I just learned of the most disgusting thing I have seen for a long time...

[Timeless Rebellion]

I just learned of this thing called a Honey Boo Boo. Appearently, the recipe for making one is taking a small girl, carving her out and turning her into a soulless, rude doll of some sort and then stuffing it on TV.
It is encouraged by this TV cult show called Toddlers and Tiaras - a cult that wholely endorses as well as encourages witless parents to sacrifice their children for TV time.
However, this Honey Boo Boo thing now has it's own reality show.

Personally, I think this, as well as Toddlers and Tiaras, is a disgusting abuse of children!
I could get on board with the idea of most other reality shows as this is adults who - in all fairness - should have the wit to make their own choices. However dumb these adults are, they are adults nonetheless, and therefore, I can just zap away and shake my head in disbelief.
But when you start taking children who are supposed to wear jammies and have chocolate all over their faces and stuff them into clothes that would be revealing even for adults, I draw the god damned line.

What the fuck is happening to this world? I sure as hell don't want to live on this planet any longer.....

[Renatus]

Welcome to American quality television. She makes more than any of us most likely. But you haven't even heard the worst part, she apparently for the sake of show ratings goes to the dump and picks out clothes and other used, soiled, smelly, unhealthy, flea and tick ridden items for her use on the show. Sure that's what she apparently did before she had her own show but still with that sort of money they shouldn't force her to still do that.

Frankly if I didn't think the show's producers had child services on their payroll, I would think child services would take her away, and prosecute the show producers.

[Renatus]

I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a reality tv show where they divide the participants into two groups, pretending to be in a prison, one group being the guards, and the other group being the prisoners..... and keep it running for 10 seasons.

[Renatus]

Here watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0App7QizQCU

[Timeless Rebellion]

She is too young to understand how she is being used...
I think it is horrible....

Originally Posted by Renatus

Here watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0App7QizQCU

I don't wannaaaaa...... But those are still grown-ups. Therein lies the difference.

[Miss Absynthe]

WRT the child services comment.. she's being fed, educated and isn't being beaten or abused. I think that CS has it's hands full trying to juggle (and failing) the cases of actual abuse going on.

Now, this isn't to say that I think that the entire thing is healthy.. the pageant thing is ridiculously offensive and destructive. It reinforces body-policing and perpetuates the sexualisation of women by targeting these children. It's atrocious and shouldn't be allowed.. but when you compare it with the sort of thing that CS deals with...

[Solumina]

Actually when it comes to how pageants reinforce unhealthy body images and such Honey Boo Boo is actually good because she does have a natural figure for a girl her age, because of this she is labeled as fat but she really isn't and she is happy with herself.

The other thing about Honey Boo Boo is that there is an honesty about that family, the network is using them but it doesn't seem like the family is acting in a way that is unusual...at least for them anyway. Yes, I'm sure creative editing is used to make the family look super dramatically bad but really these sorts of people aren't that impossibly uncommon, they are the epitome of white trash and they aren't who you really want to have as role models but at least they embrace who they are.

That being said I don't understand why anyone would ever want to watch the show.

[Timeless Rebellion]

My whole point of conflict in this is not the reality part of the show or the way the network is using them.
It is that the family enters their 6-year-old daughter into this before she is old enough to truly understand what is going on.
I think it is vile and cruel.

[Versus]

Out of all of the things that people talk about on g.net, this is not only bad enough to comment on, but bad enough for it's own thread?

[ape descendant]

Whatever, I'll do what I want.

[AshleyO]

I'm with Timless Rebellion on this one.

I saw Honey Boo Boo from a friend and I was rather shocked.

There's this line in reality TV that I feel is pretty bad. One; this little girl may be getting paid handsomely for being more of something no one should ever really want to be (white trash). Two; she gets sexualized by pageant culture which sends a bad message to young girls.

You know what? Fuck it. That show just reeks of fucked uppedness.

[Renatus]

They also give her tons of energy drinks apparently, not the healthy kind, the kind you have all night gamers drinking, to keep them constantly full of energy. Except in this case it's to keep her constantly hyper for the sake of the show.

[Miss Absynthe]

Originally Posted by AshleyO

That show just reeks of fucked uppedness.

This is the first time I've considered that perhaps reality television *does* portray actual reality.

[Timeless Rebellion]

Originally Posted by Versus

Out of all of the things that people talk about on g.net, this is not only bad enough to comment on, but bad enough for it's own thread?

Yes. Yes it is.
This is the whining section, and this, I believe, is worth a thread in here.

Renatus: Hopefully, the energy drink thing is a cruel myth... Otherwise, we just crossed the line from idiocy to child abuse.

[Renatus]

Originally Posted by Timeless Rebellion

Yes. Yes it is.
This is the whining section, and this, I believe, is worth a thread in here.

Renatus: Hopefully, the energy drink thing is a cruel myth... Otherwise, we just crossed the line from idiocy to child abuse.

Heard about while being forced to listen to a celebrity gossip news show while cooking supper.

[Solumina]

It's redbull and mountain dew not healthy but not as dangerous as some of the other energy boosters on the market, plus she isn't forced to drink it she likes it. This is not child abuse, there is nothing abusive shown on the show or any indications that something abusive is going on behind the scenes, though for whatever reason people seem to love to say just how bad this show is for Honey Boo Boo.

This is a family where both parents have criminal records, they live below the poverty line, all of the kids have different fathers, nobody bats an eye at the teenager being pregnant, salvaging stuff from the dump is not just something that they do but an integral part of their lives, and they eat roadkill. The show is probably the only thing in her life that is providing any stability and the family got just under $25,000 for the first season, which isn't exactly hitting the jack pot but it does provide them with a hint of financial stability that they did not have before.

[Blue_Ballerina]

Originally Posted by Miss Absynthe

This is the first time I've considered that perhaps reality television *does* portray actual reality.

haha. I agree Aby.

But child abuse, no. If it were liquor or cocaine then yes. It's unhealthy yes probably not the best decision on the part of the parents but it's not like she is saying "NO, MOM I HATE MOUTAIN DEW! AHHH!The taste of Red Bull makes me puke. Please no more Mommie!" as her mom forces her mouth open with a spacer and pours the liquidy poison down her throat laughing manically.

That Sex House reality parody is hilarious.

[Miss Absynthe]

Originally Posted by Solumina

This is a family where both parents have criminal records, they live below the poverty line, all of the kids have different fathers, nobody bats an eye at the teenager being pregnant, salvaging stuff from the dump is not just something that they do but an integral part of their lives, and they eat roadkill. The show is probably the only thing in her life that is providing any stability and the family got just under $25,000 for the first season, which isn't exactly hitting the jack pot but it does provide them with a hint of financial stability that they did not have before.

The assumption that parents with criminal records, kids having different fathers, pregnant teenagers, salvaging from a tip and eating roadkill is equated with instability is worrisome.

[Solumina]

Would you like me to keep listing more contributing factors? It was a very short list of examples, more are easy to find, but that aside these things do contribute to instability in a her home life. No one factor proves an unstable living environment but together they do start to paint a picture. I also want to pointedly say that instability is just that, instability, no more, no less. It does not mean that a family is not loving and it does not mean that a child growing up in such an environment is doomed or some such thing, but there are plenty of studies that show children are more likely to be successful with stabilizing influences in their life.

I do notice that you did not list living below the poverty line, was that just an oversight? If not why is that different?

[Timeless Rebellion]

Originally Posted by Solumina

It's redbull and mountain dew not healthy but not as dangerous as some of the other energy boosters on the market, plus she isn't forced to drink it she likes it. This is not child abuse, there is nothing abusive shown on the show or any indications that something abusive is going on behind the scenes, though for whatever reason people seem to love to say just how bad this show is for Honey Boo Boo.

This is a family where both parents have criminal records, they live below the poverty line, all of the kids have different fathers, nobody bats an eye at the teenager being pregnant, salvaging stuff from the dump is not just something that they do but an integral part of their lives, and they eat roadkill. The show is probably the only thing in her life that is providing any stability and the family got just under $25,000 for the first season, which isn't exactly hitting the jack pot but it does provide them with a hint of financial stability that they did not have before.

I see your point, and I do see why the family agreed to do the show. I can't say I know what it feels like to live like that, because I truly don't. Compared to some people, I was born with silver in every orifice of my body. I can't even claim I wouldn't have made the same choice, because I do not know.
But it is just so grotesque of the network either way, and the fact that people want to watch it is beyond me.

[Acharis]

It is very fucked up, I don't agree with beauty pageants (especially not for children)... I've never watched those shows, only just saw one Youtube clip to see who this Honey Boo Boo was.

But at least the kid only does it for the money and seems to take it all with a grain of salt. "Beauty is so boring, I don't wanna do it." "This is what I'll show the judges. lol " *wibbles belly*

I hope she never takes it seriously enough to internalise the values and have it affect her.

[Miss Absynthe]

Originally Posted by Solumina

Would you like me to keep listing more contributing factors? It was a very short list of examples, more are easy to find, but that aside these things do contribute to instability in a her home life. No one factor proves an unstable living environment but together they do start to paint a picture. I also want to pointedly say that instability is just that, instability, no more, no less. It does not mean that a family is not loving and it does not mean that a child growing up in such an environment is doomed or some such thing, but there are plenty of studies that show children are more likely to be successful with stabilizing influences in their life.

I do notice that you did not list living below the poverty line, was that just an oversight? If not why is that different?

I totally agree with you that children are more likely to be successful with stabilizing influences in their lives, and would add that parents with criminal records, kids having different fathers, pregnant teenagers, salvaging from a tip and eating roadkill are not in themselves destabilising factors.

Poverty is a destabilising factor in and of itself.

[BourbonBoy]

And people wonder why I don't watch TV...

[Blue_Ballerina]

All this show really is, is the ability to make those who are not struggling to make ends meet feel better about their jaded little lives. They want to turn on the television and laugh their asses off about how stupid poor hicks are and then turn off the telly and comfort themselves with a carton of ice cream and tell themselves how wonderful their life with a Mercedes Benz and three story mansion where their divorce in on the rocks and they haven't had an orgasm in a decade.
It's really sad that they are ****** a child's life in the process because she IS too young to understand how she is being used. I'm sure when she grows up and sees all of this, she is going to rage and have a fit. Probably end up like Vanilla Ice, breaking shit because she is so pissed if she doesn't let it seep into her consciousness.
I totally don't agree with child pageants either. The skimpy clothes, forced precocious attitude and pounds of make up are a ********** masturbating material and it basically like kiddie porn. I hate it and would never want my child in that lifestyle.

[Miss Absynthe]

Originally Posted by Blue_Ballerina

It's really sad that they are ****** a child's life in the process because she IS too young to understand how she is being used. The skimpy clothes, forced precocious attitude and pounds of make up are a ********** masturbating material and it basically like kiddie porn. I hate it and would never want my child in that lifestyle.

I have to ask what the first lot of *'s are?

And please don't equate it to ped0philia and child pornography.. to do so trivialises those things.