Beauty pageants have been around for ages. Pageants have been a way for children and adults to compete and win awards based off their physical appearance.The children beauty pageants subject today’s youth to harmful environments and substances. Children beauty pageants cause children to develop health and emotional disorders at a very young age. Children that compete in beauty pageants tend to develop many health problems that will cause problems in their future lives. The body’s youth that participate in beauty pageants are more likely still growing and developing. Being exposed to the harmful chemicals and environment of the pageant world could cause some serious health problems in these young kids’ lives. In the article “5 Reasons Child Pageants are Bad for Kids” by The Week Staff, the author states, “Excessive exposure to phthalates has been linked to stunted growth and even lung cancer.” Phthalates are the chemicals found in the household item hairspray which is a key essential for pageants. …show more content…
The small children that are subjected to pageants by their parents or even by themselves do not always understand what the meaning of a competition. In turn, children that lose during one of these competitions could cause lifelong emotional problems. Emotional problems such as depression, low self-esteem, etc. could be a result of a lost competition. In the article “Child Beauty Pageants Have Good and Bad Points Parents Should Consider Before Competing” by Helene Malmsio, Malmsio states, “If they don’t win, they might take it personally and get hurt feelings. The child might end up feeling unattractive or inadequate in some other way.” The feeling of being “unattractive or inadequate” causes all sorts of emotional and mental disorders within the children’s
...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.
One professional psychologist and registered dietician has warned that competing in the beauty pageants may lead young girls to feel that the approval and love of their parents is based solely on their looks and whether they win a crown at the pageant or not. Losing in a pageant category may generate lower feelings of self-worth in young children who do not know how to properly cope with loss at such a young age. Additionally, there are countless examples of women who as children participated in beauty pageants and began stressing at a young age while attempting to maintain an impossible ideal of perfection. Many of the young girls who cannot keep up a perfect look will begin to feel body shame, depression and may even develop an eating disorder. In fact, one study was done on approximately 130 females who had participated in beauty pageants.
Beauty pageants have caused an increase in mental and physical issues in young girls who participate. Participation and competition for a beauty prize where infants and girls are objectified and judged against sexualized ideals can have significant mental health and developmental consequences that impact detrimentally on identity, self-esteem, and body perception ("We must protect our kids from the catwalk of shame."). If young girls don't win, they might take it personally and get hurt feelings. The child might end up feeling unattractive or inadequate ("Child Beauty Pageants Pros and Cons.") which can lead to the development of disorders such as bulimia or anorexia. ("How Do Child Beauty Pageants Affect a Child's Development?") These are both eating disorders girls develop to lose weight excessively. Furthermore, the average BMI of a beauty pageant contestant as of 2010 is 18.3 (Beauty Pageant Statistics), which is classified as underweight...
McDowell, Kayla. “Child beauty pageants: big no-no.” Comp Blog. N.p., 21 Mar. 2013. Web. 31
Many children are involved in pageants, and many varieties of people have different opinions. Some people feel that they are good, others not so much. Opinions vary from person to person, and reasoning also varies. But, the real question for this topic is "are these pageants good for them in the long run?"
Mothers are the ones that get really obsessed with these pageants. They have their own dream to be a beauty queen and go to their daughter to fulfill an achievement they did not complete in their life. Its hunger the parents carve for. Mothers start to notice their 5 year old show interest of dancing and singing, they decide to force them into beauty pageants. Some of the mothers get really competitive not only with the other mothers but as well as the other contestants. They might not know they are harming their child and think it’s for the fun of it. I know that they do use some kind of “special juice” and they have “pageant crack” to keep their toddler energized. The special juice can be any kind of sugar drink and as for the pageant crack its pixy sticks. Some parents mix sugar drink or give them coffee to keep them awake and ready for their performance. The so-called pageant crack can be misleading to the girls; they could end up being drug addic...
Beauty pageants are linked with an immense variety of negative effects. These children are trying to be someone that they are not. The effects on these children can escalate quickly and affect them their entire life. When a parent first enters their child in a pageant, they do not think about the negative consequences they could have on their child. No parent wants to experience the tragedy that the Ramsey family did. Although some children do gain things from these pageants, the majority of them are harmed. The effects from these pageants range from eating disorders and body image problems to social and psychological problems. If there are not regulations put on these pageants in the near future, our young children are going suffer from growing up to fast. When will people learn that looks are not everything and we should let the kids be kids?
Grosaru, Lucia. Toddlers and Children Beauty Pageants – Risk Factors for Severe Psychological Turmoils. 08 June 2011. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. .
Child beauty pageants should not exist because it shows girls unrealistic beauty standards. By showing girls unrealistic beauty standards it shows them to not be themselves, the real person they were meant to be. Pageant participants often struggle with society's level of "perfection", dieting, eating disorders, and body image on through their adulthood. The society we live in today is absolutely horrible teaching young girls that they need to be perfect and as skinny as a twig to
" In the end, children’s beauty pageants are essentially harmful to both young girls safety and minds. It may not happen to some, but most of the young girls that compete in beauty pageants seem to have a bit of an attitude towards their parents and other people who will not cooperate with them.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Some people believe that beauty pageants hinder self-growth and heighten self-hate. In beauty pageants, children are instructed to “cover” themselves with heaps of make-up and wear of façade of sorts. This facade eats at a young girl's self-esteem, for she believes that she must transform into an ideal character fit to appeal to a set of judges based on outfit, personality, and looks ("Child"). If a young girl is constantly shrouded by the false ideologies and superficial aspects of pageantry, she will allow other people's perceptions to define who she is. Therefore, critics argue that beauty pageants teach young girls to focus only on developing their appearances (“Child”). Young girls begin to believe that their self-worth is measured by external attributes. In addition, the vicious cycle of wearing a façade begins to damage the self-worth and the emotional state in the young girls. Children’s pageantry attire consists of glamorous dresses and puffed-up hair and make-up, which builds the assumption in girls that being beautiful, is based on appearance alone. Beauty pageants inherently represent shallow and superficial ideals that persist in society. Once...
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)
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,
“Three parents who were interviewed put their children into pageants because they have birth defects. ‘Her plastic surgeon thinks it’s wonderful because he sees parents hide their children with a facial defect,’ according to one mother, whose daughter has a cleft palate. ‘We don’t go for competition or for her to win. We go to meet other children and parents. We don’t want her to think she’s different, that she isn’t beautiful.” (Cromie). The main reason people participate in pageants is the benefit of gaining confidence. (Shappert). Parents enter their children into pageants when they are young so they can learn to be comfortable with who they are and meet many new people. (Cromie). The downside of placing a child into the pageantry world is that it can become very costly. Parents can spend hundreds up to even a thousand dollars just on the dress, this is not including the hair, nails, fake teeth and coaching, if the parent wishes to increase their chances of winning. (Cromie). Another disadvantage to putting young children or even young adults into pageants is that the thought of winning can get to their head. The competition can become too serious for them. On television shows like Toddlers and Tiaras children are often shown throwing tantrums when they do not win.
Do beauty pageants really help girls find their inner beauty or do they just change into faulty beauty queens? Looking deeply into what these competitions really create out of a person, anyone can quickly find that the contestants aren’t all rainbows and butterflies. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. Pageantry changes some girls for the better, but can also change them for the worse. Young girls should not participate in beauty pageants because they apply too much pressure by judging females based mostly on their physical appearance and can cost up to thousands of dollars.