The Importance Of Beauty Pageants : The Consequences Of Beauty Pageants

In the United States, society pressures females to be perfect starting from a young age, an idea supported through beauty pageants and our nation’s fascination of these competitions. Beauty

The most important factor of these pageants, beauty. When competing in and watching beauty pageants at a young age, girls believe that their outer beauty matters most. Girls who watch Toddlers and Tiaras focus on the contestant’s beauty, causing them to do the same with themselves. The skinny girls hidden under piles of makeup on tv make both the contestant and viewer think that this is normal. Before a pageant, a mom injected botox in her 8 year old daughter’s face to take away her wrinkles. Another mom fed her daughter tapeworms to make her skinnier. Soon after, the girl was in the hospital. In no situation should little girls have to go through this just to improve their outer appearance. If this is what it takes for a girl to win, then we are better off without these pageants.

Adolescents that take part in beauty pageants when they are young are facing difficult psychological problems such as, sexulaizing at a young age, low self esteem, and body image issues. Recent surveys show that the number one wish for 11-17 year old girls is to be thinner (Morgan). When kids engage in beauty contests, they are no longer supposed to look cute, rather they are supposed to be attractive. They wear revealing clothes, loads of makeup, and fake teeth and hair.

Would you like to have parents that make you put on a dress and makeup just so you can be in a beauty pageant? Well some kids do have parents like that, and they are forced to be in pageants only because the parents want them to participate in them. There are a lot of problems caused by parents putting their kids in pageants. Young girls shouldn't be in beauty pageants for many reasons.

In pageant settings, parents become extremely critical of their children's appearance and in the book, Guidelines for Adolescent Nutrition Services, Jillian Croll states that, "Familial concerns and pressures may also contribute to increased body dissatisfaction and body image concerns" (157). By letting their children enter beauty pageants, or forcing them to, parents are not only paving the way for their children to have lifelong issues with their appearance and self-worth, but they are also causing rifts in their relationships with their children, who may grow to resent their parents and associate them as a constant figure of judgment in their life. In an attempt to live vicariously through their children, parents of beauty pageant participants are stunting their children's inner growth and development by entering them into pageants against their will and before they are old enough to deal with the pressures of a pageant life. Putting aside whether or not a child willing or unwillingly enters into a beauty pageant, these contests can cause a number of negative effects regardless of whether a child does or does not want to partake in them. In  various studies, it is proven that children as young as five have a clear image of what their appearance should be and if it is not up to par with that then their self-worth dramatically decreases and, in contrast, they feel that if they can improve their body through diets and other means

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.

Every little girl dreams to be beautiful like a princess. Today’s children’s beauty pageants are prejudicial to a child’s development. These pageants can lead to low self-esteem and poor body image. I believe parents should not pressure these children to participate in these type of events. These beauty pageants overly expose little girls, that can eventually lead to a sex offender’s interest. Not only do these problems contribute to sexualization, these children are taught to be rewarded for their looks and appearance, not their personality. It is not right for a childhood to be taken over by superficiality. Kids

    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.

By taking part in beauty pageants at such a young age, girls are taught that their outward appearance is what will ensure their success in life. Girls participate in pageants at such young ages; some even before they reach their first birthday. Because this idea is introduced so young, many of these girls believe if they can do that everything else in their life will fall into place. Unfortunately, many simply don’t understand the consequences unrealistic expectations for their bodies will have in later years. Pageant contestants are told they must meet certain physical standards which may include particular body measurements as well as other aspects of their physical appearance including specific styles of hair and nails. Pageant princesses are often put through intense diet and exercise training regimens before an upcoming competition in order to fit into their frilly, custom dresses as they receive higher marks if their dresses fit more seductively. They watch what they eat and are encouraged to exercise excessively in the weeks leading up to an event. In addition, competitors are also often involved in physical activities during the off season such as gymnastics, ballet as well as other activities. Aside from intense exercise and dieting habits, these little divas must always look their best at an event. Fake nails are pasted onto each tiny finger, hair extensions, dye or even wigs are fastened to

Fabulous makeup, glamorous hair, and beautiful outfit, this is what embodies pageantry. Today, Beauty pageants are not only based on beauty but the contestants aspirations. Modern pageants,are for the most “scholarship pageants” in which the winning participant receives money to continue or pay off their higher education. Child Beauty pageants have become very popular in the entertainment world with shows being created to display the bizarreness and extremities of pageant culture. Although many believe child beauty pageants are used to build a child's self confidence, they have, in fact, been achieving opposite results by focusing their priorities on the appeal of superficial beauty, implementing young girls into a “sexualized culture”, and

For years, child beauty pageants have been challenged on if it is harmful or innocent to the contestants. They require each contestant to take part in different events regarding their social and mental skills, as well as, their talent; but, it also requires the interpretation of their appearance based on the judges own definition of beauty. Sponsoring for those against it, Laurie Patsalides concerned in her article claim these child pageants are to be over sexualizing girls in, “response to legitimate public concern [that] younger and younger children [are] being sexualized.” The requirements can become stressful for girls as they assume they are not good enough to enter and compete. Since girls have been able to walk and talk, parents have taught them that the inside is what matters most; yet, they assign them into these competitions for them to focus on their outer beauty and how they carry themselves. People argue that for a child to be surrounded by judges critiquing their appearance, it will make a girl self-conscious from the discrimination of being compared, for her looks, to other girls her age. Therefore, Patsalides stated that the comprehensive society, “perpetuates [this situation by praising beauty] more than a girl's accomplishments and innate abilities.” Beauty pageants are all about the visuals for the judges to have their attention focused on the best makeover, most bedazzled dress, and the capability of the perfectly represented little girl. Consequentially,

1 In 1854, young woman, men, and children participated in competitions involving the judging and exploitation of participants true beauty. Pageants were an early form of patriotism in America. Women didn’t have equal rights or job opportunities as men; to show love for their fighting men, women competed in beauty competitions. Citizens grouped together to form the American Pageant Association to support this growing beauty pageant platform. By the 1888’s informal pageants rose; women were judged for their natural beauty, but it still wasn’t anything worldwide. It’s impossible to tell exactly when beauty pageants began, different forms of beauty pageants occurred in history all over the world: Egypt, Ancient Greece, and the Ottoman Empire.

Dating back to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, the standard of “ideal beauty” was looked upon very highly. The idea of following the societal standard of beauty seems to take over the lives of many people; young children and teens are affected the most. Beauty pageants for young children have been rising in fame through some famous reality TV shows such as “Toddlers and Tiaras.” Young children as young as three enter into these contests with the pressure to win and compete with other young children. While some people say that child beauty pageants teach young boys and girls about confidence and to work their very best, I think it is wrong for young children to be participating in these pageants. Today, young girls and boys are constantly being bombarded with the pressure to: look and feel beautiful, fit in with the trend, and are always thrown with the message that being good-looking is everything. The last thing they would want to do is fake a smile and stand pretty for an extended period of time. Child beauty pageants need to stop now.

Beauty contests are competitions where the contestants are ranked and judged based on their answers to the judges questions and their physical traits. According to racked, the idea of beauty contests was made in 1854. Phineas Taylor Barnum desired for Beauty pageants to be held, but it didn’t take off until later on. The first Beauty pageant called “Atlantic City’s Inter-City Beauty Contest” was held at Atlantic City in 1921. The first woman to win was Margaret Gorman. There are beauty pageants for a variety of ages. There are beauty pageants for women and for girls.

Depression is a major problem found in many young girls due to insecurities. 75% of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in negative activities like cutting, bullying, smoking, drinking, or disordered eating. Girls are under the pressure to gain perfection and attractiveness to win. It has been showed by statisticbrain.com that eight out of ten, 9-year-old girls in the U.S. have been on a diet. 42% of first –through third-grade girls want to be thinner, and 37% of those girls have already been dieted. Child beauty pageants are not as glamorous as they seem to be on television; they can cause young girls to develop serious illnesses because they feel the need to be better and be perfect. Because of the strong desire to be perfect, some resort to extremes to gain that approval. In beauty pageants they sometimes have talent portions and are not in all pageants. They are considered as a secondary component of the experience and scoring.