The Impacts of Child Beauty Pageants on Childhood Development

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Recommended: Perspectives on beauty pageants

A child beauty pageant can be described as a contest featuring contestants from ages below one year to eighteen years old. They first started in 1921 when the owner of a hotel in Atlantic City wanted to help boost tourism. But, even before those pageants, there were “Most Beautiful Child” competitions throughout major cities across the country. Some pageant moms and dads believe that it is a helpful thing to put their children in pageants and it will help them in the future but I beg to differ. I believe pageants promote the sexualization of children, leaves them emotionally neglected and can teach young girls to value the wrong things at a young age. Early childhood is a critical period for development and early experiences can have long-term effects on brain function and cognitive and psychological functioning. Early childhood is a critical time in a person’s life because it is when we learn how to act, what to do, and what to value in life (Alderman). So, putting children in beauty pageants at such a young age can really harm them in the future. Pageants teach children to put the most values on their appearance, and that is the only way that they can gain respect and have people like them. These parents are not focusing on what is important and waste most of their time with pageants. Lisa J. Rapport, a psychology professor at Wayne State University in Detroit studied 74 former young performers in television and film. She found that mothers who served as managers were likely to have a far less stable and positive relationship with their children than were mothers who kept business separate. Most of these children dream of having careers in their future that is based on their appearance such as a model or an actress. But, for o... ... middle of paper ... ...erfect." The New York Times 12 Jan. 1997: 1. Print. Gado, Mark. "Crime Library –The Slaughter of Innocence." Crime Library – Crime News and Stories. 28 Jan. 1997. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. Healy, Michelle. "USA TODAY: Could Child Beauty Pageants be Banned in the US." USA Today. Gannett, 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. Kuczynski, Alex. "Tough Times on the Children's Pageant Circut." The New York Times 13 Sept. 1998: 1-3. Print. Levey, Hilary. “Pageant Princesses and Math Wizzes.” Childhood: A Global Journal of Child Research 16.2(2009): 195-212 ERIC. Web. Nov. 2013 Lindsey, Claire. "California Polytechnic State University- The Ugly Truth to Child Beauty Pageants ." College Prowler. 13 Apr. 2013. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. "The Premier Online Debate Website - Are Beauty Contests Harmful to Children?." The Premier Online Debate Website | Debate.org. 2 Nov. 2012. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.

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