Children And Beauty Pageants Do Not Mix

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Recommended: The negative effects of beauty pageants on society

The world of beauty pageants is dramatic, heartbreaking, and downright hateful. Villines says “[c]hildren learn a host of unhealthy values, including the desire to defeat their competition at all costs”. (qtd. in “Beauty Pageants and Children: It’s Not Always Pretty” 6). A child should never have to go through the pressure that is put on them when entering a pageant nor should they learn to try to bring everyone down to get what they want. The pageant world can change a child for the worst. Unfortunately, it causes most of these children to become a sexual image at such a young age. Cartwright stated in her article about seeing pictures in French Vogue of, “a ten-year old model lying [o]n a sea animal print wearing a chest revealing gold dress, stilettos and heavy make-up”. (qtd. in “Child Beauty Pageants” 1). How could this child’s parents allow her to look so grown and sexy when she is just a baby? The answer to that is simple, the parents gain from it too.
When it comes to some of the parents in the beauty pageant world, they are worse than the children participating in the pageants. The parents are the ones that put the most pressure on the child. Villines states, “[s]ome parents put their kids on crash diets designed to help them gain energy and enthusiasm”. (4). A child has no need to diet unless they are obese. But it seems as if those parents don’t care, they just want their child to win. Villines also says, “that the real attraction of pageants is for parents who can gain social status, self-esteem, and money when their children participate”. (2). From the perspective of an outsider it’s as if most of the beauty pageant parents look at their children as objects to make money and fame off of, then their own flesh an...

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...nts are sadly already heading down that path.
The most beloved quote that Cartwright stated in her article was from the lead singer of The Doors, Jim Morrison “"Most people love you for who you pretend to be. To keep their love, you keep pretending- performing. You get to love your pretence. It's true, we're locked in an image, an act". That quote sums up beauty pageants and any other stage performing career. The only thing is, this is children we are talking about. When they grow up in the world of beauty pageants, the image they have, will stick with them because they might think that it truly is the only way they will be loved.

Works Cited
Brianna. Personal Interview. 15 Nov. 2013
Cartwright, Martina. “Child Beauty Pageants: What Are We Teaching Our Girls?”
(12 April 2012)
Villine, Zawn. “Beauty Pageants and Children: It’s Not Always Pretty” (15 Nov. 2012)

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