Arguments Against Children's Beauty Pageants

Children's beauty pageants have been around for a long time. I admit that as someone raised in the North and on the West Coast, I never really encountered this phenomenon in my daily life. Recently, two different reality shows have popped up on TLC that exposes the viewer to the works of pageants. The shows are titled "Little Miss Perfect" and "Toddlers and Tiaras". As I'm the mother of a pre-teen daughter, I watched both of these shows with a horrified curiosity. I have certainly garnered some opinions.

One of the arguments against children's beauty pageantshas to do with pedophilia and that this may encourage that. I honestly don't believe that argument has much merit. What I'm most concerned about is the message that it sends to girls
and the unhealthy relationships that it perpetuates between parent and child. Not to mention the fact that girl's as young as 3 and 4 are going on stage and shaking their butts and making kissy faces to the audience in skimpy costumes. While I don't believe that it encourages pedophilia, it certainly will give that child a warped sense of the importance of female sexuality.

There are many different types of pageants, but the ones that I've seen on the shows are the "Glitz" pageants.
These types of pageants involve full hair, makeup, tanning, lashes and costumes that make a drag show look tame. Its one thing to apply some lip gloss and a few hot rollers. It's quite another to make your 5 year old resemble a Vegas show girl. There is absolutely no reason that all of that is necessary! What is the point? Is it to prove who can apply the most makeup or who can paint on the best tan? If there is going to be a pageant for children that involves beauty, at least it should involve the child's natural beauty and
features.
One of the arguments for pageants is that it promotes self confidence and that the children have fun doing it. I can't speak for the children, but children also have fun running outside, riding bikes and swimming. I don't see how pageants could promote self confidence in any way. I'm not naïve enough to say that looks don't matter in this world. We all learn that once we grow up and become adults. However, teaching a child as young as 3 that in order to win something they must totally alter their looks is sending that message way too early.

Children's beauty pageants are an odd and bizarre subculture.
I'm fascinated and horrified by the fact that they exist. I would also love to find out why the parents are drawn to this activity. One might say that they are living vicariously through their children. I honestly don't know if that is true. I don't believe that the girls on this show are in a healthy family situation or environment, even if that isn't the case. Either way, I wish them all the best.

"Little Miss Perfect" and "Toddlers and Tiaras" Give Us a Peek into the World of Beauty Pageants for Children
Have you seen the very popular reality television shows that focus on beauty pageants? These documentary type programs focus on two or three little girls (or occasionally a boy) and their mothers (or occasionally a father) who are set to compete in an upcoming beauty pageants.

One of these shows is on TLC and is titled "Toddlers and Tiaras." While the girls followed on the show aren't toddlers, they aren't far from it either. The other popular show is the slightly more campy "Little Miss Perfect" which airs on
WEtv.

These child beauty pageants are considered "glitz" pageants. Viewers have learned from these programs that there are two kinds of pageants for children. One is the natural pageant where the child competes with her natural hair and teeth and might wear lip gloss but no other makeup. A glitz pageant, on the other hand, involves pushing the envelope as far as it will go. A glitz pageant contestant is expected to wear heavy makeup, often with false eyelashes. Imperfect teeth are covered with a fake strip of plastic called a flipper. It makes most of the kids look a little like horses. Then the hairpieces are trotted out. Curls cascade like waterfalls down the back of these kids' hair. Kids are spray-tanned and wear weird, super-sparkly doll-like dresses that couldn't be worn anywhere else.

Whether or not dressing a child like a 25-year-old woman with questionable taste and morals is appropriate is just part of the issue. Money also plays a huge factor in pageant life. Parents spend literally thousands of dollars on clothes, beauty treatments and coaches for the opportunity to show off their kids.

Some people argue that these kinds of shows are parades for pedophiles. However, there is an argument to be made that pedophiles are interested in real kids. These children are anything but real. Perhaps they would appeal to someone interested in gussied up little people but probably not to pedophiles.
The popularity of the shows is that it's fun to watch a train wreck. Occasionally a child pops up on the show that a viewer just wants to snatch away and raise as her own (little AshLynn Sterling comes to mind), but usually they are just regular kids with crazy mothers. These kids exist everywhere. The difference is that these moms are showing their nutty streaks on television. Every once in a while the show focuses on an adorable kid. Take little Jane, for example, who insists on doing her own thing and tells the film crew confidently that she thinks this is her night to not fall off the stage. Incidentally, Jane doesn't win her pageant. She's too real.

"Little Miss Perfect" wouldn't be anything special without pageant diva Michael Galanes. Yes he is the living stereotype of a man with an obsession for pageants. Apparently he knows exactly what he's doing because he is very successful. Before the pageant he instructs the girls on their turns, pouts and pretty feet. During the pageant he is on-stage singing off-key to his own trippy song about unicorns jumping over rainbows. You gotta love this guy.

It may be only a few steps away from televised child abuse, but watching the pageant kids strut their stuff can be very entertaining.