“Dance Moms” is a reality series on Lifetime that follows little girls who are taking lessons at the Abby Lee Dance Company. The latest episode has been causing a lot of controversy because the girls are prancing around in showgirl costumes that make them look half naked. Even the sparkly bra and panties were flesh colored!
What business does an eight year old girl have wearing this? Why isn’t this illegal? What kind of person finds this entertaining?
Dance school matron Miller defended the costumes as “stunning” and stressed that that they were “harmless” because “everyone in the industry knows the girls are completely covered.” This twisted dance instructor also crossed a lot of lines by reciting “I’m hot, I’m mean, you can’t have me, you can’t afford me,” to the girls throughout the training of the routine.
Tuesday night’s episode was titled “Topless Showgirls” which leaves little room for the shows directors to defend the kind of exposure that they are providing pedophiles.
People reacted to the controversy with the following comments:
DANCE MOMS is an unmitigated horror. Abby Lee Miller= female John Wayne Gacy
Children’s lives here in America are being destroyed too. It’s called “Dance Moms”. #Kony
Pyschological experts are afraid that the episode might encourage pedophiles and sexual predators: “As a treatment professional of sex offenders, I can tell you that adults who are attracted to minors definitely seek out shows just like this to whet their appetites,” Los Angeles-based psychologist, Dr. Nancy Irwin, told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “They may attend the shows in-person, watch them on TV and seek out Facebook still photos and YouTube clips to pleasure themselves. The sexual body movements are more concerning than the costumes.”
Throughout the morally reprehensible routine these poor unfortunate souls shimmied and thrusted their tiny bodies across the stage and mimicked burlesque dancers by using giant feather fans to conceal their torsos.
Human behavior expert Patrick Wanis, PhD, feels that the entire routine is very harmful: “This condones, encourages and motivates adults to imagine little girls dancing naked for their pleasure. Of course it will arouse pedophiles and offer them a new legal avenue to engage in their lustful thoughts as they watch the little girls ‘nude’ on television.”
Lifetime failed to address the controversy and many people have been expressing their outrage on the show’s Facebook page:
“Horrifying, irresponsible, exploitive, damaging. This didn’t just cross the line, it exploded it. I am very disappointed that the moms didn’t stop the misdirected nightmare”
“Pedophiles ALREADY justify sex with kids saying the ones they abuse are ‘hot’ and ‘sexy.’ This show gave them more ways to justify their behavior. Sick sick sick…”
Melissa Henson, director of communications and public education for the Parents Television Council, says the show has gone too far: “When you have pre-pubescent girls performing what is essentially a Las Vegas showgirl strip tease to a nationally televised audience, things have clearly gone too far,” she added. “Those responsible for the costumes and choreography should be ashamed of themselves, but one has to wonder if they would have chosen such deliberately provocative costumes if the possibility of being featured on ‘Dance Moms’ weren’t being dangled in front of them. Lifetime, and the producers and executives behind ‘Dance Moms’ are complicit in the sexualization of these innocent young girls.”