Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen

In this film, there is documentary style depictions of people involved in beauty pageants. It presents views of the beauty pageant world as generally conforming to a stereotypical pattern of beauty. In many ways, the girls are shown as beautiful only by their conformance to social norms rather than based on character. There are quite a few examples in this film that portray the necessity to achieve to sexual norms in order to be successful in beauty pageants. Also, the film depicts many girls' ways as needing to show off their femininity, as though the central element of female desire for beauty is to show off their beauty and to be recognized as beautiful. Keep in mind that the nature of beauty is being shown here as a creation and a presentation rather than an inherent aspect of the girls in the pageant. The femininity of the girls is being presented for the viewing of society rather than a natural product. The coaches and/or parents are seemingly encouraging the viewers under the guise of success in the beauty pageant world. In general, the primary element that the documentary portrays is that society is dictating norms of behavior and appearance, not the individuals. These `norms' are suggested to be essential to being beautiful leading the girls to believe that if they do not fit the stereotype then they are somehow inferior, hurting their self-esteem as well. The beauty pageant just reinforces female subservience to men, since the girls are presenting their beauty for a generally male oriented viewer, this creates the suggestion that women are meant to display themselves. Overall, this documentary shows the harsh reality that society places enormous pressure on exterior beauty rather than interior.

This was a great piece, I would rank it in the "must see" category. Having said that, I was disturbed by the pressure put on the kids to perform, and act. I was also disturbed by the parents and their attitudes toward the whole thing. I was convinced when they mentioned the zero to eighteen-months category - of pageant participants. Imagine a one-year-old beauty pageant contestant? Yuck.

Another aspect of the story, was the fathers (gay or not?) who had a sort of racket going. They brought their daughters who usually won. When others saw how well they performed, they contacted these guys who for a small ;-) fee, would coach future participants.

Anyway, a sadly entertaining piece. Gotta see it.

F

Impossible to take your eyes off this insane documentary. There is no voice-over, the subjects speak for themselves. The subject matter is so over the top that it is almost hard to believe that it is real. You couldn't make up characters this over-the-top. An amazing, unblinking look at the insular world of children's beauty pagents, 90% of the world will find it utterly repulsive, 5% will think it's adorable. Do not miss it.

I watched this film this afternoon and agree with most of the other comments on it. The topic (child beauty pageants) is very disturbing. The pageant circuit obviously exists for the benefit of the adults involved, not the children. The pageants are a club, a place to belong, like any club, but clearly fill emotional needs in the parent/members. These needs vary - the need to "win" something, the need to have a purpose in life, the urge to create, a frustrated desire to perform, a need to escape their lives and homes and travel, etc. etc.

As many have commented, it is frightening to see children, even infants, wearing layers of make-up and wearing "extensions" and wigs and dental applicances to hide the gaps when a baby tooth makes an untimely exit from that all-important smile. But what is truely chilling is realizing that the parents involved seem to have absolutely no self-awarenes, no sense at all that this is an activity they do for their own benefit and not their child's. The children are used as show-horses. The difference between these pageants and the Westchester Dog Show lies only in the fact that the dogs's owners don't try to make the dogs wear make-up.

I am sure that the kids involved do have fun with pageant life often. But, without a diatribe about the multitude of ways in which children can be twisted by having their parents' needs put first or by having their self-worth dependent upon their looks and "charm" and by age-inappropriate competition, I will simply say that the documentary makes it clear that a life on the pageant circuit should be accompanied by coupons for adult therapy.

(As an aside, I have to say that as a gay man, I was uncomfortable with the gay couple who work as very successful coaches for some of these children, including the daughter of one of the men. In many ways they seemed devoted to proving up every stereotype of gay men. On the other hand, I think they make a good case for gay parenting. They certainly aren't do any WORSE than the other parents in the film. I also respect the filmmaker greatly for the fact that the gay aspect was presented simply as a reality and was not played up. I do wonder, however, how many of the Mom's who drive hundreds of miles and get second mortgages on their homes to hire the couple turn around and vote for homophobic politicians.)

Anyway, the horror of all this aside, the documentary is terrific because it is invisible -- it simply allows the pageant world to speak for itself. There are no comments by the filmmakers who seem to limit their overt involvement to a series of intersticial titles every so often (the work is episodic) that just establish the setting or provide a fact. They do a pretty amazing job of piecing together what feels like a neutral "just the facts, ma'am" film allowing the viewer to draw his or her own conclusion. Also, the film does not condescend to these people. In fact, I think that a fan of the pageants might walk away thinking that the film was a positive one, supportive of pageant life. That's a hard line to walk for any documentarian.

After viewing Living Dolls, I am now aware of how femininity is a performance. The little girls featured in this documentary showed how certain characteristics of femininity are learned and then performed. During this performance at beauty pageants, little girls are taught to be erotic and are sexualized in order to promote what is called `the total package'. The film exposed the way it could be seen as the parents of these contestants promote the commodification of their children. Watching the actions of the girls participating in the pageant, we can identify the ways class, race, and sexuality intersects in the production of the `total package'.

The girls are objectified then and then play into the notion of being surveyed by the male gaze, where you become a spectacle based the male perspective. But they are not only viewed on the male gaze, we take note how other females also survey each other. The main goal of the contestants in the pageant is to achieve the total package, consisting of modeling a well fit dress, heavy use of makeup, personality based on how they react to the judges. Families will go out of their way to achieve this goal by having fake teeth made to cover where the girl may have lost her tooth, and custom make outfits. The girls learn the value of competition by watching tapes of their rivals performing and criticizing them. By doing so, they learn what to do and what not to do once on stage. This shows how the girls are constructed and splits to be a surveyor of her by looking at herself from a male perspective. The girl begins to internalize herself. The girls are taught to be sexual at such a young pre-sexual age. With practice, they develop the skills to relate erotically to their performance on stage. Stage outfits consist of flashy apparel and slits in the costumes. For the actual performance, the girls are sexualizing their singing and learn how to dance in such a manner. Their routines flaunt erotic and sexualized characteristics, which help them to achieve the total package. Race, class, and sexuality are clearly depicted in the pageant. The majority of these contestants have blonde hair and blue eyes. The maturity of speaking, vocabulary, and diction of the children identify them as being in a particular class. It is also apparent through the clothes the girls model and the stylists that come to the pageants that they must be of a middle to upper economic class. In contrast, educationally, one would put them into a lower class. This is evident from their inability to understand what they are doing to their children. Sexuality is represented when they cut the talent portion of the pageants, yet the modeling portions and the section where the lounge singer sings to the girls remained. This section with the lounge singer displays how these young girls masquerade their femininity on stage. Eroticism is depicted when she sways seductively to the music, smiles invitingly, and the batting of her eyelashes towards him.

This whole segment shows the adult sexualization of these young contestants. The film reproduces existing stereotypes of femininity. This is a performance that is socially learned. Through practice, this behavior is learned and applied to the performing on stage in the pageants, as well as other areas in life. A woman may accentuate her femininity in order to attain something she desires. For example, flaunt her femininity to receive a certain position in the work force. The concept of femininity as a performance, teaches us about gender roles and how they can be interchangeable. Since this is a learned characteristic and performance, we shouldn't assign roles. A woman can be masculine and a man can be feminine as well. The pageant shows little girls having erotic and sexualized characteristics, which help them reach their goal of wining a pageant title.