Hooker Outfit: Not Funny

One of the recent controversies I have heard about on the show “Toddlers in Tiaras” is about a mother dressing her daughter up as Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman; she dressed her 3 year old daughter as hooker. She had the thigh high boots and a tight mini skirt and a top that showed a lot of skin.
I read an article on ABC news.com titled: “Tot Dressed as Prostitute: ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’ Blasted for Airing Image of 3-Y-O Pageant Contestant in Racy Costume” where they discussed the most controversial outfit on the show so far. The other mothers who dress their daughters up in outrageous costumes every week are angry that Wendy Dickey, mother the daughter dressed as prostitute, is bringing more controversy to the show. The article quotes another mother saying, “Us pageant moms already take a huge rap for what we’re doing with our little girls and it’s outfits like that that give us a bad rap” Dickey doesn’t agree with the other mothers and justifies this costume by saying that the costume was meant to be funny. In an interview by Good Morning America Dickey said, “The whole idea was for people to see the comedy behind it. It’s like when you take your children to a kids’ movie, there’s always adult humor that the parents get that the children don’t get and that’s what it was about.” This idea may be true but the jokes for adults in movies are not teaching the children in the theater that dressing like a hooker is acceptable. It is also not like the situations in the movie are anything like the situation Dickey is putting her child in.
The article goes on to discuss the issue of pedophiles and Dickey’s take on this topic. Although she realizes that there are pedophiles everywhere in everyday life, she doesn’t believe that they are present at these types of pageants. It is unbelievable how naïve Dickey is to think that pedophiles do not go to pageants to see little girls dressed up in skimpy outfits. She is quoted saying, “When you take your children to the beach you put swimsuits on your girls, bikinis on your little ones or your big ones or teenagers,” she said. “I think there are just as many or more pedophiles at the beach and in the park and anywhere ... I do not believe pageants are a breeding ground for pedophiles.” To compare wearing a bikini at the beach to a hooker outfit in a toddler beauty pageant is outrageous. For one thing, a bikini is acceptable in our society; there are not sexual connotations for young girls wearing an ordinary swimsuit. Swimming involves showing parts of your body in your swimsuit. There is however, a problem with a child wearing a hooker costume at a beauty pageant. This sends negative connotations and makes the rest of society wonder how the mother of this child could let them walk around this way.
If Dickey doesn’t think how she and other mothers dress their daughters is suggestive and sexualizing them, she is greatly mistaken. The mothers are condoning maturity and sexuality these toddlers could not possibly understand or need to understand at their young age. The mothers, whether they realize it or not, are sexualizing their daughters way too young.