Child Beauty Pageants, a Controversial Issue

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The popularity of child beauty contests seems to be increasing dramatically every year causing more and more controversy as time goes on. Many people do not agree with children being forced to fulfill their parents' dream by taking place in a pageant .It is very common for young girls to be obsessed over Barbie dolls, the perfect hair combined with the flawless makeup has provided a fantasy idol for all young girls to look up to, but who would have thought the doll would come to life as a 5 year old girl competing in a beauty pageant? Child beauty contests encourage Barbie stereotypes to prevail. These young girls go to very drastic measures to achieve the flawless Barbie doll look. They are spending hours after hours practicing their routines, interviews and perfecting there unrecognizable faces meanwhile spending thousands of pounds on outfits,hair and spray tans. The Barbie dolls from my childhood have became real life figures as these young girls have been over indulging themselves in makeup and dressing scandalously to try impress an audience. Futhermore,the age of the children participating in pageants ranges from 0 - 18 years old. That goes to show that the very young children participating are not in it for themselves but have been forced into it by their parents or guardians. Most of these children are too young to even understand what is going on. From the day these kids can crawl they are welcomed onto the stage of any pageant to compete for the grand prize. During childhood the foucus should be on learning and playing instead of being viewed as a Barbie doll. Paisley Dickey, age three, participated in a "Toddlers and Tiara's "pageant where her mother dressed her as a prostitute portraying Julia Roberts in the film "P... ... middle of paper ... ...t matter if you can't breathe. It matters if it looks good", says the mother of a beauty pagent child. This shows that the children are not at the best intention and its all about the prizes and publicity for some parents. Encouraging young girls to dress scandalously can lead to child pedophilia and also small mesasures of child pornography. Who would want to bring their beautiful children into such repulsive difficulties?. Beauty pageants have shown to cause serious effects on children such as, psychological issues,depression and eatting disorders. Children should not be entered in beauty pagents until they are old enough to make their own decisons about wethier it's what they want to do or not. The object of beauty contests is to win the nobel prize; a huge sum of money and the parents of these entering coach their kids to win,no matter how much it takes.

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