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Psychological effects of child beauty pageants
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Over the past few years with the coming out of the new hit show ‘Toddlers in Tiaras,’ viewers have brought up a controversial question. Are beauty pageants exploitive? Or do they simply build confidence in young children? People have been debating about this topic for years and will continue on for years to come. Will the debate ever come to an end? Or will it result in the banning of beauty pageants all together? These and many other questions have been brought to the surface. In these pageants many things take place. There are numerous sections and events that the children participate in such as formal wear, swimsuit, talent, personality and sometimes others.in the formal wear competition the contestants get dressed up in blinged out dresses. They also have their hair, and makeup done without flaw and walk on stage with big smiles to show off their outfits. The swimsuit competition, which is not always a part of the pageants, allows the girls to show off their swimsuits and maybe do a skit. This event also calls for a blinged out swimsuit and full makeup and hair. Most moms will get the children spray tanned as well. Next, would be the talent portion of the pageant. For this event, the girls display any talent of their choosing, with the appropriate hair, makeup and outfit of course, with such talents as singing, dancing or gymnastics. Finally, the children move on to the personality competition. In this competition, the kids preform anything they want to show the judges their personalities, wearing whatever outfit best expresses who they are. By now, you probably have your own opinion of beauty pageants. In a recent pole, 75% of the people asked if beauty pageants were harmful said yes. However there are many positive effe... ... middle of paper ... ...ml. McKay, Hollie. Parents of Children on TLC's 'Toddlers in Tiaras' Hurting Their Kids, Critics Say. February 14, 2014. Fox 411. June 03, 2010. http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/06/03/tlcs-toddlers-tiaras-returns-critics-say-parents-exploitive/. Roche, Marry. The ugly side of child beauty pageants. Irish Examiner. September 08, 2013. February 18,2014. http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/the-ugly-side-of-child-beauty-pageants-242192.html. Williams, Zinzi. Beauty Pageants and its Effect on Children. Children’s Beauty Pageants; December 6, 2010. purduecal.edu. February 18,2014; http://student.purduecal.edu/~zmwillia/1800-2200%20words.htm. Debate: Child beauty pageants. Are child beauty pageants tolerable, or should they be banned?. 30 May 2011. Debatapedia. February 18,2014. http://dbp.idebate.org/en/index.php/Debate:_Child_beauty_pageants.
In “Toddlers In Tiaras” Skip Hollandsworth purpose is to get readers to understand that pageants are teaching young girls to young women that the sexualization of their looks are their main value, leaving a negative effect on contestants physically. He believes parents are usually the main reason why young girls join the pageants to begin with so, he targets parents as the audience of his essay. To get readers to understand his point of view and to persuade them to agree with him he displays evidences from reliable sources using ethos, pathos and logos throughout the article.
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.
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...
Child beauty pageants have been a part of American society since the 1960’s. These pageants consist of modeling swimwear, evening attire, dance and talent. The young children entered in the pageants are judged on perfection, confidence, capability and looks. Judges would call this “the complete package.” Children are divided into different age groups to make the pageants fair. They are guided by there parents who spend well over 200 dollars for the pageants. Money is spent on fake nails, hair extensions, makeup, clothing, eyebrow waxing, and anything else their parents are willing to do to make their child the best looking. Keep in mind that these little girls range from ages 1-12. The issues with these pageants are that these extremely young girls are beginning to compare themselves to other “prettier” girls, which leads to negative effects in the future.
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...
"The Health Risks of Child Beauty Pageants." Aol.on. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014. .
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
In the 1920’s, when beauty pageants began, the main reason for these pageants was to gain tourists. At the time, Atlantic City, New Jersey, was a popular tourist resort. To bring in more business to the city, they came up with the idea of a Fall Pageant. The city got sponsors to represent these young women, and a panel of judges would decide on the most beautiful bathing beauty in America (Alter 2). Since these times, beauty pageants have grown to be a huge part of today’s society. Child beauty pagean...
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...
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)
Issues regarding the purpose of beauty pageants alarm women since majority of the beauty pageants are for them. Let us look at the good side of beauty pageants. First, allows the use...
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.
" 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.
They are dressed up to look like adults and sometimes dressed provocatively. “Beauty pageants are a reflection of a culture in which women are not equal. Women’s bodies are not their own but are seen as objects of beauty for others.” (Nasso). Parents of the pageant world don’t always understand how provocative and wrong it is to dress their children up in show outfits or give the child additives to make them look better.