‘Sunshine’ iluminates societal problem
Published 8:32 am Monday, February 19, 2007
The small-budget independent film “Little Miss Sunshine” makes an unlikely Oscar contender, but after garnering four nominations (Best Film included), it has gained buzz as the Little Movie that Could.
Although a little rough around the edges for children (scenes with profanity, drug use, attempted suicide), its charm is in one little girl’s desire to be like the pretty Miss America contestants she sees on television.
The greater lesson is one for adults.
Olive, played by adorable child actress Abigail Breslin, lucks into a chance to compete, not realizing she is up against professionals — little girls whose entire lives have been spent perfecting their appearances.
The girls in the pageant, according to trivia abut the film on the Internet Movie Database Web site, are played by real child contestants, wearing their pageant costumes and performing their own talents.
The sight of these 7-year-olds vamping onto the stage for the swimsuit (you read it right) competition is frightening. Loretta-Lynn hairdos and false eyelashes do not belong on children. Will they soon be getting implants?
It is this type of focus on appearances at any cost that led to the death of 18-year-old fashion model Eliana Ramos Tuesday in Uruguay from a heart attack some say was brought on by subsisting on lettuce and Diet Coke. Her 22-year-old sister Luisel, also a model, died last August in the same manner.
They died because for too many years we have sent our girls the message that only pretty people are winners.
In Limestone County, most child beauty contestants do not look this extreme. We publish pageant photos in The News Courier and are happy to showcase the beautiful children here, who do not typically look as heavily made up as the girls in the film. They are lovely, normal young girls.
Some officials of local and area pageants are trying to make changes and stipulate in the rules that the youngest girls are not allowed to wear makeup.
This rule gets our vote.
However, following pageants, we get numerous complaints (and photos that prove them) that despite these rules, children wearing makeup are crowned winners.
Why have a rule that will not be enforced? Not only are these officials reinforcing the message that children and their parents should use any measures to enhance their child’s appearance, they are putting the children who follow the rules at a disadvantage.
Now they have the message that appearance is what matters most and that you can cheat if it means winning.
As Olive’s humorous attempt at a seductively adult “talent” routine in “Little Miss Sunshine” so vividly illustrates, little girls are not ready to be Pamela Anderson.
And what parents and pageant officials should ask themselves is: Do we want them to be?