Toddlers and Tiaras: Child Beaty Pageants

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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. Children of any age are very impressionable and research has been to conclude that the “social acts of a person in later life are a direct correlation of the social network they grew up in,” (Cairns, 2010) Child beauty pageants damage the child’s health, for it can cause cognitive, physical, and psychological problems to the child (American Psychological Association, 2010). According to American Psychological Association, young girls are becoming sexualized in the media and have found that women who have participated in beauty pageants as a child were 39% more likely to suffer from an mental disorder; 28% are currently living with an eating disorder (APA, 2010). William Pinsof, a clinical psychologist and president of the Family Institute at Northwestern University states, “Being a little Barbie doll says your body has to be a certain way and your hair has to be a certain way. In girls particularly, this can unleash a whole complex of destructive self-experiences that can lead to eating disorders and all kind... ... middle of paper ... ...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.

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