The lights are intensely bright as they reflect off the stage, leaving numerous loud, edgy mothers in dim luminosity behind them. Six year old Cindy pounces into the rays of the spotlight with a sham smile, flaunting her rehearsed dance, facial expressions, and postures. She finishes with a brilliant beam and pose, thinking of how much she has gone through to be on that stage: the eye waxing, hair dying, extreme dieting, fake teeth, layers of make-up, clouds of hairspray, extensions that give her headaches throughout the day, and the hours of practice she is forced to execute. Up to three million child beauty contestants experience this scenario per year (O’Neill). Glitz beauty pageants exploit young children, teaching them that self-worth is in physical beauty only, while natural beauty pageants teach child contestants that natural beauty and personality is most important, encouraging them to be confident in who they are. Child contestants should not be allowed to compete in glitz beauty pageants; they should only be allowed to participate in natural beauty pageants, which promote healthy competition for contestants.
Child beauty pageants have been a part of American society since the 1960’s (Nussbaum). The children that compete in these contests are usually between the ages of two and eighteen, but there are some cases where the contestants begin competing in child beauty pageants younger than the age of two, or as soon as they are able to walk. Divisions include sportswear, talent, casual wear, swim wear, theme wear, decade wear, evening wear, interview, western wear, and outfit of choice. The child contestants are judged based on poise, perfection, looks, capability, and confidence. The prizes of the child beauty pageants di...
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O'Neill, Justin. "Should 4-year-olds Be Beauty Queens?" Scholastic 12 Dec. 2011: 20-21. Web. 04 Mar. 2012.
In 2009, TLC aired a reality television show entitled Toddlers and Tiaras. It was instantly a hit with home viewers and also brought major controversy over child beauty pageants. The show focused mainly on glitz pageants; which requires all contestant, however young, to compete with make-up, spray tans, acrylic nails and revealing costumes. Many, such as I were entertained at first with the pint size Barbie dolls; however after watching a couple episodes, controlling stage moms and toddler melt downs reveal that glitz beauty pageants are nothing less than objectification and exploitation of young girls. Beauty pageants not only exploit children but are detrimental to the child’s physical, emotional and psychological health.
Beauty pageants that involve children are a booming industry and growing fast in popularity. This is partially because of television shows like Toddlers and Tiaras and Living Dolls, which glorify pageants that threaten the innocence of childhood. According to Lucy Wolfe, “in 2011, three million children participated in pageants across the country” (454). With so many children, some as young as six months old, partaking in pageants and countless more aspiring to be pageant princesses, a closer look needs to be taken at the practices that are used to prepare them for the show. Often working long hours, not only prepping for the pageant but also performing in it, the children have no laws protecting them from being harmed or exploited.
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.
It is 6:00 a.m. on Friday morning, and Sharon is about to awaken her eighteen month old baby, Jessica, to prepare her for a long weekend of make-up, hairspray, and gowns. Jessica is one of the thousands of babies forced into the many children's beauty pageants each year. Sharon is among the many over-demanding parents who pressure their young and innocent children into beauty pageants each year and this is wrong.
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...
" In the end, children’s beauty pageants are essentially harmful to both young girls safety and minds. It may not happen to some, but most of the young girls that compete in beauty pageants seem to have a bit of an attitude towards their parents and other people who will not cooperate with them.... ... middle of paper ... ...
In today's society there are many children who have not properly learning their worth and important life skills necessary for the real world. As the quote showed these harmless pageants cultivate good important life skills especially for the real world, and most importantly these pageants are shaping the personality of young children surrounding them with strong, confident young men and women. Issues and controversies states “Parents of child-pageant participants also claim to enter their children in competition to better prepare them for entering the real world. Some parents see pageants as a way to help their children adjust to the idea that they will, throughout their lives, be critically appraised and face disappointment.” (child beauty pageants)
Ever since the 1920s, where a rising entrepreneur used ‘the most beautiful child’ to promote tourism for his hotel business, child beauty pageants have ascended into a hot topic worldwide (Roche, 2013). In our current day, society has begun recognizing the various limitations and antagonistic consequences that arose with such contests. For the most part, the darker side of such pageants may have remained glossed over if it hadn’t been for the gruesome murder case of the pageant star, JonBenet Ramsey (DeWitt, 1997). Some still argue that the children involved in such competitions enjoy the attention and grow up to become some of society’s high functioning individuals, when in fact, the harsh reality of the repercussions remain overlooked due to the need for personal satisfaction.
The lights are all on you, the make-up, the hair, and the extravagant dresses. Your blood pumps with adrenaline; you feel nervous, yet excited. All eyes are on you; the pretty girl strutting across the stage in ostentatious costumes that flicker once caught in the light. Many people have witnessed a beauty pageant whether it is one on television or stage. Not many are in denial of the lovability of the younger aged children executing their talents in front of crowds. Beauty pageants have been around since the 1920’s setting a trend in the American society, but the history of beauty pageants began in Troy and Ancient China, where the contestants consisted of sculptors, actors, poets, philosophers and public speakers etc. (Children and Beauty Pageants) Beauty Pageants consist of many age groups ranging from newborns to about twenty years of age. Girls between the ages of three to thirteen should not participate in beauty pageants.
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)
" Money, ratings and attention fuel the pageant/dance media machine, with parents and adults reaping the benefits. Purpose of Child Beauty Pageants For these young pageant girls, brains before beauty is not the case. Real-world priorities such as schooling, family, and friends are trumped by tiaras, makeup, and evening gowns. More value is often placed on being beautiful in the eyes of the judges, than on each girl’s individuality.
Beauty pageants are a competition judged on physical beauty and the winners are awarded prizes or titles. Pageants are a very expensive hobby to have. Some people think beauty pageants are terrible to put your child into and others think differently. When many people think of beauty pageants they think of the tv show on TLC called “Toddlers and Tiaras”. This show displays a little behind the scenes of the process of a beauty pageant, but not everything. The process of a beauty pageant is very long, and many do not understand the process behind one.
Palmero, Paul “Do Beauty Contests Still Serve their Purpose?” Lifestyle.inquirer.net. 2010-2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Today there are many new extracurricular activities that occupy a lot of young Americans minds. One trending activity is beauty pageants. It is more common in children where the ages may vary between eight months and even older. The trending debate is whether or not beauty contest serve any purpose in society. While many Americans feel as though pageants are helpful to a child’s self esteem, many feel that the effects of the contest have a very harsh effect on child development by devaluing a child. Researchers have found that beauty contests are effective for women to help make platforms for their careers and also create new jobs for women to create like mentoring children.