a mother neglected her pet goat and forced one of her twin daughters to clean up after it, all while swearing at her.
- One parent stated that she spent $250,000 on her twin babies' pageants.
- There was even one mother who outright admitted that she's been having kids for the sole purpose of doing the pageants, while also stating that she didn't like her son because of it.
- There's an infamous scene where a mother waxes her kid's eyebrows.
- And another one in which a mother requested her daughter smoke on a fake cigarette! And not even modern Family Guy of all shows would go that far!
- The kids aren't much better than their poor excuses for "mothers". They are often spoiled brats and sore losers. Not to mention, their constant screaming and whining can easily get on viewers' nerves. Sound familiar?
- What's even worse is that each time the kids whine, scream, throw tantrums, cry, or have a meltdown, they're often treated as if they're always in the "wrong" all the time by their mothers, who constantly tell them off as "spoiled, whiny brats", even though that's not always the case since they're abusing and heavily traumatizing their children.
- The girls' makeup looks extremely creepy, painful, and cringeworthy to look at, especially since their mothers are trying to make them look more than five times their age!
- Quantity Over Quality: Like Keeping Up With the Kardashians (another universally-panned reality series), Teen Titans Go!, and modern Family Guy, this one lasted WAY TOO long for such a widely hated show, having a total of 7 seasons, 120 episodes, and a lifespan of almost 8 years. This just goes to show how blind TLC is to the negative criticism of the show, let alone the fact that they've aired softcore child pornography for all these years!
- On the topic of point #3.1, the kids are probably heavily traumatized since the time the pageants took place and even in later years after they've outgrown their child pageant age.
- Misleading Rating: The show was rated TV-PG instead of TV-MA, meaning that kids who didn't know what it was about would most likely get traumatized just from watching it.
- As mentioned before, it even spawned many other equally atrocious spin-off series such as Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Eden's World, and Cheer Perfection, among others.
- The acting is downright horrendous, especially with the gross, creepy scenes that will be mentioned in point #11.
- The soundtrack is laughably generic, so more often than not, viewers would forget that the music was playing most of the time anyway. The soundtrack is also bland too.
- The show is filled to the brim with a plethora of cringe-worthy and unbearably disgusting scenes that will make you want to vomit if you watch them for several minutes, even when they're not involving the awful actions of the kids' mothers, including (but not limited to):
- One infamously creepy scene in which a toddler girl dons the Dolly Parton look, complete with her mom stuffing the former's chest with cotton to create the illusion of FAKE BREASTS!
- Another one where a scantily clad toddler girl disco-dances onstage, followed by her father who strips down to only his underwear and joins her to do the same! No joke!
- Another scene where a mother demands her daughter to twerk onstage while calling her "a stripper".
- And yet ANOTHER infamous scene in which a mother forces her daughter to dress up like a prostitute for her outfit of choice. We're NOT kidding!
- Ultimately, this show (along with several other terrible reality shows) forever ruined TLC's reputation since, as mentioned earlier, it's softcore child pornography in its purest form, and it shows!
- And let's not forget how horribly TLC is this blind to criticism, like what number 12 said above. A
Reception
Toddlers & Tiaras was universally panned by critics and audiences alike, both of which criticized the show's excessive usage of disgusting, cringe-worthy, and horrifying moments, the hypersexualized treatment of children, the toxic portrayal of mothers, and for generally promoting child pornography and pedophilia.[1] It's also responsible for TLC's network decay and is widely considered by many as the worst reality show ever made.[2]
The show has a 1.8/10 on IMDb, making it one of the lowest-rated shows on the site[3], and was also ranked #1 on WatchMojo's "Top 10 Controversial Reality Shows".[4]
Trivia
- Kailia Posey, who's known for the evil grin GIF, was found dead at a park in Blaine, Washington on May 2, 2022, at the age of 16. Her death was ruled a suicide.[5]
Videos
References
Comments
- Articles with dedications
- Mature
- Bad media
- Bad shows
- Reality shows
- Live-action shows
- 2000s programs
- Cancelled shows
- Banned shows
- Mean-spirited shows
- 2010s programs
- Lost or partially found shows
- Controversial shows
- Internet memes
- TLC shows
- Boy shows
- Girl shows
- Shows with bad morals
- Gross-out shows
- Torture shows
- Obscure shows
- "It's made for girls/boys"
- Quantity over quality
- Pornographic shows
- Shows that killed careers
- Annoying shows
- Media with forbidden good qualities
- Illegal shows/dubs
- Creator regrets
- "It's made for kids"