The Hewitt Times

Honey Boo Boo: the notorious six-year-old pageant queen from Georgia known for her rural roots and unbelievable energy.

On the surface, she is quite a harmless Energizer Boonny. But her story raises three serious concerns: the rising media trend of sexualizing children, the unhealthy diets of pageant children, and the frightening new implications of fame.

Her stardom arose as a result of Toddlers and Tiaras, a TLC reality show that films pageant kids walking on stage with ‘flippers’ (fake teeth), fake nails, fake tans, tons of makeup, and dresses that really cost over $500. Pageants have been around for a long time, but they have insidiously become less about poise and self-confidence and more about glitz and glam. Toddlers and Tiaras does almost nothing but promote the sexualization of children. It’s concerning that such young girls, under the false pretense that sexuality implies beauty, feel the need to dress and act so promiscuously.

Alana (Honey Boo Boo’s real name) said sassily in an interview, “Those girls must be crazy if they think they’re going to beat me Honey Boo Boo child.” Later in the interview, she pointed to her belly while claiming, “The judges don’t know a good thing when they see it.” Although Alana’s confidence and body image are sometimes admired, she and her mother, “The Coupon Queen”, have sparked genuine concerns and controversy among the public.

Honey Boo Boo mentioned that her “special juice is going to help her win.” What is this special juice, aka “go-go juice”? The concoction, a combination of Red Bull and Mountain Dew, is intended to hype her up for pageants…as if she isn’t hyper enough already. The many appalled by Alana’s unhealthy diet have gone so far as to say that Honey Boo Boo’s mother is “doping her six year old.”

Many energy drinks have proven to have dangerous effects on the body, especially for youth. The scary thing is that it’s not just Alana who regularly consumes dangerously high concentrations of sugar and caffeine. Alana has merely shed a light on the activities of many other pageant queens. Parents are giving their pageant children ten Pixy Stix to guzzle down right before a show. It’s called “pageant crack.”

Even though Honey Boo Boo and her mother have had their fair share of critique, the southern-raised beauty queen has gained millions of fans since last year, when clips of her went viral. So far, she has been interviewed by countless talk-show hosts, including Anderson Cooper and Jimmy Kimmel.

Toddlers in tiaras talk about tummies with Anderson Cooper:

Boo Boo and Momma discuss nicknames and coupons on Jimmy Kimmel Live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPdM3S1YrA4

My concern is that our society is debased. Through the explosion of the Internet, and YouTube in particular, fame has been redefined. It’s no longer about doing something skillful or noteworthy, but rather breaking through the clutter and doing something ridiculous enough for people to question the sanity of humankind (c.f. Rebecca Black’s hit single, “Friday”).

Just a while ago, before the Internet boomed, celebrities included people like Martin Luther King Jr and Sally Ride, the first female to go into space.

It’s not my place to say whether or not someone is deserving of “fame”, but I recognize a pattern in today’s pop culture. Most (but not all) celebrities are those who actively seek attention…and will do whatever it takes to get it.

These attention-seekers are fed by society’s distorted idea of celebrity. For example, TLC has given Alana her own reality show, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. She must constantly behave outlandishly because, unfortunately, that’s what people on the other side of the cameras like to see.

As Andy Warhol once said, “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Today’s innumerable reality shows, including Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and Jersey Shore, prove Mr. Warhol right.

I fear that if Honey Boo Boo continues to grow up in the spotlight, she will buckle under the pressure and continuously conform to “reality TV criteria”. Could there be more to Honey Boo Boo than we will ever know?

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