Persuasive Essay On Child Beauty Pageants

It may seem like dazzling gowns, gorgeous hair and make-up and sparkling tiaras are fairytales came true. However, without even young girls understanding the situation, this fairytale turns into a disaster in child beauty pageants. Pageants are ubiquitous, in the USA,
2.5 million girls participate in pageants every year. By working hard to make their families happy and to maintain this new sense of entertainment, ironically,little girls pay high prices in various aspects. Child beauty pageants should be banned not only because they sexualize girls and lead to mental problems but also they endanger toddler’s physical health. In the first place, since hypersexualization in pageants takes away the beauty of
childhood,disrupts

The parents and coaches urge these young girls to put on sexy outfits and move provocatively. Nonetheless,by doing that, they transform young girls into sexual robots. For instance, instead of being happy that their baby teeth is gone and the tooth fairy will come as a 5 year-old girl, the girls who do pageants experience anxiety and try to hide the emptiness of baby teeth with flippers so that they can be more sexy and reach to the shown ‘’beauty standard’’.Moreover, hypersexualization affects cognitive functioning adversely. According to American Psychological Association ’’Chronic attention to physical appereance leaves fewer cognitive resources available for mental activities.’’(Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, 21). To exemplify, in a study, college students were asked to wear either a swimsuit or a sweater.After they

Moreover, hair spray is overly used in pageants but it contains phthalates and plasticizers that can act as hormone disruptors (The Week Staff).
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital came to the conclusion thatwomen with high levels of phtlates that are found in personal health care products such as nail polish and hair sprays were 70 percent more likely to have diabetes compared to others. For a girl still growing,the effects an be life threatening because as well as diabetes ,by disrupting hormones,phtlates may cause early puberty and even lung cancer(Chemicals in Personal Care
Products May Increase Risk of Diabetes In Women). Furthermore, many pageant participants get tanned as they think having bronzed skin looks prettier. Nonetheless ,according to Cancer
Research UK, sunbeds give out harmful UV rays. People who get a lot of UV exposure from tanning beds are at greater risk for skin cancer because UV rays damage the DNA in your skin cells and overtime this damage can build up to cause skin cancer(Sunbeds).Thus, since child beauty pageants have numerous adverse affects on children’s physical health, they should be