Baby Beauty Queens

Title: Baby Beauty Queens

Source: BBC3
Date: 20/07/2009
 

Synopsis:
 

As the American phenomenon of the children's beauty pageant hits the UK, this documentary uncovers a surreal new world where nine-year-olds get fake tans and seven-year-olds wear contact lenses.

With the grand final of the first-ever Mini Miss UK beauty contest taking place at a leisure centre in Milton Keynes, it soon becomes clear that tantrums and tiaras may prevail over perfect poses and pouts. The mastermind behind the pageant is a middle-aged ex-beauty queen, who plans the entire event from her stairwell in Colchester.

The film follows three girls and their mothers in the lead-up to the big event, and as they prepare to dazzle the judges the real reasons why they are desperate to be crowned Mini Miss UK become apparent. From the evangelical Christians who are convinced that God will help them win the pageant, to the disadvantaged kid for whom the contest holds the key to a better life, the film portrays an eccentric, and at times disturbing, snapshot of modern Britain.
 

Analysis:

The open sequence of this documentary contains images of young girls getting made-up like adults, getting spray tans and dancing, sometimes, provocatively. The voice over during this sequence gives this doumentary a factual feel and makes the audience believe in this representation of young beauty queens. The close up shot of a young girl named Maddisons face covered in make-up, paired with Maddisons voice narrating over the top, makes the audience connect with her and realise just how young she is. The shot of Maddison sitting in her room, playing with her toys again shows the audience how young she is, this shot is one I will take inspiration from in my own documentary.

 This  documentary also fits very well in to my synopsis and what I would like to achieve in my documentary, Maddisons mum works in a beauty salon and is therefore her main influence. The Second part of this documentary follows a young girl called Tyla whos mother forces her into wearing contact lenses and getting surgary on her ears, which again is part of what I wish to show in my own documentary. There are three main stereotypes within Baby Beauty Queens. That of the overly pushy, rich mums who would push their children into what they thought was best and disregard their apparent unhappyness.

That of the overly enthusiastic daughter who wishes to be just like her mother wants her to be, as seen in Maddison. Finally that of the daughter that wishes to be free of what her mother is forcing her into and make her own way. The target niche audience of Baby Beauty Queens is mainly of mums from all demographic groups,  who could either watch it and relate to the parents or watch it in discust, the main reason it was broadcast on BBC3 rather than a main stream channel. The most explicit ideology in Baby Beauty Queens is that parents are pushing their children, in particular their daughters, to grow up too fast. However in this documentary it is possible for each audience member to bring their own ideologies and meanings to it.

In this short section of the documentary there are four different smaller narratives all building up to one bigger narrative. The main narrative of Baby Beauty Queens is that of three young girls, Maddison, Tyler and Sasha all preparing for their debute beauty pagent. This narrative is backed up by many sub-narratives such as Maddisons mums narrative of being a beautician and a born again Christian, and Sasha's mothers narrative of being less well off than the other mothers but still wanting to push her child into something she enjoys doing.

The particular documentary is in summary form as the discourse time is shorter than the story time. Use of captions again clarifies that it is a factual documentary. The type of documentary that best fits Baby Beauty Queens is a hybrid of a Documentary account as it follows all the events leading up to the beauty pagent with different accounts and perspectives being offered, and a fly-on-the-wall as it studies this particular situation in great detail.