What is Toddlers in Tiaras?

"The fundamental difference between games, rituals and stories is in how we approach them, not what they 'are'" (Wagner 74).

The lines between game, ritual, and story seem to shift beneath us as we attempt to understand these challenging concepts. Part of the problem lies in the huge scope of these three. They span all of human culture, all of human action, all of the little marks we've left along the way. It is quite possibly all game, ritual, and story. It would seem as if there is no shallow end in which to stop wading, put our feet down, and stand above it all. But, as the quotation from Wagner suggests, there is another layer of difficulty. As we attempt to look at any one piece of culture (can anything of culture be considered a single piece?) we are almost immediately struck by the way it seems to shift in front of us, passing from game to ritual to story, changing as often as we blink.

Toddlers in Tiaras is the example that comes to mind (guess who's watching Netflix while I do homework). The show, if you are unfamiliar, is all about the world of glitz pageantry for children. Pageant parents spend time and money (lots and lots of money) on choreographing song and dance routines, buying glittery (arguably inappropriate) outfits, and convincing hesitant spray tan technicians to give their children a tan, all in the hopes that their child will win the coveted title of "Grand Supreme". On one level this is all a game; a competition with rules and contestants, winners and losers, but look again. All the parents look toward the stage as the children enter on one side, perform, and exit on the other, all moving according to a tightly held schedule, culminating in a ceremony in which the children are crowned and given titles which they can carry out back into their everyday lives. It has all the elements of a ritual dedicated to youth, or beauty or, more likely, spending power. Still, even as we think we have this strange cultural phenomenon nailed down we look again and realize that the entire time we have been watching a television show. It was not us competing for the crown or performing for a coveted title, but rather we have been watching a story, a linear series of events that has been captured on film, cut, arranged, and delivered in a way that captures our attention, makes us laugh, makes us angry, makes us question ourselves and our own values.

I am reminded of Heidegger's concept of presencing; the way things show us their truth. If then we ask, "What is Toddlers and Tiaras?", we should not expect a single, static answer, but rather a plurality of answers. In a sense, it is always what it appears-to-be, and always more. Under these circumstances it is inappropriate attempting to hammer out unequivocally what may be called ritual, or game, or story. Those sorts of answers tend to get stale with a quickness anyway. What we need rather is to get our sea legs. To grow accustomed to traversing these choppy waters because it doesn't seem like the storm is letting up any time soon.