Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen (2001) (TV)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Shari Cookson

Writer:

Shari Cookson (writer)

Release Date:

13 May 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Documentary about the subculture of child beauty pageants (usually restricted to girls no older than 5), showing the lengths to which some parents will go to ensure that their children win these pageants... |

Plot Keywords:

Pageant | Beauty | Beauty Pageant | Children | Dress

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Swan Brooner	...	Herself
Robin Browne	...	Herself (swan's mother)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Craig Scime	...	Himself - host
Tim Whitmer	...	Himself

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Home Box Office (HBO)

Quotes:

Leslie Butler: I told you I could win something.

Spot the Barbies

Filmmaker Sharon Cookson follows the beauty pageant path of Swan Brooner. Coached by her mother, Robyn, Swan is taught how to behave on stage, how to be looked at. She is told to make eye contact, or to `spot' the judges. As theorist John Berger would say Swan is the surveyed, while the judges are the surveyors. We as audience members are surveyors as well, but we see the whole picture, including the training, the `tough love' that Robyn provides, the make up and hair process as well as seeing Swan act like a kid once in a while. Through seeing all of this, the camera does not re-objectify her and does not present her to us as a sexual object, as opposed to a simple tape of just the beauty pageant itself may do. We as an audience are a panopticon (Foucault's term for an instrument that sees all) because we see all of these things, or we see all of what Cookson wants us to see.

Robyn forms her daughter's looks and behavior based on the stereotypical female, such as Barbies (hence the title Living Dolls). A big part of the pageants includes close up headshots, even for those as young as a few months, where they are made up to look like pre-madonnas posing for Vogue. Their eyes are accentuated with eyeliner and big eyelashes, fake teeth, as well as hair extensions, hair coloring, and make up caked on to a ridiculous extent. Swan and the other girls are also encouraged to flirt with a man who serenades them, by batting their long, fake eyelashes.

Another rather ironic and disturbing part of the documentary is Robyn's role as a mother. Yes she is putting all this time and energy into her daughter, but she neglects the rest of her family. Her other daughter insists that she's dedicated, yet when her other son Bubba runs away, she seems un-phased and determined to stay focused on Swan's pageants. Later Bubba gets put into a juvenile detention hall, yet Robyn still insists on using over 70,000 dollars on Swan rather then helping her son.

This in depth look at child beauty pageants and the non existent childhood of Swan makes a big statement and critique not only on the practice of pageants but of the people behind the pageants, the parents.