Pageant Parents are to Blame for the Exploitation of Their Children Until the death of 6-year-old beauty queen Jonbenet Ramsey, the child pageant circuit was never fully recognized on a national scale. In the past 17 years, many shows have attempted to give the country a glimpse into the the life of a child beauty queen, however, they are quite over dramatic. Although some sources of media may mislead a viewer to believe the child pageant system is exploitive and sexualizes the young contestants, research shows the decisions of some parents are truly to blame, not the pageants themselves. Although the pageant system can be a place to sprout new relationships, for many it does nothing but tear them down. Every parent wants their child to avoid the mistakes they, as parents, had made earlier in life in order to be the best they can be. Many pageant parents take this to the next level and use the child to live life again and pursue every opportunity they could have possibly missed as they were growing up. How is a child supposed to live their own life if they're forced to be a pawn in their parents game? Not only do pageants affect the parent-child relationship, it also affects the way children choose friends for the rest of their life. Heidi Gerkin, a former pageant star with titles such as America's Junior Miss, says that she has been more comfortable with having more male friends because of her previous experiences with deceiving friendships in the pageant systems. She says "Even now, whenever I meet somebody, I question whether they really like me" (Goode). The relationship the pageant systems affects the most is the relationship with oneself. It is very rare for a girl to claim she has never felt self-conscious, especially ... ... middle of paper ... ...hing that matters is winning. Whether the cost is their child’s dignity or the outcome of their future. These children should get a chance to make their own decisions rather than live the lives of their parents’. Works Cited Baxter, Brittany. Toddlers And Tiaras: Pageant Moms Gone Crazy. Web. fystoddlesandtiaras.wordpress.com. Bello, Mark. Beauty Pageants: Are Parents Bullying Their Children- By Accident?. Web. www.livingsafer.com. Blue, Alexis. Princess by Proxy: When Child Beauty Pageants Aren't About the Kids. 2012. Arizona. Web. uanews.org. Goode, Laura. I Was a Pageant Star: Six Adult Women Look Back. New York. 2012. New York Media. Web. thecut.com. Michael & Matthew. “Pageant Moms & Other Scary Things- A Father’s View on Toddlers & Tiaras. 2012. Houston Chronicle. Web. Pageant Mom: Did She Put Her Daughter In Danger?. 2013. Web. drphil.com.
“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
Skip Hollandsworth wrote the “Toddlers in Tiaras” article, which was published in the Good Housekeeping magazine in August of 2011. The author argues that pageants are a bad influence for young adolescent girls, and makes life for them harder. Hollandsworth wrote this article in response to the popularity of the TLC hit TV show about child pageants, and the re-opening of the murder case of Jonbenet Ramsey in 2010. This article can be divided into 5 division’s total. In the introduction the author opens with talking About Eden Wood and her getting prepared for a pageant. He goes on to discuss the fancy dresses and her pageant experience that day while also brushing up a little on JonBenet. In the next division Hollandsworth provides an example with a girl named Rayanna DeMatteo. She was a competitor with JonBenet Ramsey, she explains the times she remembered playing with Ramsey and all the fun they had. This section continues with
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...
At some point every single one of us was once an innocent child without a care in the world. The only thing that mattered was to make sure we had fun. There are many different things children do to have fun. Some children love to go outside and get dirty, others prefer to stay indoors and play pretend. Some girls love to play tea time or pretend to be princess. In some cases those pretend fantasies become true. Little girls get the chance to actually become a small little princess for a day. The only place that allows little girls to become a princess is at a child beauty pageant. Unfortunately throughout the years these pageants for little girls have been criticized and rejected by other people. There are many articles that discuss the reasons why child beauty pageants are rejected but there are also some that discuss the importance of them.
...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.
...ever, bad press was bound to come about. Younger girls were often spared criticism, being seen as young and fun-loving. The elder competitors, though, were greatly disapproved of because of the indecency of the pageant (Carter, 1977; Deford, 1971)
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.
It was the day after Christmas in 1996 when 6 year old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was murdered, she was found with a skull fracture and there was evidence of sexual molestation. The investigation is still unsolved and ongoing but it is thought that her prominence in the local pageant circuit made her an obvious target for child predators (Bio., 2011). Child beauty pageants are pageants in which the contestants are under the age of 16, many of the participants start performing when they’re as young as a few months old and continue doing pageants until adulthood. Underage beauty pageants have been around for over 50 years, and have now become a common hobby and are most commonly found in the South. While these competitions have gained popularity
The financial burden that pageants bring can really put an abundance of stress on the parents. After the shocking death of Ramsey, the High-Glitz portion of the pageant world surprisingly skyrocketed. Today it is now worth over $5 billion (Blue). With prices of everything today rising, this is not surprising news. The prices of new dresses, shoes, makeup, hair, spray tans, and even flippers (false teeth for young people to cover their always changing mouths) can really add up, not to mention the costs of pageants coaches to teach the kids the perfect way to walk and wave (Woolf 3). Regulars like Alana Thompson (aka Honey...
"How Do Child Beauty Pageants Affect a Child's Development?" Everyday Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014
Day, Elizabeth. "Living dolls: inside the world of child beauty pageants." The Observer. Guardian News and Media, 11 July 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. .
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)
Today there are many new extracurricular activities that occupy a lot of young Americans minds. One trending activity is beauty pageants. It is more common in children where the ages may vary between eight months and even older. The trending debate is whether or not beauty contest serve any purpose in society. While many Americans feel as though pageants are helpful to a child’s self esteem, many feel that the effects of the contest have a very harsh effect on child development by devaluing a child. Researchers have found that beauty contests are effective for women to help make platforms for their careers and also create new jobs for women to create like mentoring children.
Beauty pageants have long been a form of entertainment, exhibiting beautiful women with ideal bodies competing for their talent and 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.”