Oh Baby
Today's baby competitions are an odd continuation of the "better baby contests" made popular by the early 20th century American eugenics movement. Back then, infants and toddlers went through extensive examinations at county fairs and other public gatherings to determine which child exhibited the "best" characteristics. These competitions were tied closely to prevailing eugenic ideas of race betterment; contests were designed to give a pop culture spin on promoting hygiene, strength, and vigor among American families to improve their so-called breed.
What's interesting, as the KMEL firestorm shows, is how these same ideals remain latent in American society. We continue to judge babies and award prizes under the assumption that children can be placed on some hierarchy of attractiveness that speaks to their worth, if not also their family's. And, all of this centers around unarticulated yet celebrated norms of health and able-bodiness that reaffirms these characteristics as natural, normal, and good. These contests, like those in the past, generate a notion that good babies look a certain way and conform to specific social standards.
While today's baby contests aren't embedded in the eugenic ideology of the "fitter family" competitions, it's important to look at the interaction between popular culture and scientific practices that might lead to questionable outcomes. In today's case, it might suggest that the desire among some to use reproductive and genetic technologies to have designer babies that look a certain way doesn't come out of nowhere.