Beauty pageants have long been a form of entertainment, exhibiting beautiful women with ideal bodies competing with their talent and their looks. Many pageant moms involve their daughters in children’s pageants to help them improve their social skills, exercise their talents, and boost their self-esteem. Although the pageants may seem like harmless competition with benefits, research shows that they may be doing the young beauty queens more harm than good. “...the girls are receiving conflicting messages: In order to win, the girls must show a unique personality, but they must also act and dress in a hyper feminine manner and conform to the pageant world 's ideal standard of beauty and narrow set of conventions.” (University of Kansas, Statistics show that 6% of girls in beauty pageants record having suffered from long-term depression, 9 out of 10 girls in pageants ages 14-16 admitted to feeling suicidal tendencies or depression, and it is largely caused by the desire to be thin. (Facts/Statistics-Child Beauty Pageants) The question is, is this a proper place for young girls where they are encouraged to act and look as mature as adults? “These pageants force kids to grow up too quickly. 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. Not many young girls have the opportunity to dress up in fancy clothes and flaunt what they can do, but there are other pains that come with such moments that can be uncomfortable and confusing to these children, yet to look good they are compelled to grin and bear it. “Four-year-old Karley stands in her "The Princess Syndrome,” is a fairy tale. Unrealistic expectations to be thin, physically beautiful, and perfect are at the heart of some disordered eating behaviors and body dissatisfaction. Scant research has been conducted to see if former pint-sized beauty pageant participants are more likely to suffer from eating disorders, but a small study published in 2005 showed that former childhood beauty pageant contestants had higher rates of body dissatisfaction.” (Cartwright, Martina) Most girls who have eating disorders have a tie to a belief learned at an early age to achieve physical for perfection whether it be in a sport, talent, or attractiveness. In situations such as this, education often is placed on the back burner. “Just the other day, a popular dance show featured adults candidly admitting that they encourage activity over education. When confronted, devotees said, "My daughter loves it." Or, "Ask her if she likes doing it!" 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
“A small study published in Eating Disorders the journal of treatment and prevention, that involved 22 women” (Hollandsworth). Girls are choosing unhealthy ways to stay fit and what they call the perfect size just to have a big appeal to the audience when at pageants. The encouragement of this behavior can lead to many body complications and disorders for these girls as they develop, only because they are not truly developing as an average young lady. “A 2007 report issued by the American Psychological Association Task force on the Sexualization of girls claims that parents who put their daughters in beauty pageants can contribute in very direct concrete ways to the precocious sexualization of the daughters” ( Hollandsworth). There has been research to prove that the actions of the young ladies is not all on their own, they have assistance with getting prepared for competitions and what to perform in competitions. Parents add more than what is necessary and can have a negative impact and not even know they are making matters worst than what they have to be. “Kiddie pageants are flourishing. Fueled by a reality TV show, an estimated 250,000 American girls participate in more than 5,000 beauty pageants every year” (Hollandsworth). Exploitation of these young girls is the “NEW BIG THING” to see and enjoy. Adults would rather watch little girls flaunt themselves
Most young girls like to play dress up in they’re mother’s clothing and messily put on old makeup at least once when they are young. This is all in good nature for the child to express them self’s and have fun with it; after all they are just curious. But pageants are not harmless fun, they take innocent dressing up to a whole new level with fake hair, professional caked on makeup, fake eyelashes, spray tans, fake teeth, and tons of embellished outfits that are sometimes vary improper. With all of this the kids also have to learn routines and poses that are also sometime not appropriate for young girls. According to Wiehe, “to the child, a message is given that sexuality- expressed in clothing, makeup, and certain postures- is appropriate and even something to exploit.” (493) I’m sure not all young girls will come up with this message, but for some that have been doing pageants for years that might think that their only self worth is their body
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.
First of all, glitz beauty pageants sexualize small children. As seen in the television hit show, Toddlers and Tiaras, a 3 year old toddler is dressed up as a prostitute, prancing around on stage dressed like Julia Roberts’ character from Pretty Woman. The revealing outfits, caked-on makeup, and inappropriate dance routines are introducing sexuality to young girls at such an early age. Girls dress up in short, tight outfits, showing off their midriffs, and performing like Lady Gaga is unacceptable. Two-year old toddlers dressed like Madonna w/ pointy cone bras is unacceptable. Toddlers wearing butt and chest enhancements to look like Dolly Parton is unacceptable. During the beauty portion of the competition, the girls are coached to flirt with judges, blowing kisses to them, winking, and batting their eyes to earn extra points. These are just a few examples of the promiscuity that is considered acceptable at these pageants. With teen pregnancy being such huge conflict in today’s society, adults should be teaching these girls about self-respect. As a solution, parents need to be instilling morals in their daughters a...
Fake hair, false teeth, spray tans, and waxed eyebrows are just a few things that some of these girls have when preparing to compete. The competition consists of young girls competing for the crown of beauty. Attention starved moms put their daughters in older aged attire and layer them up with makeup and glam to compete for the winning title. The judges pick for the most beautiful girl wins the title, a sparkly crown, a trophy, and cash. Even though beauty pageants teach children to compete, child pageants are affecting children’s childhood because the children grow up faster than they should and it teaches young girls that their true beauty doesn’t exist and they should dress and act older to make people think they are beautiful.
For nearly fifty years, children have been subjected to the world of beauty pageants where they have been forced to behave in an older way rather than their actual ages. I used the word forced because I believe that no 4, 7 year old would actually chose to go through what pageant kids go through every single day. Yet, some of them may view it as a “fun” thing, but it’s mostly that they are expected to see it that way. Rather than them actually believing it’s fun. Beauty pageants just causes unrealistic beauty standards which easily influenced young girls, and they encourage judging on appearance, rather than on a person's character.
Child beauty pageants have been a part of American society since the 1960’s. These pageants consist of modeling swimwear, evening attire, dance and talent. The young children entered in the pageants are judged on perfection, confidence, capability and looks. Judges would call this “the complete package.” Children are divided into different age groups to make the pageants fair. They are guided by there parents who spend well over 200 dollars for the pageants. Money is spent on fake nails, hair extensions, makeup, clothing, eyebrow waxing, and anything else their parents are willing to do to make their child the best looking. Keep in mind that these little girls range from ages 1-12. The issues with these pageants are that these extremely young girls are beginning to compare themselves to other “prettier” girls, which leads to negative effects in the future.
A child beauty pageant can be described as a contest featuring contestants from ages below one year to eighteen years old. They first started in 1921 when the owner of a hotel in Atlantic City wanted to help boost tourism. But, even before those pageants, there were “Most Beautiful Child” competitions throughout major cities across the country. Some pageant moms and dads believe that it is a helpful thing to put their children in pageants and it will help them in the future but I beg to differ. I believe pageants promote the sexualization of children, leaves them emotionally neglected and can teach young girls to value the wrong things at a young age.
When one looks back at their childhood, what pops into their head? For most people their response would be playing with dolls, going outside, or having sleepovers, but for others that isn’t reality. Britney, an eight-year old girl from California, spent her childhood getting Botox and competing in child beauty pageants. According to her mother, Britney had been complaining about wrinkles and agreed to trying Botox. This sounds absolutely crazy, but it is not uncommon. Over 250,000 kids participate in beauty pageants each year (Lindsey). These children, who start competing as early as age 2, are being judged on their looks, capability, perfection, and confidence. The controversies over these pageants have erupted in the past few years because of TLC’s reality show, Toddlers and Tiaras (Nussbaum). Many believe it is not right for young children to parade around on stage wearing make-up and inappropriate clothing, while others believe it builds confidence in children. Despite what people who are pro child beauty pageants say, these pageants can have major effects on the kids participating in them. One may argue that these girls gain much more than they lose, but in the end the negative affects far outweigh the positives.
Child contestants should not be allowed to compete in glitz beauty pageants; they should only be allowed to participate in natural beauty pageants, which promote healthy competition for contestants. Child beauty pageants have been a part of American society since the 1960’s (Nussbaum). The children that compete in these contests are usually between the ages of two and eighteen, but there are some cases where the contestants begin competing in child beauty pageants younger than the age of two, or as soon as they are able to walk. Divisions include sportswear, talent, casual wear, swimwear, theme wear, decade wear, evening wear, interview, western wear, and outfit of choice. Child contestants are judged based on poise, perfection, looks, capability, and confidence.
A study done at the University of Minnesota evaluated the association between childhood beauty pageants and adult eating disorders, de...
"Children who consistently compete in beauty pageants miss the chance to make friends during and after school and are at risk for developing problems in their social interactions" (Eder). Kids will spend so much time thinking about these beauty contest that they will miss out of a lot of their development skills "A 6-year-old beauty queen is put at risk for problems in most major areas of development: cognitive development, peer relationships, adult relationships and self-concept" (Eder). When they miss out on all these skills they miss a lot. No one realizes how much this could change a person development and relationships with others. Girls also don’t have a good self-esteem because of these consents they do.
In the last decade beauty pageants have been a controversial issue. The arguments always cover subtopics such as feminism, exploitation, and self esteem. These so called beauty pageants make women’s bodies seem as if they are not their own but they as seen as objects of beauty for others. For years women have been yearning the right to be equal with men, but they are still playing dress-up for money.
I choose this journal article as one of my sources for my report because the article explains different key information in specific detail on beauty pageants, and compares beauty pageants to real lifestyles. By using sources from this article, there is interesting information about what young girls must do to win for their mothers, example, flirting, winking at the judges, as well as how beauty pageants have a different view today, from the way it used to be back in the 1950’s. The authors of the report APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls include E. Zurbriggen, R. Collins, S. Lamb, T.A. Roberts, D. Tolman, L. Monique Ward, and J. Blake. This report summarizes theory, and research behind sexualization of American girls and real life experiences that have occurred towards the sexualization of young girls. The arguable statement towards this report is that older girls in America promote themselves to a type of media where they become a non-example towards younger females as what to look like – how to dress, how you should wear your make-up, etc. For example, as a young girl is connected to the world of beauty pageants, they would be inspired and encouraged to wear printed slogans as T-shirts outside of their pageant world, such as “eye candy” or “wink wink” Cook &Kaiser.
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.