'Pageant Mom' Pushes Daughter to Extreme: What Would You Do?
Would onlookers step up or mind their own business?
May 18, 2011 -- Parents have shown how far they would go in the name of a beauty competition -- especially on national television. In TLC's popular show "Toddlers and Tiaras" pageant moms and dads go to great lengths to ensure their children look "perfect" no matter what the age or the cost. In one episode a mother forces her daughter to wax her eyebrows even though part of her eyebrow had previously been ripped off because the wax was too hot.
The Pageant Mom Scenario: We wondered how people would react when they witnessed a pageant mom going a little too far with the pageant prep. We set up our hidden cameras at Posh Nail Salon in Dallas, Texas and hired actors to portray an overly competitive mom and a young prospective pageant queen. Our pageant mom tells her hesitant daughter that she will be getting her eyebrows waxed even though a past experience proved quite painful -- and no amount of screaming or pleading will stop her. Will anybody step up and tell the mom that she's going too far? Will people react differently if we switched the pageant mom for a pageant dad?
What They Said:
"I think she's gonna grow up being anorexic and bulimic and sick and be really hard on herself, and she's going to be really upset." --Woman responding to our pageant mom actress' behavior
"The only way that you can win is if you do the waxing. All the kids are doing the wax." --Pageant mom actress during a scene
"We're building a career. We're building a brand."--Pageant dad actor responding to a concerned salon patron
"It seems you want it more than she does."--Woman responding to pageant dad after he insists his daughter wants a pageant crown
Watch the scenario unfold on "What Would You Do?" Friday at 9 p.m. ET.
