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Essay on beauty pageants
Argumentative essays about beauty pageants
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Sherman Alexie, an American novelist once said, “Don’t leave up to your stereotype.” This quote, although it is quite simple, captures the true essence of the main character Willowdean in Julie Murphy’s Dumplin’. In a town in Texas where the annual pageant is basically a holiday, Willowdean is not the classic beauty queen. Willowdean is fat and knows it. She doesn't try to hide it, instead she embraces it, but when she enters the beauty pageant everything begins to change. She loses her best friend, questions her relationship with Bo, and becomes more self-conscious than she has ever been. Immediately upon Willowdean entering the beauty pageant, she begins to change the way people define beauty. Beauty pageants always raise the …show more content…
People always say that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but what if the beholder is three judges who have seen the same type of beauty throughout their entire career. When Willowdean walks across the stage she is not the type of beauty queen that the judges are used to. Instead of going to pageant boot camp just to fit into her swimsuit, she fills every inch of her red with white polka dotted one piece. Although she might abhor her thunder thighs, she realizes that when she is on stage “no one boos. The world doesn’t end. The audience doesn’t go blind” (359). This type of mentality can be compared to that of twelve year-old Alana Thompson from the reality TV show, Toddlers and Tiaras. Alana started beauty pageants when she was six-years old and just like Willow was not the typical beauty queen. She is overweight for her age, but when she walks across the stage she exudes confidence. Though she had been told that she should not do pageants because of her weight, she did not listen and continued doing what she loved. Willowdean also experienced being told that …show more content…
Julie Murphy did an excellent job giving each character a voice even though the book was written through the eyes of Willowdean. The word choice that Murphy used to express the way each character felt during a certain situation helped strengthen their voice. Murphy’s diction also helped keep me engaged for the entire book. She knew exactly where to create suspense, so that you were locked in eager to see what would happen next. Even though Murphy kept me eager to continue reading, she could have expanded more in certain areas of the plot line. One of the major areas where I would like to see further explanation is the relationship between Bo and Willow. Throughout the entire novel their relationship develop more and more, but when it seems like their relationship was about to be official the book ends. If I were Murphy I would have added an epilogue just to provide closure for how Bo and Willow’s relationship turned out. Another area I would expand upon would be the winner of the pageant. At the end of the pageant only the second runner up is revealed to the reader because it was one of Willow’s friends, but the winner of the entire pageant is never revealed. Throughout the novel each character prepares for the pageant, and you follow them on their journey to pageant day, but when it time to crown the winner she is not revealed. Revealing the winner would have been effective in
In this story the main character, Tally, changed a lot. First of all, she was so set on becoming a pretty, she new she was an Ugly and she wanted to change that. “She put her fingers up to her face, felt the wide nose and thin lips, the too-high forehead and tangled mass of frizzy hair” (p. 8). This quote shows that Tally was very aware that she did not fit it with the pretties, she was very ready to change they way she looked to fit in. During the course of the story Tally wanted to stay ugly. She totally changed her perspective on the way she looked. I think was also one of the biggest turning points in the story.
In “Toddlers In Tiaras” Skip Hollandsworth purpose is to get readers to understand that pageants are teaching young girls to young women that the sexualization of their looks are their main value, leaving a negative effect on contestants physically. He believes parents are usually the main reason why young girls join the pageants to begin with so, he targets parents as the audience of his essay. To get readers to understand his point of view and to persuade them to agree with him he displays evidences from reliable sources using ethos, pathos and logos throughout the article.
.... I found that the use of unclearness in the narration was really confusing but at the same time it gave me an idea that there would be a big twist the end of the novel about the narrator. Also, the Holman challenged some of the characters characteristic and human conditions that our society on girls and how they are viewed by our society that we currently live in. Though out this novel Holman made lots of connection to real world situations and she used lots of different ways to develop the novel so that the reader could find something interesting about her writing style.
The author really keeps the reader own edge and guessing what will happen next throughout the pages. I find that I can connect to the book on a cultural standpoint from living in the Appalachian Mountains .It is very interesting to me that she based this on her own family history. The book starts out telling two completely different stories,
The judges of the Miss America pageant have changed through the years to reflect the changing ideals of the pageant itself. “In the early years of the pageant, the judges were primarily artists and illustrators, in part because such men – and they were all men – were considered to have the best eye for the beautiful feminine form. In more recent years, efforts have been made to attract judges who represent the various facets of the pageant” (Banet-Weiser 54). The selection of judges from the fields represented in the pageant show that the Miss America pageant is more than just a strictly beauty pageant. “Defining beauty is an elusive, if not impossible task. No single definition fits because as culture evolves, so does the...
...as Miss USA and Miss Universe are competitions intended for mature, self-assured women who are capable of making their own decisions. Child beauty pageants, however, ruin childhoods and force them to grow up believing in their looks, rather than in themselves. It is no surprise, that emotional distress plagues the contestants that participate in beauty long after stepping off of the stage; subjecting young girls of any age to judgment and ridicule is not only humiliating but horrific to think that we are sitting back being entertained by their competitive nature. Rather than raising strong, confident girls who want to achieve the best in life; the parents and the hosts of these competitions provide a platform on which little girls are dressed up as skimpy Barbie dolls and paraded around, trying to achieve some form of perfection that shouldn’t exist in little girls.
Many mothers who allow their children to participate in beauty pageants would argue that performing in the pageants isn’t as stressful and serious as the television shows portray them. In fact, “the pageant industry promotes this idea by advertising pageants as family affairs that are great for a child’s self-esteem and poise” (Wolfe 445). Also, in an article written by Lise Hilbodt-Stolley, a mother of a pageant princess stated “that while pageants may be ‘politically incorrect’ they are drug, alcohol and gang free” (3). However, many parents push their children to win because they are either greedy for the money and fame that accompanies a win, or are living through their young children because of their own feelings of inadequacy. These same parents who are blinded by the possibility of their baby...
In Cindy Bosley’s sincere recount of her failure as a pageant contestant she steps back as an adult and explores her surprisingly not-so-shallow teenage years. Early childhood is where we form some of our most character building habits and it was no different for Bosley, she recalls camping out in her living room acting as a pageant judge. Reinforcing her judgemental characterics she later judges all of her pageant competition, “Macy was smart but had no breasts or hips. Carol was pretty but totally uncoordinated…” (34). While these petty thoughts drifted through her teenage head, concerns of her mother plagued her subconscious. As she worried of how she would pay for proper pictures, instead of rejoicing when she was able to have the professional pictures done, she worries further of how her mother humiliated herself in order to pay for them. It seems Bosley shows how she matured
Pageants have been around for a long time. In the past, pageants were an interactive way for girls to display poise and to compete against each other in different categories. Nowadays pageants have transformed completely. Young girls are being treated and made up as if they were women or dolls. On the TLC show, Toddlers and Tiaras, we begin to see this trend happening. Girls as young as the age of two to fifteen months are being put into these pageants and are shown off to the world as “role models” to other children. The show starts off with a glimpse of the young girls’ lives. We see how they interact with their families and we get a feel for how they live. Most girls display all their trophies and how well they do in each pageant. All of these young girls display attitudes and throw temper tantrums throughout the show. Parents spend an enormous amount of money for each pageant on things like dresses and make up. Other children who watch “Toddlers and Tiaras” might be impacted due to being the...
She grabs the foundation and smothers her face with it; she creates a mask. She sprays the hairspray till the fumes clog the air. She squeezes into her bejeweled dress and puts on her heels. She transforms into someone who is unrecognizable, and fake. This is a little girl. The process of preparing for a beauty pageant is very demanding and stressful while little girls spend hours training and getting ready for their appearance on stage. Weeks are spent choreographing their dance routines and thousands of dollars are spent on, “glitzy” dresses, fake teeth, and spray tans. As long as beauty pageants for girls under the age of 16 continue, there will be an increase in mental and physical issues, an increase in the objectification of women, and there will be negative impacts for little girls.
Lights, camera, pouty lips welcome to the four dimensional world of children 's beauty pageants. Over the years, child pageants have become a hot topic gaining a great deal of delight from numerous people around the world. From having a strong standing, ongoing fan base that keeps the hit TLC TV show Toddlers and Tiaras; on air to having some of Americans ' favorite beauty queens making guest appearances on shows such as the Ellen Show. Regretfully, the idea of putting an end to child pageants has become somewhat of a hotter topic than the pageants themselves. People often put down what they do not understand why dress a child like that? Why all the make-up? What some do not seem to understand is that there are advantages to being a beauty
Many young girls are forced to wear preposterous outfits and enormous amounts of makeup that deny them of their innocence at a young age. Beauty contests are meant more for adult women who are mature enough to understand all that’s going on and can handle losing competitions to the other contestants. Children should not be able to compete in pageants because of the harmful effects on self-confidence and character. Some people think they are good and some do not agree that they are good. (Leo, 2014)
" Money, ratings and attention fuel the pageant/dance media machine, with parents and adults reaping the benefits. Purpose of Child Beauty Pageants For these young pageant girls, brains before beauty is not the case. Real-world priorities such as schooling, family, and friends are trumped by tiaras, makeup, and evening gowns. More value is often placed on being beautiful in the eyes of the judges, than on each girl’s individuality.
In today’s society, beauty and perfection is being striven for like never before. Confronted with all the “beautiful” celebrities and photo-shopped magazine pictorials, women are facing an unrealistic expectation of how they should look. If they don’t have a thigh gap or a lean stomach, girls feel commensurate with themselves and try to change how they look just to appeal to society. How often have we been told as children that beauty on the inside is all that matters, yet we see and live by different statements. We live in a shallow culture based on looks. Look at all the celebrities we see. How many of them actually have talent or are worth such a high status if they did not have their looks? I wish I could say that there was a time period where this statement was not true, but it can’t be said, with the key example being Marge Piercy's poem, “Barbie Doll”. She wrote this poem in 1973 and its message on body image can still apply to today's time period.
Can anyone actually justify judging someone by their physical appearance? Although parents enjoy seeing their little girls in the spotlight all dolled up, most children don’t enjoy the pageant experience as much as the parents, and this vicarious living is dangerous, and the pageants have the capability of exploiting the children. Beauty pageants have a background of treating women disrespectfully and as if they are not equal. Women’s bodies are seen as objects of beauty, as if we are just here to parade around for others. Today’s pageants are still set up in the same direction, even for the youngest contestants.