Taking a Look at Beauty Pageants

They promote a materialistic belief that tells young girls that physical beauty is most important. The number of young girls who are growing up too early is growing rapidly throughout the United States and the rest of the world. Kids are deprived of their childhood because pageants take up all their time and they make them eager to grow up because of all the makeup and glitz. When they want to go outside and play with their friends, they are forced to practice for hours before an upcoming pageant. They grow up way too fast because parents are allowing them to wear revealing clothes and act inappropriately for their age. For example, “Windy Dickey dressed her daughter, Paisley, Winner of many Child Beauty Pageants, up in a costume that was exactly the same as Julia Roberts' character wore in the movie "Pretty Woman" – the fitted, skin-baring white blouse, the tight blue mini-skirt and thigh-high, shiny black boots (Canning).” These young girls wear tons of makeup, false eyelashes, have their eyebrows done, have fake hair and even flippers which are fake teeth. Beauty pageant contestants may develop a misconception about life and beauty while being involved in them. They may grow up to believe that only physical beauty matters and that it is the primary judge of one’s self-worth. “Pageants can damage the self-esteem of a young girl when things do not go as she would hope (Nussbaum).” What will a mother tell her three-year-old daughter if the child says that she didn't win because she is not pretty

Many Children are actively involved in beauty pageants, and many people have different opinions about them. Some feel that they are good for kids, others think that all they do is harm them. Opinions vary from person to person, and reasoning also varies. But, the real question is “Do child beauty pageants harm kids in the long run?” What comes to mind when the words “child beauty pageants” are spoken? What some people think about them are, crazy moms pushing their daughters to win, and little girls dressing up to look like Barbie dolls. What these people do not see is that beauty pageants teach girls to be confident and independent.

Beauty Pageants make children feel insecure about themselves and therefore cause them to have low self-esteem. Sadly, a lot of these contestants end up insecure, broken and confused. Nicole Hunter an ex-pageant contestant states that “When children enter beauty pageants at too young of an age, they can develop poor self-image, low self-esteem and even eating disorders.” Nicole reflects on her own experiences an ex-contestant. She explains that a child is not capable of understanding rejection. If a child is told that they did not win, they immediately feel inferior to others. A child is not just going to overcome this rejection, these horrible feelings of not being good enough will stick with them throughout their life and this leads to further mental health problems such as depression. In this generation, everyone should be able to feel comfortable in their own body, the poisonous effects of beauty pageants crush a child’s self-esteem. These children grow up to be paranoid and self-conscious. Every day of their lives they will feel as if they are back on that stage getting judged about how they look and act. This is a horrible thing for anyone to go through.

The message that is portrayed behind beauty pageants are not necessarily the most honorable. Beauty pageant/contest are defined as: a contest in which people judge a group of women or girls and decide which one is the most beautiful (“Beauty Pageant”). The concept of beauty pageants was introduced by B.T. Barnum back in the 1920’s as casino attractions in Atlantic City. The women would compete to be crowned for their physical attractiveness. In the 1960’s children’s pageants were established and incorporated the traditional features of adult pageants (Lieberman 742). Beauty pageants are intended to judge beauty however, what is being judged? Numerous parents attempt to give their daughters an added boost of beauty by improving their daughters with many different things, such as fake nails, spray tans, hair dye, permanent eyelashes, teeth whitening strips, eyebrow wax, and even fake teeth, they are also

Beauty pageants have been around for a long time, making people believe that nothing could go wrong in such events. Nevertheless, when I consider women who glide across the stage, I recall skinny women, in specific, who appear to have unrealistic features such as: perfect teeth, skin, and bodies, putting pressure as only women who appear that way are in magazines, television, and movies. Subsequently, this begins when young women participate in beauty pageants. [ Dante Ultius] Society today thinks that entering young children in beauty pageants can help self esteem. Society believes it will make them feel beautiful, perfect, socially involved, discipline, self confidence, and so on. Well, it turns out thatś the exact opposite of what they think. Putting children in beauty pageants at a young age can cause health issues like depression, low self of esteem, anxiety, eating disorder, and also the absence of a normal childhood. Research shows that over the past 10 years, there has been a 270% increase in the number of girls being hospitalized for eating disorders, some of these girls are as young as 7 years old [Kelly Kammer]. Competitions can display adult body dissatisfaction in their later years, and that it is also possible for them to suffer from various eating disorders [Psychologist Martina Cartwright].

Beauty pageants are one way in which society continues to perpetuate the notion that women should be prized for conforming to beauty norms that end up damaging them emotionally. In fact, beauty

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.

    Beauty pageants have become an American tradition since it started in the 1920’s. It began as a show where women ages thirteen to seventeen, would put on swimming suits and compete for the most beautiful woman in America. Over the course of time, beauty pageants have changed and now they include every gender, sex, nationality, age and background. In the 1960s beauty pageants took on another set of age groups; young girls ages, one to three, four to six, seven to nine and so on. The issue however began to come from the oversexualization of toddler girls and parents acting ridiculously about how their child should look and forcing them to act like an adult in the competition phase. The girls were being forced to grow up too soon and not only did it impact their attitudes, their self esteem and the way they pictured life but the same way affected the girls who were watching these pageants who then felt like they should look exactly like these girls because those girls were pretty enough to be in an American, broadcasted Pageant. Beauty pageants are not good for little children and the oversexualization of toddlers is wrong. Children should be allowed to grow as children and not be forced to roleplay as an adult.

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!

Imagine seeing your little girl on stage prancing around in a bikini in front of all of your friends, family and even strangers. This is in fact happening everywhere. Parents are putting their children in skimpy outfits just so they can parade around on stage, hoping they could win an award. The issue with this is the fact that children are having their childhood taken away from the because they are learning to act like adults. Most of the time this is forceful and mainly done for the parents affection. People are then arguing about whether beauty pageants are negatively affecting our children. Some people claim that beauty pageants do not negatively affect our children but boosts their self esteem and confidence. However, beauty pageants definitely affect a child’s development negatively since it does in fact make children think that physical beauty is all that matters, takes away your childhood by making you pretend to be an adult and it can then lead to depression.

“Recently France deemed child beauty pageants as illegal and punishable by up to two years in prison. The most popular plastic surgery among these beauty pageant children is the surgical placement of breast implants. Six percent of these girls suffer long term depression with nine of ten of these girls having suicidal thoughts”. (weebly.com). The rules and focus of childrens’ beauty pageants should be revised. The contest should emphasize on the children’s natural beauty, talents and teaching the children the importance of inner beauty. The contest should implement a policy of men can only attend if accompanied by their families or have a background check done prior to arriving, attending or putting their child in pageants.

Beauty pageants are more than just a competition. Although women believe that you have to have the perfect body like celebrities, the perfect face structures, skinny body, perky lips, and the height. In “Pageants promote self-development” it explains every child should be themselves “the purpose of

Hopefully after reading this text one will know that beauty pageants do not objectify women. What people believe to be objectification is more likely to be a case of glorification. Glorification is still a problem though it is not as bad as objectification. Steps should still be taken to try and stop doing it. Beauty pageants may have lots of problems but objectification is not one of

Beauty pageants, competitions judged mainly on a contestant’s physical beauty, introduce the question if they adversely affect a child’s development. The first Miss America pageant, held in 1921, started the modern beauty pageant era that exists today. However, current beauty pageants differ greatly from the first ones held 93 years ago. Many of the pageants called “high-glitz” pageants consist of the competitors wearing a lot makeup, big hair, spray tans, fake teeth called “flippers”, expensive clothes, and many more things that some say make the children look unnatural. Child beauty pageants have affected many people differently, good and bad. Advocates of beauty pageants say that contestants develop confidence and self esteem. However, critics claim that beauty competitions teach young girls to gather their self-worth based on their appearance and promote an unrealistic expectation of beauty. This dilemma correlates with Henrietta Lacks’ situation told in the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Beauty pageants may seem harmless and fun, the audience only sees what goes on in front of the curtains. What goes on when the curtains close and you enter backstage, is a whole different story. Society today has come up with the idea that there is a certain image women must portray, and when girls see that they do not look like that image, they start to develop cognitive, physical and psychological problems (Cromie, 2000). According to