Beauty Pageants Deliver An Ugly Message By Judy Mann

1708 Words4 Pages

Beauty is not everything… just not for beauty pageants, of course. One may see a model via media or witness a beauty pageant, those pageants are exhausting, grueling, and even harmful to female adolescents. Whether it is participating or watching a beauty pageant, they can cause damage to girl’s mental and emotional health. Many girls, even at young ages, enjoy participating in beauty pageants, until it comes to the after effects. According to research, one in five girls have an eating disorder due to participating in beauty pageants. Plus, Wwatching pageants are not any no better,. tThey can eaffect adolescent’s self-esteem as they analyze the models strutting down the runways. Additionally, beauty pageants, without a doubt, have negative …show more content…

These pageants are affecting girls’ self-esteem all around the world. For example, in “Beauty Pageants Deliver an Ugly Message” by Judy Mann, the author introduces the fact that many girls lack self-esteem because everyone lives in a culture where people value women for how they look more than what they can do (Mann). Judy Mann makes an outstanding point in her article. In many societies, especially current society, young women are looked at and judged according to their looks and appearance. So, if a girl is extremely curvy and a little over weight, people will automatically judge her based on her physical appearance. Well, beauty pageants are all about looks and physical appearance. Thus, if that same overweight girl wanted to enter a beauty pageant, she may not receive high scores during the pageant, which will result in having a negative effect on her self-esteem. Not to mention, it is not only beauty pageants that result in low self-esteem for young women. It is any activity that focuses on physical appearance, such as dance or possibly musical theatre. In another article, the author explains, “Activities such as beauty pageants that focus on physical appearance at an early age can have a detrimental effect on a child's self-esteem, body image, and self-worth later in life,” (Cartwright). As Martina M. Cartwright noted, beauty pageants have a significant effect on young girls self-esteem, and force them to …show more content…

In some cases, female adolescents will try anything, even develop an eating disorder, to obtain or strive for a “perfect body”, or in other words, physical perfection. As stated in the text, Author Martina M. Cartwright includes, “For the girls who do develop image obsessions, it appears that the hypercritical environment of their youth produces a drive towards the unattainable goal of physical perfection,” (Cartwright). Perfection does not exist… especially physical perfection. It is frightening to know that girls, across the world, at any age, believes in making their bodies and faces appear “perfect”, just to put on a show. It is even worse for them to develop image obsessions at such a young age. It is not just the beauty pageant’s fault. It is also the parents’. To begin with, parents are the ones who are putting their children in these beauty pageants. The parents are another factor that is influencing the young girl’s mental and emotional health when it comes to their appearance and weight. For instance, in one article, the author, Susanna Freymark, writes that parents may tell their child to dress and act pretty, like an adult. But they should tell their daughter that she is pretty, without pressuring her to be the adult version of herself. They should value their daughter for what she does, and not for what she looks like

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