The first beauty pageant can be traced back to P. T. Barnum in 1854, this competition was merely based on looks and was very small. As beauty pageants grew in popularity Barnum hosted many pageants, most of them had no talent or intellect portion. As the years flew by, many types of pageants began to take form. Many of these pageants had a children's portion. One of the most popular types of beauty pageants for children are glitz pageants, these kinds of pageants are known for their risque costumes and pushy parents. They dress young girls up like adult women, teaching them that they need to look ‘sexy’ and ‘adult’ to win a children's pageant. Child glitz beauty pageants are objectifying and sexualizing young girls, creating detrimental harm …show more content…
For instance, a french clothing company, Jours Après Lunes started a line of children's lingerie; thin, risque undergarments, marketed for girls four years old. (Ashley Strickland, CNN) New shows have been trying to normalize the sexualization of young girls as well. TLC's "Toddlers and Tiaras,” a show focusing on the extreme end of the pageant industry, had 1.3 million viewers each week. Girls in skirts only a few inches below their hips, extra padding in the but and breast area, makeup caked on their face so thick it takes hours to take off. But it's not just little girls who are being influenced by this. Men and boys are seeing this and treating women differently, only valuing women for their sex appeal. Many believe that the sexualization of children on T.V. and in the media has led to increases in sexual assault against children and child pornography. One disturbing scene was of a little girl, around five, her mom pulling a revealing dress over her. She had fake eyelashes, a dark tan and bright pink lipstick. The little girl was crying and screaming. She yelled out through her tears; “Mommy you’re making me look like a whore!” Even his child sees that the way she's being treated is unethical and inappropriate. We're turning our next generation into cardboard cutouts of the ‘perfect’ woman. The misogynistic view of women needs to stop, we’ve begun to imprint that onto children. …show more content…
These children are being treated like tiny exotic dancers, it’s destroying their emotional health. And there’s a few reasons for it. Beauty competitions like these ruin young girls self esteem during a crucial part of their emotional development. They go to a beauty pageant and try their hardest and get psyched up, just to be let down and told that they're not enough, ruining their self esteem. Many supporters of beauty pageants say that beauty pageants raise girls self esteem and make them proud of their bodies. However, making a little girl diet, exercise and dress like an adult doesn't tell them that they should be proud of their bodies. Furthermore, when someone loses after they tried really hard, they get an overwhelming sense of failure. The immediate response to failure is to dissect what was done and find what was done wrong. And in a beauty pageant there's only one thing to put the blame on. Appearance. “My legs are too thick. My nose is too big. My arms are too flabby.” This drop in self esteem causes a whole new predicament; eating disorders. Worldwide over seventy million people suffer from an eating disorder, and ninety percent of those people are between the ages of seven and twenty five. (National Institute for Mental Health) At such a crucial time in the emotional development of a child, is it really appropriate to subject them to judgment on such a large scale? The answer to
“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
Children beauty pageants encourage young girl’s to wear make-up, dress in fancy, expensive clothes, and prove to the judges they have what it takes to beat the other contestants. Jessica Bennett states in Tales of a Modern Diva “But this, my friends, is the new normal: a generation that primps and dyes and pulls and shapes, younger and with more vigor. Girls today are salon vets before they enter elementa...
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. There are multiple negative effects associated with pageant participation law makers need to take action and find a way to regulate the trends of these controversial displays that sexualize young children.
Recently, the conflict of young girls portraying characteristics of women is increasing. Because of media influences, children are beginning to look and act in ways that mimic the lives of adults; the information they are learning is nowhere near age appropriate for these children. Girls are being taught to focus more on their appearance. They are being taught from a very young age that it is most important to be skinny and look pretty. Girls are learning to treat themselves as objects rather than people, and allowing themselves to be seen as objects, they allow others to treat them that way. One program in particular, “Toddlers and Tiaras,” sexualizes young girls, and produces such thoughts due to the broadcast that it has to the world.
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
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.
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...
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
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?
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.
Seeing children as small as 0-month old to 12 years old in beautiful dresses, showing off their talents and competing to win cash and tiaras may seem cute. Today many mothers are taking the pageants to a completely different level. Do you think dressing a three year old as a prostitute for a movie theme pageant is appropriate? No, it is completely inappropriate and that is exactly what Wendy Dickey did to her three-year-old daughter Paisley Dickey in a film theme beauty pageant on TLC’s “Toddlers and Tiaras”. Wendy thought by dressing her daughter as a prostitute like Julia Roberts character in Pretty Woman was going to “wow” the judges but just created controversy all over. Children beauty pageants may seem to be cute, but today it is a concern among many people on whether children beauty pageants should be ban because of what goes on in the pageant world that we do not see and the outcome and future of these children.
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)
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
Pageants have a way of exploiting children by changing their looks and attitudes to make them more adult like and entertaining; dressing children in bikinis or provocative costumes just to be judged by how well they wear it and how pretty they are is demeaning and cruel. Children should not be taught that looks are everything and you get everything you want in life because when they're older it will be harder for them to accept reality. Imitating the fashion and looks of an adult is not how a child should grow up. A parent should want their child to grow up knowing that they are naturally beautiful and their personality and smarts can get them far in life rather than beauty beats brains, correct?