Long Term Effects of Sexualizing Adolescents in Beauty Pageant

Imagining if one day you saw your five year old daughter with a full face of makeup and high heels. Now she looks like a miniature adult. Not only is she a miniature adult, but now she also is very self conscious of herself and has an eating disorder at five years old. Child beauty pageants have some pros and a of lot cons to them. Also, they can affect a child’s development. One should consider that child beauty pageants can lead to a lot of mental health issues for kids at a very young age.

The pageants, with all their negative side-effects, take up a large part of the child’s life. Issues with the child beauty pageants is that some participants are not even interested in it, it’s the parent’s choice. Some children are too young to make their own decisions, therefore too young to make to be exploiting their bodies, others participate because of the pressure from their parents. As Shasmus says in “Ugly Truth: TLC Show is an Abomination” the pageants are enjoyed far more by mothers of the children than the participants themselves, some tired contestants fell asleep during judging and their parents shook them awake to get back up on stage (shasmus). In Elizabeth’s Day’s “Living Dolls”, she asks a young pageant-goer about her experience. “Did she, Amber 7 years old contestant, enjoy entering the beauty pageant? Amber thinks for a second and then nods her head. Will she be entering anymore? “Yes, she pauses, a touch uncertainly, if my mummy told me to.” Perfect example of a parent pressuring their child into these competitions. Everything about a pageant is promoting superficiality. Why would we want to accelerate the process and pressure the children before even finishing primary school? Children should grow up learning that personality and intelligence are most important, not appearance.

Beauty pageants have changed drastically in the past fifty years. Beauty pageants used to be all adult females who dressed in their Sunday best and walked on the catwalk at the county fair. Now, little children are decked out in glitzy outfits, have wigs that make their hair twice as long, and have teeth to make it seem like their baby teeth haven’t fallen out yet. In this literature review, I reviewed different articles, some against child beauty pageants and some that showed a firsthand look into the beauty pageants. Based on the reviews, I have made a decision as to whether child beauty pageants are

Child beauty pageants convince young girls at a young age that external beauty is of more

There is an ongoing debate on the detrimental effects that beauty pageants can have on their contestants. Judged solely on physical beauty, beauty pageants have been around for quite some time. The first pageant, the Miss America pageant, was held in 1921. Miss Universe and Miss USA soon followed, and by the 1960’s beauty pageants were part of American culture. Viewed as a positive and potentially rewarding competition, pageants have now recently had a drastic turn of view. Advocates of beauty pageants put forth that beauty contests develop self-esteem and confidence (Ending the Hypersexualization of Girls). However, beauty pageants can be a highly destructive concept that can put too much pressure on its contestants to look perfect, put parents in a financial crisis, and quite frankly, be simply unhealthy. As well as participation in beauty pageants, there is a rage of them on television as well. Television images and broadcasts have had a huge impact on it’s participants and the type of messages they internalize about what is “normal”. (Could Child Beauty Pageants Be Banned in the USA?). Children, as well as teens, view what they see on television as what they must become. Beauty pageants are very undermining to the participants emotional health, the pressure to look perfect, and it’s countless negative effects they possess.

Can you imagine little girls doing catwalk with heavy makeup on the stage? Can you imagine those girls wearing miniature ballgowns in high heels? However, these can be seen frequently in child beauty pageants, the beauty contests for participants who are 16 years old or younger. Although some people may believe that beauty pageants can help boost children’s self-esteem. However, I believe that the problems with child beauty pageants outweigh benefits for the following reasons: they put financial burden on families, mislead children’s values and do damage to their physical health.

In America Over 250,000 children are entered into a beauty pageant annually and out of that number over 50% of those children wind up having issues in their teenage and adult years, 73% of parents who have kids in beauty pageants spend more money on the pageant instead of their kids' education. [ Women’s News 2016 ] Is this a serious issue? Yes, Child beauty pageants became part of the American society in the 1960’s. They were originally for teenagers 13-17 years old. [Kelly Kammer 2016] However child beauty pageants have become more and more popular and now children as little as toddlers participate in these pageants. Children who are entered in beauty pageants have a negative future ahead of them. Beauty pageants have created unrealistic expectations for young girls because these stereotypes contribute to eating disorder, depression , and low self esteem.

Beauty Pageants over sexualizes little girls at a young age. As it seen in “Toddlers and Tiaras” a show by TLC show, little girls are being sexualized at a young age, by introducing them to hair extensions, make up, flippers (fake teeth), sexualized dresses. According to Paul Peterson, president and founder of A Minor Consideration, beauty pageants are “feeding the sex industry (Agadoni).” Girls are not physically ready to wear make up or hair extensions, and all of that just hides the natural beauty of a child making them more self conscious about themselves at such a young age. Little girls are going to think of themselves as not beautiful because they hide their real selves behind a ton of make up.

Beauty pageants are awful and cruel. Children's parents give children fake spray tans, making them cry from the cold. They are made to wear artificial nails and put on wigs. It's almost like a game of dress up but the parents are the children and the dolls are the kids. Parents give their kids ten pixie sticks before their child goes on stage so they can have a boost of energy and look lively on the stage and not look like they're bored and don't want to be there. They have to wear flippers which hide any visible gaps between the children's teeth.

Lights flashing, cameras flickering, and judges critiquing: three common sights when one participates in a beauty pageant. Beauty pageants are very popular in America’s society as it displays many young women’s attractiveness and talents. But a new style of beauty pageant has emerged, and it is striking high numbers of viewers. These pageants are just as glamourous as before, and competitions are vicious, except there is a change to the contestants. This is known as child beauty pageants. These types of beauty pageants are very adorable on the surface, but they are known to destroy the competitors’ physical looks. Judges are not mind readers, but this has been known to lead to mental problems for the little beauty queens. Most parents are very protective towards their little princess, but it is disgusting to see that these parents allow their daughter to dress up in sleazy outfits as well as behaving inappropriately on stage. Child beauty pageants for girls between the age 2 to 18 have taken new heights that should not be shown on television and should not be a competition to participate in.

For the last 90 years beauty pageants have been evolving, adding more glam and glitz into children's lives each year. In 1921 an owner of an Atlantic City hotel came up with the concept of the idea of beauty pageants in hopes of boosting tourism. In the beginning, pageants were made for teenagers between the age of 13 and 17; however by 1964 there was 35,000 participants provoking age division. Now globally there are over 25,000 pageants per year in the US and the industry brings in about five billion dollars a year. With the increasingly development of beauty pageants around the world, people are questioning whether beauty pageants have a positive or negative impact of children and society as a whole.

In conclusion, beauty pageants are harmful to children physically, mentally, and emotionally. The pageant atmosphere is very negative. This type of an environment may lead to mental and physical disorders. Judging criteria of beauty pageants is based on the contestants’ external beauty. Having to buy costumes and beauty enhancing products plus enter the pageant costs lots of money. Save your child emotional and physical disorders, keep them away from beauty

Beauty has always been a quality that is valued in the eyes of society, so it is no wonder that pageants showcasing the elegance of women have steadily enlarged over time. The first beauty pageant was held in the 1800s, parading beautiful women in extravagant costumes across a stage and displaying their talents for the public’s viewing pleasure. Over time, the pageant industry has only continued to grow, with approximately 5000 pageants being held in the United States each year (Lieberman 751). In the late 1900’s, the flourishing industry introduced a new type of beauty competition, placing children under the spotlight. Although these pageants may seem harmless from the surface, they appear to have more harmful effects on the little girls that enter them than what meets the eye. Girls who compete are also often exposed to a number of physical and emotional health hazards, both of which can be extremely degrading to the lives they have ahead of them. Child beauty pageants, therefore, should not be encouraged.

Exploiting children to be sexualized and mentally abused, when they could simply stay home and play dress up gives parents a bad name. Beauty Pageants are an extreme pressure and could possibly ruin children's views on beauty. "Putting your 4-year old child through hours of hair dying, waxing, extreme dieting, tanning and whatever else so she can look like Cindy Crawford is child neglect," ("Child Beauty" Con 1). The abuse that takes part in this activity and reason to even be legal is beyond anyone who loves their kids. "Parents should be trusted on entering kids in child beauty pageants," (" Child Beauty" Pro 1). Adults should be trusted in making the right and most mature decision for their child and make it fun for them. Beauty Pageants are a controversial subject all around the world, it either damages kids or helps their confidence. Even though Beauty Pageants are quite enjoyable, they can actually destroy child's image on society's idea of being beautiful if not careful. In order for your child to have a good time, parents should avoid their ambitions making their kid queens mentally unwell, also not base the idea of the contest on children being better than others.

Beauty Pageants are competitions that originated in the United States around the 1920’s (“French Senate Votes”). Most of the time, the age range of a common child pageant is from ten months to sixteen years old. Beauty Pageants are based on talent, personality and question portions, but the main component is to judge the contestants on their physical appearances. There are three different types of pageants contestants can sign up for, Glitz, Semi-Glitz and Natural. The category chosen all depends on the extremities the parents of the contestants are willing to put their child through in order to be successful while competing. In every competition the goal of each contestant is to win. The same goes for pageants, “To be named “Little Miss America” or “Our little Miss” is a dream for the young girls” (Liberman 7). Granted, there are many other titles that the participants can win, but those are just two of the most famous.