Child 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.

Parents are putting their beauty contestant in scandalous outfits, and mistreating their child’s body. JonBenet Ramsey was a six-year-old beauty pageant contestant. She was brutally beaten and murdered, and her dead body was found in a storage room by her father. Many believe that the cause of her murder was due to her involvement in beauty pageants. The sexualization of her body by being scantily dressed and heavy makeup is believed to have caused her death. Parents take extreme measures to make their child flawless. Duct tape, vaseline, super glue, hemorrhoid cream, and many other crazy things are being used on children, which could have a painful after effect (Panahi).

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.

Beauty pageants are an unnecessary entertainment of society because they set unrealistic beauty standards for an audience of easily influenced young women. In the world of beauty pageants, there is only one kind of beauty. This one kind of beauty is "Barbie": tall, long-legged, tiny waist, straight white teeth, long thick hair. These beauty pageants can be misleading and harmful, not only to women without this body type, but also to society as a whole. The standard that beauty pageants strive for is not an all-encompassing idea of beauty, but one that is shallow and looks only at a woman's physical appearance. In a study released in September 2013, 131 female beauty pageant contestants from 43 states completed an anonymous study. 26% reported that they had been told or perceived they had an eating disorder, 48.5% reported wanting to be thinner and 57% were trying to lose weight. Beauty pageant organizers have striven for years to ensure that contestants have an opportunity to show their skills before they are crowned a "beauty queen", but the reality is that a woman not fitting the unrealistic ‘Barbie’ physical standards of beauty competition would never be considered to win a competition.

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,

Parents that make the decisions based off of their child, may not always choose the right choice. By putting a child through all of the dressing up, putting on makeup, and so forth, the child can do nothing but accept it and let it happen. According to a study by Anna Wonderlich, it has been determined that kids throughout their childhood have an increased body dissatisfaction and greater impulsive behaviors (Lorenzano). The increased body dissatisfaction can derive from the makeup, spray tans, and wigs that the children are used to wearing. Since they were so used to looking glamorous for the majority of their childhood, they almost never want to look any different from the way they did at pageants. They developed an idea in their head that in order to be successful and win, they must always look and be perfect (Lorenzano). In younger children, their behavior can become more impulsive. Since they are always pressured to win, they develop a tendency to act upon things that are not to their satisfaction or when they do not win. According to Dr. Georgia Witkin, children have trouble understanding the judgement process because throughout their childhood they want to try something new, be thrown into situations that they feel completely insecure about, and open themselves to criticism and (in their minds) ridicule (Lorenzano). Young girls

“John Ramsey and his family skyrocketed to national prominence in 1996, when Ramsey's 6-year-old daughter JonBenét, a frequent child pageant contestant,was found murdered” (The Week). Ramsey knew that it was wrong to put her in the pageant in the first place. He states that “it's just a bad idea to put your child on public display” (The Week Staff). And shows like Toddlers and Tiaras that chronicle child pageants are "bizarre," Ramsey says, as pageants encourage young children to develop problematic levels of competitiveness, and focus too much on their appearance” (The Week Staff). This is a reason why beauty pageants are bad for younger girls and boys. They sexualize them and cause cognitive and emotional problems. Instead the pageants should be fun without all the drama. Even though children can be persuaded to do pretty much anything when they are involved with something they do not want to be participating in.

Beauty Pageants over sexualizes little girls at a young age. As it seen in “Toddlers and Tiaras” a show by TLC show, little girls are being sexualized at a young age, by introducing them to hair extensions, make up, flippers (fake teeth), sexualized dresses. According to Paul Peterson, president and founder of A Minor Consideration, beauty pageants are “feeding the sex industry (Agadoni).” Girls are not physically ready to wear make up or hair extensions, and all of that just hides the natural beauty of a child making them more self conscious about themselves at such a young age. Little girls are going to think of themselves as not beautiful because they hide their real selves behind a ton of make up.

Pageants with beautiful little girls that look as if they could be in their twenties can catch the eye of anyone. Dating back to the 1960’s when beauty pageants first started out, young girls have been participating in them, showing off their looks and talents to the world. Ever since the beginning, pageants have been very popular and the popularity is always growing. Most people watch the movies and tv shows about it and even attend these pageants and do not see anything wrong with what is going on. However, these pageants are harmful to the little girls and cause body image and self-esteem issues in the adult years of the competitors. As you watch the pageant as it is going on, you never think of what the outcome of these little girls will be like in 10, 20 or even 30 years. Makeup, hairspray and spray tans are extremely harmful to the skin and health of anyone let alone a small child. These girls grow up with body dissatisfaction when they are applauded on how gorgeous they look with their hair and a face full of makeup. Sooner rather than later they begin to feel as if they are not good enough without the aide of makeup, tan skin and beautifully done hair. Whether it is a current problem or something that is going to come about later on in life, child beauty pageants are harming the lives of little girls all around us. The focus on appearance, issues in adult years and being forced out of their childhood are the three most harmful

Toddlers & Tiaras is extensively promoting the idea of having a perfect “Barbie doll” image and beauty standards that are out of reach. In addition, psychologists and psychiatrists agree that beauty pageants support negative female body image problem which can lead onto major disorders both mentally and physically. For example: eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder or depression. Mental health experts have already been seeing a rise in eating orders growing from younger ages. On an episode of toddlers and tiaras healthy 8-year old, Ever Rose was put on a diet so she could fit into her competition dress. Disturbingly, Ever Rose lost so much weight on the diet that her dress was too big .I think this is horrible; the message that beauty is everything has gone way too far. Another negative message spreading is that abusing your daughter for money is acceptable. On an episode of Toddlers & Tiaras a mother forced her “absolutely terrified” daughter to get her eyebrow waxed and even commented at the end “There! Doesn’t that look pretty?” while her daughter was shaking in fear. Another parent feeds her daughter nicknamed ‘Honey Boo Boo ‘“Go-Go juice” (a mix of Mountain Dew and Red Bull) and says that she could be doing worse by giving her daughter alcohol. Fortunately action has been taken against these abusive mothers and multiple have been sent to court. To add to this, contestants are now losing sight of what truly matters- education and schooling. On the ‘Le Maison De Paris’ episode of Toddlers & Tiaras contestants and their parents were asked how they think you pronounce a number of French words. They all replied with no effort and no sense of wonder. This

1. There are about 250,000 children in child beauty pageants all throughout the United States. As many people know, child beauty pageants consist of children dressing up in revealing dresses, tons of makeup, and fake hair. Many of these kids grow up to have struggles with perfection, dieting, eating disorders and their body image. These kids need to learn that beauty isn't just what’s on the outside and that there’s a lot more in life than the need to always look perfect.

She claims that pageants are a great way for a family to bond. In other words, pageants can help children with self-confidence, relationships, and volunteer work. Critics have a valid point about why child beauty pageants would be good for a child because they bring self-confidence along with other qualities to a child. In Claire Lindsey’s article “The Truth to Child Beauty Pageants,” she believes that pageants bring volunteer work to a child. Even though child beauty pageants help a child with self-confidence, they still bring sexualization to the child when he or she gets up on

Child beauty pageants are beauty contests that include sections like talent, sportswear, casual wear, swim wear, theme wear, outfit of choice and evening wear. Contestants who participate in these beauty contests are generally a few months to 16 years old. It is imperative to realise that child beauty pageants have no aspects that aid in the grooming of the future generations of men and women in the world. In fact, a show like TLC’s popular Toddlers and Tiaras is a perfect example to review as it displays how these beauty pageants exploit children. The experience of being placed in beauty pageants could potentially be more harmful than helpful in most aspects of development for children. The argument presented will focus on underlying matters such as: how child beauty pageants are sexualising and exploiting young girls and boys, how they pose a risk to the psychological and physical health of children and how they

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.