So there’s this show called Dance Moms on Lifetime, which Gawker points out is the TV network that "celebrates, entertains, and supports women.”
Well, they just had their “Topless Showgirls” episode taken off the air.
Yup, for a dance routine, these 8- to 13-year-old girls pretended to be topless and do a burlesque performance.
Can anybody say ewww?
The show has already aired once, but after a less-than-stellar response, Lifetime has decided to make this episode unavailable—although you can see a clip at Gawker.
In "Topless Showgirls," Pittsburgh dance instructor Abby Lee Miller teaches her students a "classic" burlesque fan dance, which they are to perform in flesh-toned bras to create the "illusion of nudity." The dance must convey that the children are "hot," "mean," and that men "can't afford" them.I guess the idea of sexualizing little girls and the harm it can cause has not crossed the radar of these mothers or producers.
Though the girls wince at the prospect of appearing naked onstage and their mothers cringe at the skimpy costumes, the show goes on, and the girls perform at a children's dance competition. "I like to push the envelope," Miller says. "And this is taking it right to the limit."
The worst part that can be seen in even this small video clip is that the girls themselves seem very uncomfortable with the whole idea. And even though their own mothers are cringing the whole time, they still send their daughters out on the stage.
At what price do we dress up our little girls and make them enter a grown-up world before they even have a need to wear a bra?
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