Argumentative Essay On Beauty Pageants

In America Over 250,000 children are entered into a beauty pageant annually and out of that number over 50% of those children wind up having issues in their teenage and adult years. Also 73% of parents who have kids in beauty pageants spend more money on the pageant instead of their kids' education. Is this a serious issue? Yes, Child beauty pageants became part of the American society in the 1960’s. They were originally for teenagers 13-17 years old. However child beauty pageants have become more and more popular and now children as little as toddlers participate in these pageants. Children who are entered in beauty pageants have a negative future ahead of them. Beauty pageants have created unrealistic expectations for young girls because these stereotypes contribute to low self esteem, depression, and eating disorders.

The article “Toddlers in Tiara’s” by Skip Hollandsworth based off the popular TV show Toddlers and Tiara’s, converses the sexualization of the girls who participate in American beauty pageants. Hollandsworth parleys the effects beauty pageants could possibly have on those who participate in the pageants, such as development and emotion problems. Using the appeals of logic, emotion and ethics in a serious and informative tone he persuades his audience of parents, pageant participants and viewers of the widely known TV show the negative effects of being an American Beauty Pageant contestant. Hollandsworth gains credibility by referencing the opinions of different professionals and authorities. Before the death of JonBenet many Americans didn’t

Child beauty pageants may seem like harmless fun, but the actual effects it has on adolescents is not worth the public adoration. Some people believe that pageants do not have long lasting effects on them, and that, for children, pageants just give them the opportunity to play dress up. Even though children may not be affected immediately, the values that pageants instill are buried in their subconscious. By judging children at such young ages based solely off outward appearance, they grow up with a distorted psyche, which later affects them in their adult life. Since the media provides children with unrealistic standards of appearance, and pageants teach them that attractiveness is the key to success, many downsides follow, including poor

Wiehe wrote about young girls in beauty pageant in the article, Nothing Pretty in Child Pageants and she also talked about the television show named Toddlers and Tiaras. This television show gave viewers a behind the scene look at what the young girls go thru before, during, and after the pageants. Some of the kids began their first pageant around the age of 2. On this television show kids are being paraded around in their hair extensions, added eyelashes, false teeth and high heel shoes. Parents are seen on occasion yelling and pulling on these girls in order to get them to cooperate. Also, on this show some of the girls are forced to participate in these pageants only for the self-gratification of their mom. This type of atmosphere only hinders a child’s development process it does not encourage young girls to be individuals or build their character. Girls around the age of 5 are normally playing dress up and not being forced to dress in a fashion that attack the audience attention. These girls are being sexualized at an early age. This often portrays the wrong message not only to the individual but to society. They are forced to dress and act like adults at an early age.

Imagining if one day you saw your five year old daughter with a full face of makeup and high heels. Now she looks like a miniature adult. Not only is she a miniature adult, but now she also is very self conscious of herself and has an eating disorder at five years old. Child beauty pageants have some pros and a of lot cons to them. Also, they can affect a child’s development. One should consider that child beauty pageants can lead to a lot of mental health issues for kids at a very young age.

Child beauty pageants started in the 1960’s, and have been increasingly more popular in the past decade. Currently, there are over two hundred-fifty thousand children under the age of fourteen competing in beauty pageants (Triggs et al 2012). There are no age limits in place; age groups range from zero months to eight months all the way up until eighteen years of age. Parents who enter their children in pageants can damage their children for the rest of their lives. However, pageants do help the beauty industry, and essentially create jobs.

“It doesn’t matter if you can breathe. All that matters is if you look good”. Just Googling the search term “beauty pageants coming up,” will result in 2,710,000 results appearing in 1.18 seconds. Children are the fastest-growing segment of the beauty pageant market, with annual children's competitions attracting an estimated 3 million children, mostly girls, ages six months to 16 years, who compete for crowns and cash. Infants, carried onto the stage by their mothers, are commonplace. April Brilliant, reigning Mrs. Maryland and the director of Maryland-based Mystic Pageants, says pageants give little girls a chance to "play Cinderella." However, playing ‘Cinderella’ can cause children to develop insecurities or self-hatred if they don't

Zinzi Williams explains the downsides of pageantry in “Do Pageant Children Behave Differently than Other Kids?” The central claim is that there are many psychological differences between children who compete in the world of pageantry and children who don’t. Williams states the minor claims that children who compete in beauty pageants put beauty ahead of schoolwork and play time. Her other minor claim is that beauty contests affect the way the children who compete view their bodies and there overall appearance. She states that statistic that if there are 20 girls competing in the pageant, that each contestant only has a 5% chance of winning, which is very slim! Williams explains that in her research she found that on WebMD, a medical website,

This makes girls be less confident in them and be more self conscious about their looks. Having a low-self steam then leads into depression. According to Martina M. Cartwright, a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Arizona, teens that used to participate in beauty pageants are more likely to develop eating disorders and have body problem images (5 Reasons Child Pageants Are Bad for Kids). In the long run, girls could get into many eating disorders because they try to hard to achieve a rocking body and they can develop anorexia or bulimia.

When I hear the word toddler I think of little girls walking around in mommy’s shoes, and miss matched clothing (because she’s getting to the age where she likes to dress herself.) And of course a cute smile that’s missing a few teeth. The word glitz, glamour and sashes don’t come to mind. Nor does the image of a little girl who’s fake from head to toe. Wearing wigs, flippers (fake teeth), inappropriate /reveling attire and fake tans. I don’t think of little girls dancing around a stage in front of hundreds of people getting judged on their “beauty.” Well, that is exactly what children’s pageants consist of. Pageants exploit a child for their outer beauty, their talents and over all perfection or as pageant judges would call it having” the

Beauty pageants have been around in America for decades; however, they have not gained notoriety until the show "Toddlers and Tiaras" aired on national television. The airing of "Toddlers and Tiaras" has brought child pageants to the attention of many Americans. Not many people were aware of what took place in beauty pageants, but ever since the show debuted in 2009 there has been an intense controversy about children as young as newborns being entered into pageants. Some people say that pageants raise self-esteem and teach responsibility, whereas others say that pageants are necessary and children should take advantage of their youth. Although pageants teach etiquette and communication skills, ultimately they carry a vastly high

Beauty pageants send the message to contestants that appearance is the most important thing about a person. Children will think that they need to spend thousands of dollars to make themselves look good. They will only desire to try and look beautiful and they won't care about more important things like paying bills and saving money for future things like a new house, cars, and many other things that are more important than just beauty. Pageants also encourage girls to fit narrow invented standards of beauty. Girls try and act like adult celebrities; dressing and walking like them across the stage.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the negative effects of children beauty contest on its contestants. Although many people argue that there are some benefits of this contest such as build up the confidence, self-esteem, public speaking skills, tact, and poised it is also true that it can result to negative psychological effects and interferes in child development worldwide. The Toddlers and Tiaras, and Little Miss Perfect are popular reality TV shows that features young girls the real hardship and obstacles from their mother’s pressure or preparation for the pageant. They are ages from 1 to 12 years old, with main goal of winning and get the tiara and money or ribbon or teddy bears. Generally, the parents of these young girls believe and make decision that the beauty pageant is okay. Pageants, particularly those designed for younger children, focus primarily on appearance, attire, and perceived “cuteness.”

There is an average of 5,000 beauty pageants a year with over two million contestants who sign up to participate. “Toddlers and Tiaras” is a show on TLC that first aired in 2009 and is dedicated to the viewing of child beauty pageants. The show shadows the process of getting ready and the performance of the three young girls in the contest (Padmore, 2016). The ages of the girls range from only a couple months old to young girls of around fourteen or fifteen-years-old. The juvenile individuals were pictured wearing skimpy little outfits including bikinis and short shorts with a crop top shirt. The show had an average of 1.3 million viewers every week (Padmore, 2016). That is 1.3 million people, including men and child rapists, watching these little girls wearing little or next to nothing dance around the stage. Speaking from a personal standpoint, I have watched “Toddlers and Tiaras” and have witnessed a children’s beauty pageant in person. What I saw was something I could never forget. I watched

The TLC Show, “Toddlers and Tiaras,” is not an accurate representation of all that goes into preparing children for pageants. The show dramatizes the mostly the negative side of childhood beauty pageants. It depicts competitors that want to win strictly based on appearance. Despite the bad reputation that beauty pageants have, they equip young men and women with skills and opportunities such as chances to win scholarships, improving self-confidence and promoting social skills.