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Effects of beauty pageants on children
Beauty pageants effects on girls
Effects of beauty pageants on children
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Have you ever watched the reality television show Toddlers & Tiaras? Toddlers & Tiaras is a show about the glitz of the pageant world that little girls are more than likely forced, by their parents, to participate in. It is mandatory for them to have fake tans, fake eye lashes, fake teeth, and a ridiculous amount of make-up. Not to mention the unsuitable outfits these girls’ parents vow that they wear. Beauty pageants exploit little girls and attract sexual predators.
Beauty pageants, such as, Toddlers & Tiaras have ludicrous rules that the little girls must follow to even be considered the level of an Ultimate Grand Supreme. In the “Pro Am Pageants”, it is mandatory for the child to have a glittery outfit, a fake tan, and a flipper (fake teeth). The ages of the little girls that are casted on Toddlers & Tiaras range from six months to ten years old. The show provides viewers not only with the full name and ages of these young girls, but also their hometown.
Given all of the social media and internet, think about how simple it would be for a pedophile to track down these innocent young girls and take advantage of them. Annette Hill, owner of the Universal Royal Beauty Pageant, quotes, "When we talk high-glitz, we mean the glitzier the better, and we make no apologies for it," (Skip Hollandsworth). The more that the child looks like a Barbie, the higher they will score. These little girls deserve to have a typical childhood, and not be forced to live vicariously through their parents. Many of these little girls have even stated on live television that this they do not want to be a pageant girl. Applying make-up and fake tans on these children is making them look like a grown adult. Life is too short and childhood is too preciou...
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... could be pedophiles watching and they are beautiful without all the glitz. That way it is insuring the safety of the girls and the safety of their confidence.
Works Cited
Anderson, Susan. High Glitz: The Extravagant World of Child Beauty Pageants. New York: PowerHouse, 2009. Print.
Bartolomeo, Joey. "Father Knows Glitz." People 74.16 (2010): 64. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.Anderson, Susan. High Glitz: The Extravagant World of Child Beauty Pageants. New York: PowerHouse, 2009. Print.
Chin, Staceyann. "Beauty & The Boob Tube." Advocate 1026 (2009): 76. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Ellis, Rosemary. "Pretty Babies." Good Housekeeping 252.8 (2011): 21. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
HOLLANDSWORTH, SKIP. "Toddlers In Tiaras." Good Housekeeping 252.8 (2011): 150. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
In “Toddlers In Tiaras” Skip Hollandsworth purpose is to get readers to understand Pageants are fun but can also be dangerous many predators attend them to seek out their next victim. Pageants can be very overwhelming and sometimes affects the participants in the long run. His exigency is the unknowing exploitation of little girls who are decorated with makeup, fancy clothes, and extensions added to their hair and the death of JonBenet Ramsey was taken serious but is believed to be a consequence of being in a pageant. “We love the beautiful dresses and the big hairstyles. We love the bling and makeup. We love our girls showing lots and lots of style, and we love seeing them sparkle”(Annette Hill). In the article Skip is speaking to many types of audiences.
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.
Is it acceptable for toddler girls under the age of six to dress and act the way a twenty-six year old women would dress and act, just to participate in child beauty pageants? Young girls dressed in revealing clothing, being caked in make-up, getting fake tans, wearing fake eyelashes, teeth, hair, and nails, or even performing extremely mature routines are a few reasons pertaining to why it is unacceptable for toddlers to be in the modeling industry. Beauty pageants are very popular in the United States, and are growing rapidly (A Beauty Pageant Ban). Toddlers and Tiaras is a popular television show promoting children in beauty pageants causing contestant entries to rise. It’s estimated in the United States alone each year 250,000 children compete in child pageants of that, over 100,000 are girls under the age of twelve (Rapport). Out of the 250,000 participants in these beauty pageants, studies have shown that approximately half of these children are unhappy with their body and wish to go on a diet to fix their self image (Rapport). Youth pageants are clearly causing children to only focus on physical appearance and not the true beauty of the child's personality. Consequently, the negative effects on a toddler’s life, safety, mental, and physical health over power the benefits of toddlers participating in the beauty pageants.
In 2009, TLC aired a reality television show entitled Toddlers and Tiaras. It was instantly a hit with home viewers and also brought major controversy over child beauty pageants. The show focused mainly on glitz pageants; which requires all contestant, however young, to compete with make-up, spray tans, acrylic nails and revealing costumes. Many, such as I were entertained at first with the pint size Barbie dolls; however after watching a couple episodes, controlling stage moms and toddler melt downs reveal that glitz beauty pageants are nothing less than objectification and exploitation of young girls. Beauty pageants not only exploit children but are detrimental to the child’s physical, emotional and psychological health.
Beauty pageants that involve children are a booming industry and growing fast in popularity. This is partially because of television shows like Toddlers and Tiaras and Living Dolls, which glorify pageants that threaten the innocence of childhood. According to Lucy Wolfe, “in 2011, three million children participated in pageants across the country” (454). With so many children, some as young as six months old, partaking in pageants and countless more aspiring to be pageant princesses, a closer look needs to be taken at the practices that are used to prepare them for the show. Often working long hours, not only prepping for the pageant but also performing in it, the children have no laws protecting them from being harmed or exploited.
When I hear the word toddler I think of little girls walking around in mommy’s shoes, and miss matched clothing (because she’s getting to the age where she likes to dress herself.) And of course a cute smile that’s missing a few teeth. The word glitz, glamour and sashes don’t come to mind. Nor does the image of a little girl who’s fake from head to toe. Wearing wigs, flippers (fake teeth), inappropriate /reveling attire and fake tans. I don’t think of little girls dancing around a stage in front of hundreds of people getting judged on their “beauty.” Well, that is exactly what children’s pageants consist of. Pageants exploit a child for their outer beauty, their talents and over all perfection or as pageant judges would call it having” the whole package.” I bet pedophiles think the same thing and find these pageants very entertaining. And most of all, I don’t want to see a mother trying to live out her dreams through her three-year-old child.
What comes to mind when the words "child beauty pageants" are spoken? What some people think about is, crazy moms pushing their daughters to win, and little girls dressing and to look like Barbie’s. Is this setting a good example for children? It teaches them that people are only judged by looks, not their personality. Instead the lesson they are learning is that looks are the only thing that matters.
In one episode of the now discontinued tv show that had 103 episodes (IMDb, 2013), Toddlers and Tiaras, a 3 year old girl dressed up in an outfit modeled after Julia Roberts’ character in Pretty Woman. This 3 year old, dressed as a prostitute flounced along the stage waving to the judges with hands on her hips. (Canning, 2011). Another example of celebrity mimicry for these pageants which sexualize these children that has been aired on Toddlers and Tiaras is when a 6 year old was stuffed into a padded bra in order to dress up as a busty Dolly Parton (Adams, 2012). These pageants then become a breeding ground for dangerous predators, Kidscape, an organization which attempts to prevent the bullying of children, CEO Claude Knights tells the Guardian Magazine ‘"We do know that predators or paedophiles continually tend to justify their interest in children by saying children are sexual beings. That children are now given a channel to become little Lolitas, to be portrayed as older, to almost become mini adults – these are all trends that give legitimacy to that kind of thinking."’ (Day, 2010). The phenomenon of sexual predators making child pageants unsafe has even infiltrated pop culture and has been spoken about in TV shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and in many documentaries such as America the Beautiful: Sexualizing our Youth. These young girls are put on stage and are given things like fake teeth, fake eyelashes and spray tans in order to look older, this is a thinly veiled opportunity to make children look sexy in the same way that 25 year olds looks sexy. Ignoring the looming threat of abuse, dressing and giving a child other beauty enhancements in order to make them look attractive in a way that America traditionally sees adults as attractive robs the children of childhood and will cause them to
“Toddlers and Tiaras” is a television show originally aired on TLC, capturing the preparations and day of activates for a glitz pageants. Participants in these pageants are usually girls ranging in age from months old to teens.
"How Do Child Beauty Pageants Affect a Child's Development?" Everyday Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014
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
Imagine you are at home, watching tv. Flipping through the channels, you see a preview for next week’s episode of Toddlers & Tiara’s. They show the girls dressed in frilly, sparkly attire, fake teeth, fake hair, fake tans, and makeup that could transform their faces into someone in their 20’s. These children are usually misbehaving, disobedient, overdramatic and they are between the ages of four and six. Any person could see that this lifestyle is incredibly harmful to these children not just because of what it does to their appearance, but what happens when these little girls’ minds become tainted with the thoughts of needing to be beautiful and talented in order for people to like them. They also learn that being beautiful means doing whatever it takes to make yourself look perfect, even if it means that everything about you is fake. At the same time, when these little girls are dressing up for these shows, they are being put in outfits that could be worn by strippers. This draws attention to sex offenders and pedophiles, which could potentially end up in something tragic. Claude Knights, the director of child protection charity Kidscape, says, "We do know that predators or paedophiles continually tend to justify their interest in children by saying children are sexual beings. That children are now given a channel to become little Lolitas, to be portrayed as older, to almost become mini adults – these are all trends that give legitimacy to that kind of thinking." In the end, children’s beauty pageants are essentially harmful to both young girls safety and minds.
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)
The pint-size stars pile on fake hair, heavy makeup, and even false teeth before taking the stage. Many kids wear revealing clothing that critics say aren’t age appropriate.” (Anastasia, Laura) Pageant participants range from ages six months to sixteen years, depending on what competition section they are a part of, and participate in categories of swimsuits, talent, evening wear, and themed costumes. Most girls at these young ages wear overalls and pigtails rather than slinky ensembles and fake hair that overwhelms their features.
They are dressed up to look like adults and sometimes dressed provocatively. “Beauty pageants are a reflection of a culture in which women are not equal. Women’s bodies are not their own but are seen as objects of beauty for others.” (Nasso). Parents of the pageant world don’t always understand how provocative and wrong it is to dress their children up in show outfits or give the child additives to make them look better.