The Origins Of Modern Day Pageants

1. From the perspective of Native Americans, the Spanish and English empires in America had more similarities than differences. Assess the validity of this generalization.

While people may believe that children do not perceive pageants as superficial, the ideas of what society expects is instilled into their minds. They are taught to go out on a stage and aggressively compete for the spot of Most Beautiful. Most competitors are young girls with a fake tan, wearing fake teeth, eyelashes, and hair in order to gain notoriety and success. It teaches them the wrong values.

A beauty pageant is a competition where girls are judged by their looks. The most gorgeous is chosen as the winner. It all started in the 1880s when the first beauty pageant was made. A lot of women will compete for a crown and be named with a beauty title. In order to win the women have to look a certain way, usually, they would look pretty skinny. The judges will not know the women individually but by how beautiful they look. These beauty pageants can cause certain thing that can harm a woman physically and mentally such as eating disorders and low self esteem. Beauty pageants are a bad influence to women because they set an idea that women should look a certain way.

Agriculture, especially corn growing, was important for the size and sophistication of the Native Americans.

Benito Mussolini: Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country from 1922 to his ousting in 1943. In 1926 Mussolini seized total power as dictator and ruled Italy as Il Duce from 1930 to 1943.

First, we will talk about how child beauty pageants started. The upbringing of child beauty pageants is very interesting. It started off with “Pageants celebrating female beauty and charm being fixture at fairs and festivals the U.S. since the 19th century”(Hilboldt), and then “Their rise in popularity probably dates back to 1954, when the miss America pageants was first broadcasted on TV”(Hilboldt). “In 1960, a miami broadcaster hosted the first locally televised pageant for children, Little Miss universes”(Hilboldt). Around “The 1980’s child pageants had become an inextricable part of life in the South…”(Hilboldt). Pageants have dated back for centuries, but did not rise in popularity until it was first broadcasted on TV. Furthermore, the number of kids that participate in beauty pageants is eminence. A majority of little girls wanted to be in pageants, because “They began dreaming of one day becoming Miss America”(Hilboldt). With so many kids in pageants “It’s estimated that 25,000 children compete in more than 5,000 pageants in the U.S. each year”(Hilboldt). It is crazy how many little girls participate in beauty pageants each year just so they can hopefully become the next Miss America. While beauty pageants are still relevant and legal in the U.S. France is trying to ban them. “France is considering a move to ban beauty pageants for girls under 16 as a way to fight the hyper-sexualization of children”(“France”). While,“Under the proposal, organizers of beauty pageants aimed at young children...could face up to two years in prison and fines of $40,000”(“France”). Also, “The measure is a part of of a wider law on gender equality and was approved by the French Senate after garnering 197 votes in favor of the ban,

2. Natives worked on the plantations. Slaves from Africa were brought over to Brazil when the native workers died. Eighty-two percent of the population in Brazil trace their ancestry back to the days of slavery.

commences to elevate in the early 1920’s where it was originated to be a marketing implement by a hotel owner. He wanted the city’s tourists to remain in town longer, therefore the rise of beauty pageant blooms and grows until today. It was in Atlantic City where the first Miss America Pageant was staged in September 1921 as reported by an online article on American Experience by PBS, Public Broadcasting Service. Child beauty pageant on the other hand began in the 1960’s where they are judged predicated on individuality looks, capability, poise, perfection and aptitude.

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,

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.

Child pageants are the source of controversy for many, as scandal-lovers look to the show to find reasons to hate child pageantry. The show follows several ‘mini-divas’ and their ‘attention-deprived parents’ as they make their journey through the world of child pageantry. It teaches the girls corrupt and superficial values, puts their futures at risk and also leads to parental pressure and what may be considered by some as child abuse. It give the girls a false sense of accomplishment they do not deserve.

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.

Beauty pageants have been around for a long time, but what is the purpose of it? The little Miss America started in the early 1900s. “Competitions 25 years ago really only required a party dress and a satin hair bow” (Fleishman par. 2). When beauty pageants first started out, parents use to spend so little on beauty pageants and the children wore little to to no makeup. Now, in the twenty first century, girls ages four to seventeen wears a full face of makeup and fancy little dresses, walking down a runaway getting judged whether or not they look good and if their posture is just right.Beauty pageants for young girls can make them feel like their worth depends on physical beauty and not on their character which is why beauty pageants should be discontinued because they make young girls feel emotionally empty and physically unattractive when they lose these beauty pageants.Parents are putting their young girls into something they can not comprehend and so the child is confused. Parents start their girls out when they are less than a year old, and they eventually start wearing makeup, using self tanner on their delicate skin, wearing fake eyelashes, fake hair pieces and even fake teeth just to get judged on stage.

Physical beauty contests have been around for centuries in different cultures. The beauty pageants as we know them today did not develop until the mid-19th century. Initially, pageants developed as plans for businesses to make money by “promoting beauty as a spectacle,” but women were not initially interested in taking part in them out of fear of being shamed for showing skin or showing off their bodies (Sang 11). Over time, however, women attending beaches in swim suits began to

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.