Long Term Effects of Sexualizing Adolescents in Beauty Pageant

The experience of participating in a beauty pageant from a young age will hone a child’s confidence and will benefit them in the future. However, this is not true because it is unlikely that children will experience a boost in their self-esteem when they are not deemed the winner which is the case in so many situations as there will always be more losers than winners. In fact, it is the opposite as they are not deemed as beautiful as the winner which will cause negative thoughts and emotions and decreases in self-esteem and confidence. However when the child does win, they will be led to believe that their outer experience is what society values them for and can cause the child to become arrogant and

Although there fun and amusing , Pageants promote stress, insulting outfits, giving children the wrong idea of how girls or women are portrayed.

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, 73% of parents who have kids in beauty pageants spend more money on the pageant instead of their kids' education. [ Women’s News 2016 ] 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. [Kelly Kammer 2016] 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 eating disorder, depression , and low self esteem.

The long-standing opinion in the psychological community about beauty pageants is that they are not in the best interest of the participant

In the world of beauty pageants many people find themselves entrapped in the expensiveness of the gown, the extravagance of the hairstyle, and how attractive the woman sporting all of this truly is. However, when entered into this arena at a young age, one where you are not fully developed and deep in adolescence, this presents a problem not all are aware of. Many people don’t understand the emotional stress that almost everyone that participates in pageants goes through. Women face various issues after everything has been said and done. A number of pageant contestants start at a relatively young age, some as young as infants, and grow up in this seemingly glamorous world of pageantry, from which they learn to present themselves in a specific way, giving some a false sense of character. As a whole, beauty pageants tend to have more of a degrading and potentially harmful effect on women and children.

Can you imagine little girls doing catwalk with heavy makeup on the stage? Can you imagine those girls wearing miniature ballgowns in high heels? However, these can be seen frequently in child beauty pageants, the beauty contests for participants who are 16 years old or younger. Although some people may believe that beauty pageants can help boost children’s self-esteem. However, I believe that the problems with child beauty pageants outweigh benefits for the following reasons: they put financial burden on families, mislead children’s values and do damage to their physical health.

The pageants, with all their negative side-effects, take up a large part of the child’s life. Issues with the child beauty pageants is that some participants are not even interested in it, it’s the parent’s choice. Some children are too young to make their own decisions, therefore too young to make to be exploiting their bodies, others participate because of the pressure from their parents. As Shasmus says in “Ugly Truth: TLC Show is an Abomination” the pageants are enjoyed far more by mothers of the children than the participants themselves, some tired contestants fell asleep during judging and their parents shook them awake to get back up on stage (shasmus). In Elizabeth’s Day’s “Living Dolls”, she asks a young pageant-goer about her experience. “Did she, Amber 7 years old contestant, enjoy entering the beauty pageant? Amber thinks for a second and then nods her head. Will she be entering anymore? “Yes, she pauses, a touch uncertainly, if my mummy told me to.” Perfect example of a parent pressuring their child into these competitions. Everything about a pageant is promoting superficiality. Why would we want to accelerate the process and pressure the children before even finishing primary school? Children should grow up learning that personality and intelligence are most important, not appearance.

In summary, beauty pageants have exploited women and young girls from conception to present day. Pageants have changed seemingly normal girls into thin wafers, striving at any cost to win the "crown". They have delegated to the world haw you should look, act, speak and walk. Beauty pageants are not only harmful they are downright demeaning. We were not meant to be put in a box! For my part, I'm glad I'm free to be me!

Beauty pageants have changed drastically in the past fifty years. Beauty pageants used to be all adult females who dressed in their Sunday best and walked on the catwalk at the county fair. Now, little children are decked out in glitzy outfits, have wigs that make their hair twice as long, and have teeth to make it seem like their baby teeth haven’t fallen out yet. In this literature review, I reviewed different articles, some against child beauty pageants and some that showed a firsthand look into the beauty pageants. Based on the reviews, I have made a decision as to whether child beauty pageants are

Beauty has always been a quality that is valued in the eyes of society, so it is no wonder that pageants showcasing the elegance of women have steadily enlarged over time. The first beauty pageant was held in the 1800s, parading beautiful women in extravagant costumes across a stage and displaying their talents for the public’s viewing pleasure. Over time, the pageant industry has only continued to grow, with approximately 5000 pageants being held in the United States each year (Lieberman 751). In the late 1900’s, the flourishing industry introduced a new type of beauty competition, placing children under the spotlight. Although these pageants may seem harmless from the surface, they appear to have more harmful effects on the little girls that enter them than what meets the eye. Girls who compete are also often exposed to a number of physical and emotional health hazards, both of which can be extremely degrading to the lives they have ahead of them. Child beauty pageants, therefore, should not be encouraged.

Beauty Pageants are competitions that originated in the United States around the 1920’s (“French Senate Votes”). Most of the time, the age range of a common child pageant is from ten months to sixteen years old. Beauty Pageants are based on talent, personality and question portions, but the main component is to judge the contestants on their physical appearances. There are three different types of pageants contestants can sign up for, Glitz, Semi-Glitz and Natural. The category chosen all depends on the extremities the parents of the contestants are willing to put their child through in order to be successful while competing. In every competition the goal of each contestant is to win. The same goes for pageants, “To be named “Little Miss America” or “Our little Miss” is a dream for the young girls” (Liberman 7). Granted, there are many other titles that the participants can win, but those are just two of the most famous.

For the last 90 years beauty pageants have been evolving, adding more glam and glitz into children's lives each year. In 1921 an owner of an Atlantic City hotel came up with the concept of the idea of beauty pageants in hopes of boosting tourism. In the beginning, pageants were made for teenagers between the age of 13 and 17; however by 1964 there was 35,000 participants provoking age division. Now globally there are over 25,000 pageants per year in the US and the industry brings in about five billion dollars a year. With the increasingly development of beauty pageants around the world, people are questioning whether beauty pageants have a positive or negative impact of children and society as a whole.

In conclusion, beauty pageants are harmful to children physically, mentally, and emotionally. The pageant atmosphere is very negative. This type of an environment may lead to mental and physical disorders. Judging criteria of beauty pageants is based on the contestants’ external beauty. Having to buy costumes and beauty enhancing products plus enter the pageant costs lots of money. Save your child emotional and physical disorders, keep them away from beauty

Lights flashing, cameras flickering, and judges critiquing: three common sights when one participates in a beauty pageant. Beauty pageants are very popular in America’s society as it displays many young women’s attractiveness and talents. But a new style of beauty pageant has emerged, and it is striking high numbers of viewers. These pageants are just as glamourous as before, and competitions are vicious, except there is a change to the contestants. This is known as child beauty pageants. These types of beauty pageants are very adorable on the surface, but they are known to destroy the competitors’ physical looks. Judges are not mind readers, but this has been known to lead to mental problems for the little beauty queens. Most parents are very protective towards their little princess, but it is disgusting to see that these parents allow their daughter to dress up in sleazy outfits as well as behaving inappropriately on stage. Child beauty pageants for girls between the age 2 to 18 have taken new heights that should not be shown on television and should not be a competition to participate in.

Exploiting children to be sexualized and mentally abused, when they could simply stay home and play dress up gives parents a bad name. Beauty Pageants are an extreme pressure and could possibly ruin children's views on beauty. "Putting your 4-year old child through hours of hair dying, waxing, extreme dieting, tanning and whatever else so she can look like Cindy Crawford is child neglect," ("Child Beauty" Con 1). The abuse that takes part in this activity and reason to even be legal is beyond anyone who loves their kids. "Parents should be trusted on entering kids in child beauty pageants," (" Child Beauty" Pro 1). Adults should be trusted in making the right and most mature decision for their child and make it fun for them. Beauty Pageants are a controversial subject all around the world, it either damages kids or helps their confidence. Even though Beauty Pageants are quite enjoyable, they can actually destroy child's image on society's idea of being beautiful if not careful. In order for your child to have a good time, parents should avoid their ambitions making their kid queens mentally unwell, also not base the idea of the contest on children being better than others.