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I strongly believe that is absolutely horrendous that innocent young children participate in such sickening beauty pageants. Approximately 250,000 children participate in beauty pageants in each year. This is an absolute abomination to our country! Beauty Pageants are not meant to be for toddlers, for the following reasons that they sexualize young girls, put children on public display, can cause emotional problems- some such as depression and make innocent children competitive at a young age. It is clear that negatives overweigh positives in beauty pageant. Toddlers and tiaras? More like Toddlers and tears.
I have several reasons for contemplating that child beauty pageants are horrifying, my first being that a 6 year old girl should not
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.
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.
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
When I hear the word toddler I think of little girls walking around in mommy’s shoes, and miss matched clothing (because she’s getting to the age where she likes to dress herself.) And of course a cute smile that’s missing a few teeth. The word glitz, glamour and sashes don’t come to mind. Nor does the image of a little girl who’s fake from head to toe. Wearing wigs, flippers (fake teeth), inappropriate /reveling attire and fake tans. I don’t think of little girls dancing around a stage in front of hundreds of people getting judged on their “beauty.” Well, that is exactly what children’s pageants consist of. Pageants exploit a child for their outer beauty, their talents and over all perfection or as pageant judges would call it having” the whole package.” I bet pedophiles think the same thing and find these pageants very entertaining. And most of all, I don’t want to see a mother trying to live out her dreams through her three-year-old child.
Most of the audience would believe that these girls are overly concerned with their appearance and how people judge them based on them. In general, Toddlers & Tiaras provides a stereotype that all children in pageants are “dramatic divas” that are too young to be worried about how they look, especially girls. The world today is so centered around sexuality and beauty that in airing a show plotted around these values in young children is giving the wrong message to viewers, including toddlers themselves. Another stereotype given is the typical pageant mom, and how crazy they can be, in demanding their children to undergo drastic beauty measures and wear sexy costumes, even if they’d rather just play and be a
Is it acceptable for toddler girls under the age of six to dress and act the way a twenty-six year old women would dress and act, just to participate in child beauty pageants? Young girls dressed in revealing clothing, being caked in make-up, getting fake tans, wearing fake eyelashes, teeth, hair, and nails, or even performing extremely mature routines are a few reasons pertaining to why it is unacceptable for toddlers to be in the modeling industry. Beauty pageants are very popular in the United States, and are growing rapidly (A Beauty Pageant Ban). Toddlers and Tiaras is a popular television show promoting children in beauty pageants causing contestant entries to rise. It’s estimated in the United States alone each year 250,000 children compete in child pageants of that, over 100,000 are girls under the age of twelve (Rapport). Out of the 250,000 participants in these beauty pageants, studies have shown that approximately half of these children are unhappy with their body and wish to go on a diet to fix their self image (Rapport). Youth pageants are clearly causing children to only focus on physical appearance and not the true beauty of the child's personality. Consequently, the negative effects on a toddler’s life, safety, mental, and physical health over power the benefits of toddlers participating in the beauty pageants.
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
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
Treating others and valuing others for who they are on the inside and not how they look from the outside. That’s how we were raised and how we are going to raise our children later on. Parents care about every detail that concerns their children. They always want the best for them, they care for their happiness and health. And although some people may think that child beauty pageants has no harm on the child and that it's a way for the child to express herself and have fun by wearing tiaras, makeup, dresses and even heels. Others strongly disagree with that and even ask for those pageants to be canceled and banned just like France, due to its financial strain, possible emotional problems and the physical harm that might happen later on.
A lot of people may think they can save up a child’s beauty pageant winnings and make a profit off of it. But it can take 3,000-5,000 dollars to compete in a single pageant. Overall the money spent on pageants outweighs the money gained by winning. About 2.5 million girls partake in pageants each year. Young girls should not compete in glitz pageants because it can cause the girls to not feel good enough when not wearing their pageant outfit.
So in the end, they may not be terrible. I do not think little kids should be allowed to do pageants, but when they are older and know better it is okay. We have talked about pros and cons and whys and woes and why pageants should be banned and whether or not they are exploitative or beneficial. So the question still remains; Are beauty pageants harmful or beneficial to young children? Who is to say whether or not they are good or bad? Maybe one day down the road, all these tiny tots that are doing pageants now will grow up to be doctors and lawyers and help for greater good.
(University of Kansas, U.S. Fed. 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.
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.
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?