I’m sure you’ve heard about the controversial new show on TLC starring 7 year-old pageant queen Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson. Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is a spin-off of the equally controversial Toddlers and Tiaras, where Alana’s colorful personality made her a stand out. It’s actually not really fair to say that Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is controversial, because everyone has pretty much agreed that it is horrifying. The show has been referred to as “the end of civilization,” “offensive,” and “a horror story posing as a reality television show.”
I must agree that the show is difficult to watch, despite being TLC’s highest rated program. Alana and her family are not a pretty sight, nor are they easy to root for. Their life seems completely alien from the ones we are usually presented with on television – even reality television caters to the rich and famous. But I have to say that most of the criticism is overblown and hurtful, coming from people who have not (or have barely) watched the show at all. There are some interesting dynamics that emerge in the series that are completely overlooked in favor of more popular white trash bashing. Here are a few examples:
- It features one of the most loving, supportive families on television today.
When was the last show you watched with a family that spent time together? Looked out for each other? Reiterated constantly that they are proud of each other just they way they are? Maybe on some 1980s sitcom, but nowadays dysfunctional, disconnected families clog the airwaves. Sentiment is out, snark is in. This is not so true in the Thompson household. They argue and swear and have terrible manners, but they are the most supportive family I have seen that is actually related to each other.
When Alana does her pageants, guess who’s in the audience? Her entire family. That’s her mom, in a custom-made “Work it, Smoochy!” shirt, her three sisters and her dad. Her dad, “Sugar Bear,” works seven days a week and still comes to all her kiddie pageants to support her and cheer her on. Alana calls her sister Jessica (“Chubbs”) her best friend. While attending the annual Redneck Games (go with me here), they compete in events together. When they all lose, they express emphatically, “I did my family proud.”
I admit they sometimes use the, “I accept you unconditionally,” mantra as an excuse for bad habits and manners. Why eat healthy, lose weight or aspire to better yourself in any way when you have a family that says you’re fine just the way you are? It’s maybe not the perfect family dynamic for Alana in the way of ambition, but at least she feels loved.
- Alana is confident, perseverant and fearless.
You might be hard-pressed to find positive female role models for young girls on television. Modern-day girls are struggling under the personal pressures of insecurity, body image and societal pressure to succeed and achieve. One of the reasons Alana was such a surprise (or slap in the face) to the girls on Toddlers and Tiaras was that she is here to have fun and she doesn’t give a s*** what anyone thinks. Those little tiara’d girls were obsessed with looking thin in their dresses, being perfect, talented and winning. Alana wanted to put a sparkly dress, get some attention and applause and hopefully go home with something shiny. She’s a kid! And a damn confident one at that.
Alana doesn’t win a lot. She used to, but now as she grows older the pageants increasingly value beauty and grace over attitude and gusto. She is told at nearly every pageant while squeezing into standard gowns that she must lose weight. She is told she must be more refined. She is criticized constantly. But she keeps coming back, still angling for something shiny to wear.
No matter how many times she is sent home without a prize, she is undeterred. She mourns for about five seconds before declaring how fabulous she is and predicting her next victory. It’s actually very inspiring. I don’t know anyone who truly, unironically thinks they are beautiful and fabulous and deserves to win things. That’s sad. I hope Alana never grows up and loses that unshakeable faith she has in herself.
- It honestly represents the America we like to pretend doesn’t exist.
Addressed in the first episode is whether or not the Thompsons are “rednecks.” Half argue proudly that they are. The others argue they are not, primarily because they still have all their teeth. Whether or not they are technically “rednecks,” they are certainly not the liberal, educated, middle to upper-class family we are used to seeing. They are those people represented on the graphs you saw in your college classroom. They are the factor discussed on that news show you like. They are the uneducated, obese, lower-class “demographic” that you have nothing in common with, or at least the reviewers at the New York Times have nothing in common with. You scrolled past their picture on People of Walmart.com.
The Thompsons are the part of America that we laugh about on The Soup and The Daily Show but don’t actually know or want to know. They are the pageant families, the people who voted for George Bush, the extreme couponers who think they save money by buying marked-down junk food that brings them closer and closer to the diabetes we’ll have to pay for in the universal healthcare system that they didn’t vote for. Her mom was pregnant at sixteen, her sister is pregnant at seventeen. We can make jokes about her future as a teen mom in Boston or Los Angeles, but no one is laughing in the Thompson household where that is a definite possibility, and not an unwelcome one.
The Thompsons are completely in-your-face about the America we like to think doesn’t exist – or doesn’t influence us. It’s disturbing to watch because they don’t care that you find them disgusting and they don’t want to be like you. I don’t know whether or not they should change, but I know we can’t get mad at a television show for showing us a truth we don’t want to see.
I could go on, but I’ll stop here. I’m not saying you should watch the show – it is definitely not for everyone – but maybe I gave you something to think about next time you hear an uninformed Honey Boo Boo crack. Work it, Smoochy!