Beauty Pageants Argumentative Essay
The Problems and Pleasures of Pageants
Beauty pageants have been questioned on whether or not their truly innocent. In some cases, the smiles are more likely than not phony. On the other hand, the abundance of memories and skills gained from these extravaganzas can create a positive effect on the child. On the negative side, pageants are found to be full of drama from both the parents and from the stress of the requirements, including eating disorders. They also lead to bad sportsmanship and the parent’s desperate attempts to win, even at the risk of their own children. According to The Merriam Webster Dictionary (1899), the definition of a beauty contest, also called a pageant, is “an assemblage of girls or women at which judges select the most beautiful.” In other words, if one is the most beautiful, she, or sometimes even he, will be the most successful. This may be true physically, but the personality of certain parents or contestants prove otherwise.
As you can see here, this mother is injecting her 8-year old child with Botox, a toxin used to make the face fuller in order to make certain features pop out or remove wrinkles. This toxin alone is dangerous to an adult, let alone a young girl. This Botox, if administered into the wrong place, would drip down her throat and kill her. Unfortunately, there are several parents who are desperate enough to win that will do treatments such as this. Other treatments include but are not limited to waxing, spray tanning or natural tanning, and heavy applications of make-up. Several of these so-called strategies to win are unhealthy for the contestant.
An often occurrence at child pageants is feeding them high doses of sugar and caffeine. Often, they serve pixie sticks which are called “pageant crack.” Here we have young Alana, age 6. Her mother, known as “The Coupon Queen,” believes it’s perfectly fine to give her young daughter what she calls “Go-go” Juice. She defends this by saying “there are far worse things. I
Beauty pageants have been questioned on whether or not their truly innocent. In some cases, the smiles are more likely than not phony. On the other hand, the abundance of memories and skills gained from these extravaganzas can create a positive effect on the child. On the negative side, pageants are found to be full of drama from both the parents and from the stress of the requirements, including eating disorders. They also lead to bad sportsmanship and the parent’s desperate attempts to win, even at the risk of their own children. According to The Merriam Webster Dictionary (1899), the definition of a beauty contest, also called a pageant, is “an assemblage of girls or women at which judges select the most beautiful.” In other words, if one is the most beautiful, she, or sometimes even he, will be the most successful. This may be true physically, but the personality of certain parents or contestants prove otherwise.
As you can see here, this mother is injecting her 8-year old child with Botox, a toxin used to make the face fuller in order to make certain features pop out or remove wrinkles. This toxin alone is dangerous to an adult, let alone a young girl. This Botox, if administered into the wrong place, would drip down her throat and kill her. Unfortunately, there are several parents who are desperate enough to win that will do treatments such as this. Other treatments include but are not limited to waxing, spray tanning or natural tanning, and heavy applications of make-up. Several of these so-called strategies to win are unhealthy for the contestant.
An often occurrence at child pageants is feeding them high doses of sugar and caffeine. Often, they serve pixie sticks which are called “pageant crack.” Here we have young Alana, age 6. Her mother, known as “The Coupon Queen,” believes it’s perfectly fine to give her young daughter what she calls “Go-go” Juice. She defends this by saying “there are far worse things. I
Cited: Beauty pageants do more good than harm. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.debate.org/debates/beauty-pageants-do-more-good-than-harm/1/ Glyde, C. (06 A). Marie Claire. Retrieved from http://www.marieclaire.com/health-fitness/news/anorexia-model Harden, S. (2012, March 28). Statistic brain. Retrieved from http://www.statisticbrain.com/beauty-pageant-statistics/ The family factor:child beauty pageants- the misconceptions. (2011, 04 17). Retrieved from http://www.thefamilyfactor.com/2011/04/child-beauty-pageants-misconceptions.html Grosaru, L. (2011, May 30). Debatepedia. Retrieved from http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Debate:_Child_beauty_pageants