Is beauty really skin deep, or are we programmed a certain way? In today society are we sending the wrong message to women and children about beauty standards? Is there a level that can be truly met? We live in a world where we are judge based on physical appearance, however is that stigma always been there or is it just the media.
Looking into the simplest form of beauty propaganda would have to be, beauty pageants, and how women are shown and depicted in being beautiful and gorgeous. Women who enter are put up against each other, and put through a serious of test and sexual ogling. Women are paraded in their underwear and swimming suites in front of millions of people and are judged, for how they look in them. That is not showmanship;
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That’s just biased, putting women in different categories. Versing into a more extreme version of the beauty pageant is the one for little girls. These pageants are for girls aged six to eight, girls as young as four have entered. Just like the adult pageants they have to go through test that showcases their talents. Wearing full faces of make-up and short reveling clothing and swim suites. Their being sexualized at an extremely young ages. Should toddlers be allowed to be showed off as prizes, of who’s the prettiest? It is going to creating emotional and psychological problems in the long run. It is creating a false identity, that perhaps their looks are the most important part of them. As well as anyone with a television screen can look and can watch. There are pariahs out there. However one of the biggest points for competing in a beauty pageant could be the national pride, and being a part of a larger community. It shows cases women’s talents and attributes, not just deeming to how women look. They are also competing to win a scholarship, to become more educated in the long run. Beauty pageants for the …show more content…
It’s in the media; and is plastered all over magazines. And there’s nowhere to hide from it. It does not help that when you turn on a music video, you see half naked women shaking their assets, in almost little no to any clothing. It’s becoming an epidemic, and influencing new kind of sexual promiscuity. We now live in a world were little children are exposed to these types of profanities. Reality shows like “16 and pregnant” and “Jersey Shore”, promote the wrong kind of behavior towards adolescence. “2% of adolescents have had sex by the time they reach their 12th birthday” (Viner 2013). Little children and teens are being influenced, their mimicking behaviors seen in media. Young teen girls are now wearing full faces of make-up, and wearing reveling clothing. Let’s look at what women are doing to themselves in today’s world, to look more attractive and younger. Just for the epitome of being beautiful. Women are altering their physical appearance, and almost completely changing the way they look. Perhaps for the idea that plastic surgery will make them look better. Men and women are altering themselves to look like Barbie dolls, slicing and dicing to become perfect. Cosmetic surgery or plastic surgery emphasize on “plastic” goes way back too “600 BC”, but was used more for reconstructing wounds. Now in the twenty first century we use it more to look sexy. Let’s forget about the beauty aspect of it, and let’s focus about the money part; because it is not cheap
...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.
Beauty pageants have caused an increase in mental and physical issues in young girls who participate. Participation and competition for a beauty prize where infants and girls are objectified and judged against sexualized ideals can have significant mental health and developmental consequences that impact detrimentally on identity, self-esteem, and body perception ("We must protect our kids from the catwalk of shame."). If young girls don't win, they might take it personally and get hurt feelings. The child might end up feeling unattractive or inadequate ("Child Beauty Pageants Pros and Cons.") which can lead to the development of disorders such as bulimia or anorexia. ("How Do Child Beauty Pageants Affect a Child's Development?") These are both eating disorders girls develop to lose weight excessively. Furthermore, the average BMI of a beauty pageant contestant as of 2010 is 18.3 (Beauty Pageant Statistics), which is classified as underweight...
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
Beauty pageants are no help to the cause either. Miss America has become a job for women that represent their country from the way their face looks, rather than their ideas and vocal capabilities. We have become a nation centered around beauty and appearance and this annual television show has followed in this trend’s wake.
“Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep” (Godfrey, 2013). We hear these sayings all the time, yet we live in a society that seems to constantly contradict this idea (Godfrey, 2013). If looks don’t matter, why is every woman in magazines photoshopped? If looks don’t matter, why are women constantly harming their bodies because they are unhappy with how they look and just want to fit in (Godfrey, 2013)? The unrealistic standard of beauty that women are bombarded with everyday gives them a goal that is impossible (Godfrey, 2013). Sociocultural standard of feminine beauty is presented in almost all forms of popular media, forcing women with images that portray what is considered to be the ideal body (Serdar). A majority of the models
One would believe that a life of glamorous hair and make-up, beautiful gowns, and sparkling tiaras would be every young girls dream, unfortunately, for numerous, this dream often turns into a nightmare. In today’s world, little girls are being subjected to the world of pageantry. Beauty pageants in America have seemed to multiply over the years. Now, these pageants are so popular with little girls. They will do anything and everything they can to do pageants. Although the kid may want to enter, the parents take as much blame as the children do. Numerous parents fall in love with the idea of their children being in pageants. So is it really the child who wants to participate in such a demanding lifestyle?
Beauty Pageants Beauty pageants are gaining attention in the news and classrooms for better or worse. Toddlers and Tiaras, a reality television show which follows the families of beauty pageant children, has raised awareness of the harm done by beauty pageants. Beauty pageants are demeaning to women because it fosters an unrealistic body image for women and damages how women treat themselves. Well-known beauty pageants, Miss Universe and Miss America, create an unrealistic profile of women. On the Miss Universe and Miss America application it asks for a woman's height, weight, and a headshot photograph.
With the murder of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey in 1996, whether or not the contests should be available for children has sparked off a lively debate.(“JonBenet Ramsey Murder Fast Facts,” 2015) While many consider that messages of beauty pageants do not help children develop correctly since the origin of the beauty pageants are not to encourage women to show their virtual beauty to the public, but rather entertain people by dressing in different types of clothing. Others maintain that some contests have evolved to also incorporate personality, intelligence, talent as judged criteria. With the fact that the promotion of an ideal of adult feminine features from beauty pageants adds to the pressure on the children to conform to it, this
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)
Modern beauty contests started in the United States of America in 1880 with the first Miss United States bathing beauty contest held at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Since then, beauty pageants had been popular in many parts of the world. Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International, participated in every year by more than fifty countries, ceaselessly attracts huge audiences and supporters. The biggest, the Miss World competition, had been running annually since 1951, and although it is less popular in the UK now than it was in 1968, when it attracted 27.5 million TV viewers, it still attracts an enormous worldwide audience of up to 3 billion viewers in 120 countries. [1] Although the main purpose of these pageants are to empower women, the crowned winners are also traveling around the world in order to support causes like HIV/AIDS and children's charity organizations. [2] Due to the success of these internationally produced pageants, various beauty contests for different classes of age, sex and sexuality stemmed up. However, even with the huge diversity, the content of each pageants have almost always been the same: all of them are comprised of the mainstream categories like swimwear portion and evening gown portion. With these content, beauty pageants gives out strong messages regarding what the ideal type of woman is, hence undermining the purpose of a beauty pageant: to empower women. Thus, although beauty pageants contribute to the entertainment of the masses, it promotes an ideal of female beauty that only a minority of women can realistically aspire, objectifies women, further advances cultural insensitivity among its candidates and uses up too much resources which is why it should be banned.
Beauty pageants have long been a form of entertainment, exhibiting beautiful women with ideal bodies competing with their talent and their 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.” (University of Kansas,
Many people are against beauty pageants, because people think that pageants are sexist, judgmental, and degrading of women. Do beauty pageants still serve their purpose in society? Yes, many contestants gain a lot by doing pageants. Contestants of any age and gender have their benefits from doing pageants.
Beauty pageants seem to serve no apparent purpose for societal reasons. They denigrate the image of females as far as gender equality goes. There are many different ranges of beauty pageants all over the world. Females can be as small as 2 months. Many girls dream of becoming Miss U.S.A or Miss World.
Glitz, Glamour and ready to take the stage in front of the judges. Talents are shown and questions are answered to find the right girl to take home the crown. The judges gather together and select a winner. All these things are what go into Beauty Pageants but what happens to the loser, what happens to the young girl or women that is watching or participating in the pageant. These pageants based the winner of their beauty that is often enhance with make-up and fake tans. This places young girls into adult like situations and cause many problems in the long run for not only young girls but also women that is of age. The banning of beauty pageant should be done due to the fact that it can causes self-esteem and self-image issues, the wanting
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?