Vying for a Title
The contenders have been primped and manicured by their masters and are ready to be placed on display. The subjects with the wealthiest owners attend top-notch obedience schools where they are trained in the art of acting and appearing in a way uncharacteristic to their nature. They are rewarded with special treats when they work hard during training. The skills learned in these unique schools are not useful anywhere else, but in the competitions are judged and often given a champion prize.
The contestants are paraded in, coached by their owners. Each standing tall with her head raised and nose up. Most are showing their teeth as if to be smiling or happy. Truthfully, they are showing the judges the straightness and whiteness of their teeth. Both the long-haired and short-haired have had chemicals applied to them to make certain every hair lays perfectly.
The outward appearances of the participators are close to flawless. If any flaws are detected in the preparation they are quickly covered up. Trainers and owners see imperfections as point deductions. Those are deductions they can’t afford when a title and thousands of dollars are on the line.
A woman moves from one contestant to the next testing them. To the last in the line of female competitors the question is asked, “If you could change the world, what would you change?” Too confidently the girl replied, “I would end world hunger and poverty.” When all she really aspires to do is win this contest and the next.
This is what pageantry is about. Parents who subject their children to beauty pageants teach their children that winning these contests will bring them happiness. Is being deemed the best at being fake really anything to be happy about? Too many mommies and daddies believe so.
Do the pageant parents have their own dreams about their daughters being Miss Americas? Do the participants really compete in beauty contests to better themselves or their futures? Do they have a driving force from behind the stage? Will these parents go to any extent to mold their daughters into something that might win a few of these superficial contests?
“…Didn't the Ramseys think that putting JonBenet in all those beauty pageants, looking so seductive, was inappropriate. The child was 5. All the pictures we saw were of her looking 25 and slinking and winking.” (Schwartz)
“Mrs. Ramsey said that was just the public's problem and if they thought a 5-year-old trying to look more sexy than Madonna was a bit twisted - well that just shows what twisted people we have in this country.
Recent female contestants they will understand the dangers of pageants and become more aware of what they need to do to protect themselves. Some will not care and believe it will not happen to them, that they are the one who can survive in the game. Economic classes are spoken to; upper class all they see is the glitter and trophies so they go to the extreme to go for the prizes of thousands of dollars and don’t care about what they need to do in order to get it. “Parents, many of whom have only modest incomes, pay for high-glitz coaches ($50 to $100 an hour), high-glitz photographers ($300 per session, with $150 for retouching), high-glitz wig makers ($150 to $175 a pop), and high-glitz spray tanners ($25 per pageant)”(Hollandsworth). Middle class they don’t see it as you have to have money to do it they can do just as good as those who have lots of money and do it better. Fans who support the pageant will consider how they perceive the girl as the model and perform their talents on
Since the Miss America Pageant was established in 1921, conceptions of the beauty of American women have been based, in part, on the winner of this pageant. Sarah Banet-Weiser writes in her book, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, that “the woman selected as Miss America apparently 'represents' the nation” (Banet-Weiser 56). As a result of representing the American nation, the winner of the Miss America pageant is looked up to as a model for style and beauty among women. Since its inception, the Miss America pageant has come under attack from feminist organizations for exploiting women's bodies despite the fact that it is a scholarship program; the pageant rewards contestants a scholarship for continuing education based on their responses in the interview and the talent portions of the pageant as well as their performance in the swimsuit competition. A beauty pageant, such as the Miss USA pageant, is strictly concerned with a woman's outer beauty and does not include the talent or interview portions.
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...
To become a contestant, women across the country entered themselves into popularity contests that featured their pictures in the newspapers. Editors of the paper then chose winners based on physical appearance. The winners were then given a free trip to Atlantic City where they were placed in the Inter-City Beauty Pageant (Bivans, 1991).
Pageants have been around for a long time. In the past, pageants were an interactive way for girls to display poise and to compete against each other in different categories. Nowadays pageants have transformed completely. Young girls are being treated and made up as if they were women or dolls. On the TLC show, Toddlers and Tiaras, we begin to see this trend happening. Girls as young as the age of two to fifteen months are being put into these pageants and are shown off to the world as “role models” to other children. The show starts off with a glimpse of the young girls’ lives. We see how they interact with their families and we get a feel for how they live. Most girls display all their trophies and how well they do in each pageant. All of these young girls display attitudes and throw temper tantrums throughout the show. Parents spend an enormous amount of money for each pageant on things like dresses and make up. Other children who watch “Toddlers and Tiaras” might be impacted due to being the...
When kids hate their bodies it affects their lives in many ways, including during school and at work. She believes that gender equality and biological stereotypes can be eliminated if we start to teach young kids to love themselves and not worry about everything going on around them. I completely agree with what Ramsey is saying because if we taught children as they got older to continue to love themselves it could cut down on the amount of mental illness and eating disorders
who have their children in beauty pageants say that their children gain confidence through performing. They also say that they are more prepared for life and will be more socially comfortable. They argue that their children mature at a younger age than "normal" children do. Why would any parent want their children to grow up any faster than they already do? Beauty pageants are not the only way that a child at such a young age can gain confidence.
Besides the attractive women in half-naked outfits, what does the Miss America Beauty Pageant really represent? This pageant lowers the self-esteem of women who don’t feel like they meet the standards of what society thinks is a beautiful woman. The pageant alone requires contestants to spend a huge amount of money. The message that this pageant is sending is that all women should compete against each other. The Miss America pageant gains millions of viewers, but people fail to notice the population of women who are not happy with themselves. This pageant has many issues regarding women’s image and the definition of beauty that people need to pay attention to.
She grabs the foundation and smothers her face with it; she creates a mask. She sprays the hairspray till the fumes clog the air. She squeezes into her bejeweled dress and puts on her heels. She transforms into someone who is unrecognizable, and fake. This is a little girl. The process of preparing for a beauty pageant is very demanding and stressful while little girls spend hours training and getting ready for their appearance on stage. Weeks are spent choreographing their dance routines and thousands of dollars are spent on, “glitzy” dresses, fake teeth, and spray tans. As long as beauty pageants for girls under the age of 16 continue, there will be an increase in mental and physical issues, an increase in the objectification of women, and there will be negative impacts for little girls.
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
American’s unneeded celebration of beauty in the pageantry world is digging a hole for the country and has been the contributing factor to the downward spiral we are presently in. The system of this pageant needs to change tremendously in order for it to become a beneficial contest in the future. Beauty pageants to...
People argue that beauty pageants help boost self confidence through performance on stage and that pageants can help you later in life. “The pageant has given me a lot of self confidence and self-esteem. The pageant directors make me feel wonderful and brought out qualities in me that I never knew were there” (qtd. in Decker). This is not always the case. Different scenarios affect girls differently. She stated that the directors made her feel wonderful but there is no guarantee that a director or anyone will pay special attention to a child. Another argument is that beauty pageants help later in life. An example of this is Shannon Depuy. She won prize money in pageants which helped put her through college (Decker). Shannon Depuy did pageants for a lot of her life. She is described as a “veteran All-star of American beauty pageant circuit” (Decker). This is good for Shannon since she had practice, but beginning beauty competitors may not be so lucky. Depuy having a history of pageants gave her an advantage. The fact that beauty pageants help boost confidence and help later in life is great for the girls this applies to, but this is not the case for beginning beauty competitors who are usually the main competitors.
Beauty pageants have been a competition in society as long as anyone can remember, whether it is formal or informal. From one girl comparing herself to a magazine, judging another when changing in the locker room, or attending a full, all out, extravagant and official pageant; it is really all the same. In this case, the direct topic being discussed is if beauty pageants are exploitive for young girls. Considering the stories on the news and reality television shows that display the craziness of it all, it is safe to say that entering in any young girl to beauty pageants is a brutal way of raising a child and does not hold any positive benefits in the long term.
Child beauty pageants can be very damaging to a young girl from a psychological perspective. If the child does not win the contest, they are forced to believe they have faults, which do not make them perfect. Instead of teaching girls to appreciate their fault for making them unique from everyone else. Beauty pageants promote an atmosphere that it is wrong to not be perfect. Most grade school girls are not concerned with self-image, until someone, points out their ears may be too big or they suffer some other imperfection. A four year old should not be told she is not as attractive as another girl. Kids that age should be taught that every individual is unique and exceptional in his or her own style. Not that there is a perfect mode that we must survive to fit.
Do beauty pageants really help girls find their inner beauty or do they just change into faulty beauty queens? Looking deeply into what these competitions really create out of a person, anyone can quickly find that the contestants aren’t all rainbows and butterflies. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. Pageantry changes some girls for the better, but can also change them for the worse. Young girls should not participate in beauty pageants because they apply too much pressure by judging females based mostly on their physical appearance and can cost up to thousands of dollars.