The Sexualization Of Female Youth

A common argument among people is if beauty pageants are corrupt for younger girls, and Skip Hollandsworth makes some very strong arguments that they very much are. His main focus in the text is on Eden Wood, a 6-year-old girl from Taylor, Arkansas. We learn that Eden’s mother spends countless hours on shopping for expensive dresses, makeup, wigs and manicured fingernails. One large point that comes to my mind when reading this: money. Parents of so called “pageant girls” can spend upwards of $75,000 a year on his hobby. In Hollandsworth’s Toddlers in Tiaras he explains that men may view small girls in glitzy dresses and wearing pounds of makeup as

In the American culture today, women are becoming more sexualized at a younger age due to the influences of the corporate media. Corporate media and society form the perfect idealistic body that women should have and is constantly being promoted making younger girls start to compare themselves to them at a young age. Certain shows and movies, such as Disney, influence young children and teenagers through their characters as to how a woman is supposed to be accepted. The way the corporate media and society make this body image they want women to have starts in a very early stage in a woman's life without them knowing. There are these childhood movies, such as Disney, Barbie and Ken dolls, programs such as Netflix, teen

The article “Toddlers in Tiaras” was written by Skip Hollandsworth, and was published by Good Housekeeping on August 2011.The author argues that child pageants can have negative effects on the young girls’ lives. Hollandsworth wrote this article in response to the popularity of the TV show “Toddlers and Tiaras”. This article “Toddler in Tiaras” can be divided into five sections. In the introduction, the author presents an example of a young girl getting ready for a pageant. Hollandsworth then introduces a pageant girl by the name Eden Woods and her mother Mickie. The author Skip Hollandsworth describes every little detail about Eden’s process of getting ready from all the thick layers of foundation they’re putting on the 6-year-old girl face,

“Toddlers and Tiaras” was a hit television show that premiered on the channel TLC on December 12, 2008.  “Toddlers and Tiaras” ranked up a number of two million viewers per episode, which went on for seven seasons.  This show was so successful that a sequel called “Another Toddlers and Tiaras” aired on August 24, 2016.  “Toddlers and Tiaras”, not surprisingly, took a look into the lives of young pageant queens and what goes on behind the stage and all the makeup.  Many, but not all, young girls love to dress up and wear their mother’s high heels, but this trend has been taken up a notch in the last few decades with prizes and money now at stake.  Some people consider, what is being called child beauty pageants, cute, while some believe that it is disgusting and ruining children.  In this article, the different viewpoints on child beauty pageants can show as to why it can affect a child’s development positively and negatively.

The sexualization of women and girls surround Americans and is damaging to females as well as to American society. Females receive the sexualized messages regarding their appearance and how they should act via the media, retailers, and American society’s acceptance of these behaviors. As a mother, Girl Scout Leader, and school paraprofessional I cannot help but to question are these messages inflicting psychological damage on girls? Whom can I hold accountable for sexualizing female youth? What can I do to prevent sexualization from affecting all of the young girls in my life? The sexualization of girls is unacceptable because it is degrading to females, can cause serious life-long psychological damage and sexist attitudes, and may lead to violence against women and girls.

The article “Toddlers in Tiaras” was written by Skip Hollandsworth, and was published August 2011 in Good Housekeeping magazine. Hollandsworth wrote this article in response to the actual show “Toddlers and Tiaras” that first aired on December 12, 2008, and reached its all time high with the production of “Here comes Honey Boo Boo” starring Alana Thompson, aka “honey boo boo”. He contends that children pageants presents, and accentuates the hypersexualization of young girls who then make it their life's goal to achieve the unattainable goal of perfection.

According to Vernon R.Wiehe in “Nothing Pretty In Child Pageants” he states that allowing your child to be used as sexual objects condone pedophiles to sexually abuse children. (Vernon R. Wiehe) We are practically throwing these girls to the wolves. It’s pretty disturbing at the thought of someone in the crowd may be lusting over your child. For instance, in 1996 little JonBonet Ramsey, a six-year old beauty pageant winner was found dead. Twenty-one years later her murder resolves unsolved and many believe a predator could have killed her. The Ramsey case reveals how regressive notions of femininity and beauty are being deployed in this conservative era to fashion the fragile identities of young girls, but also how willingly adults will project their own fantasies onto children, even if it means selling them on the beauty block. Images of six-year-olds cosmetically transformed into sultry, Lolita-like beings are difficult for most of us to watch. (Henry A. Giroux). Beauty pageants rob the innocence of little girls who are not meant to be sexy.

TLC’s Toddlers and Tiaras takes this too far, sexually exposing children in the world of child beauty pageants, which produces and disseminates the idea of hegemonic gendering about girlhood and girl identity” (TLC’s Toddlers and Tiaras: Way Too Much or Just Enough?). Young girls are being taught at a young age that beauty is what gets them further in life. The idea that the most beautiful is always the happiest and most successful. Editor Maggie Furlong, touches about how the show really alters the minds of young girls, “’ Facial beauty is the most important thing, in life and in pageants,’ Daisey Mae says, almost too matter-of-factly. And she also has some advice for parents looking to expose their children to the pageant circuit: ‘If you think your kid is ugly or sumpin’, you might not want to do pageants because you’re not going to win or anything.’”

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.

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

In modern day society, people often tune into TLC’s hit show Toddlers in Tiaras. Most see it as a harmless pastime for the children, but child beauty pageants are far from harmless. In recent years, child beauty pageants have become increasingly popular all over the U.S, making it a 5 billion dollar industry. Almost 5,000 pageants are held with 250,000 children participating with the majority of the contestants under the age of twelve (“Child beauty Pageants”). Unfortunately, what most viewers do not realize is that many contestants will suffer from sexual abuse and eating disorders by the time they are teenagers. With that being said, beauty pageants have a negative impact on female adolescents.

(Andrea Canning & Jennifer Pierera) Let us not forget the fake eyelashes, nails, makeup, teeth whitening and hair extensions; put it all together and you have got a beauty queen. Does being beautiful mean you have to be sexy and promiscuous? The talent portion of the pageant consists of the children dancing sexually, winking, posing and blowing kisses to the judges. This kind of activity pressures little girls to be flirtatious and engage in sexual actives at a young age. Today’s pageants force children to do everything an adult would do and wear, ultimately leading them to believe they are mature enough to behave and engage in the same activities as adults do.

There is nothing wrong with little girls wearing cute pink dresses and walking down a stage to perform a few adorable stunts or tricks. However, there is everything wrong when these actions could potentially lead to long term damages in young girls. And therein lies the problem with child beauty pageants, they have the potential to create long term issues for the many of the female children who are asked to participate in them. This is the stance that “Toddlers and Tiaras” takes regarding the issue of child beauty pageants; the author of the article, Skip Hollandsworth, asserts that “many psychologists believe that developmental and emotional problems can stem from pressure and value system that pageants embody” (493). Hollandsworth in her

Children differ greatly from adults in terms of their mental development and physical characteristics, therefore they should not be treated in the same manner as adults. Pageants have changed over time to become far more extravagant as years pass. What started out with young girls dressed in age appropriate attire has shifted to have young girls showcasing expensive dresses that reveal more skin than is ever expected of a child. In the show Toddlers and Tiaras on TLC, pageant families are followed from their early preparations for a pageant to the final pageant competition. During one episode, two-year old Mia is competing in a competition and decides that her staple outfit piece would be a cone shaped bra reminiscent of Madonna’s staple fashion piece. In the episode, “[Mia] places one hand behind the back of her head and the other just behind her cone shaped ‘Madonna’ bra, gyrating and shaking her hips to the music” (Wolfe). Mia’s performance is just one example of how childhood beauty pageants push the limits of what is socially acceptable for young children to perform. Her performance accentuated the cone shaped bra and gave two-year-old Mia the illusion of having breasts as shown in Figure 1. Overall, this outfit and outfits similar to these are sexualizing pageant children and exposing

The purpose of this paper is to assess the negative effects of children beauty contest on its contestants. Although many people argue that there are some benefits of this contest such as build up the confidence, self-esteem, public speaking skills, tact, and poised it is also true that it can result to negative psychological effects and interferes in child development worldwide. The Toddlers and Tiaras, and Little Miss Perfect are popular reality TV shows that features young girls the real hardship and obstacles from their mother’s pressure or preparation for the pageant. They are ages from 1 to 12 years old, with main goal of winning and get the tiara and money or ribbon or teddy bears. Generally, the parents of these young girls believe and make decision that the beauty pageant is okay. Pageants, particularly those designed for younger children, focus primarily on appearance, attire, and perceived “cuteness.”