Child Beauty Pageants Analysis

Societal influences have the potential to negatively impact one’s body image, particularly through participation in a Child Beauty Pageant. This “extracurricular activity” introduces unrealistic ideal images to children at such a young age; children, particularly females, are impacted psychologically and physically from this controversial practice, as well as from the undesirable parenting behind it. Society as a whole is also impacted by the airing of sexualized shows such as Toddlers and Tiaras. The early introduction and exposure to a sexist and sexualized competition will ultimately damage that child’s mental health in the future. This will result in a prolonged, destructive sense of self leading into adulthood. In Henry A. Giroux’s article,
“Child Beauty Pageants and the Politics of Innocence”, he discusses how pageants steal a child’s innocence and replaces it with objectification. In the beginning of Giroux’s article, he introduces the concept of the “disappearing child” (Giroux 31), and how the distinguishing factors, such as innocence, that separates a child from an adult is becoming extinct due to the continuous “adultifying” (32) of children or pressureful responsibilities inflicted on them by their guardians.
The presence of a child as an “endangered species” (32) is also the result of social efforts, victimizing children and leaving them vulnerable. The author argues how Child Beauty Pageants “[market] children as objects of pleasure, desire and sexuality” (36), suggesting them as, sometimes, a model of child abuse, a major injustice in American society. He utilizes Jonbenet Ramsey’s tragic murder case as an example for disturbing practices that employ accounts of childhood virtue (36). The six-year-old pageant queen was found killed in her home,several years after she was unrightfully forced into adulthood early by her parents to participate in pageants and portraying herself as a national sex symbol, “a degrading aesthetic that sexualized and commodified her” (37). Her innocence was stolen by a corrupted industry and fame-hungry parents, preventing her from enjoying the experiences of a jubilant childhood prior to her death. This disturbs the necessity of a child’s innocence, ultimately affecting society as a whole by offering another form of child abuse in poor-parenting pageant form (Giroux). The case tests America on encountering the ever-so-common essence of child abuse, a culture that that has turned to finding joy in viewing the improper exposure of defenseless children (38). The author also discusses the fraudulent sense of self-esteem these young girls endure from pageants, where it is “defined within a very narrow standard of autonomy” (41), based on a contestant’s ability to solely look the best, which is problematic for future development. Child abuse has evidently become a staple in American society despite its many
forms, disturbing the overall development of children nationally (Giroux). Child beauty pageants worsen this issue and continue to, along with the help of corrupted parents, unrightfully steal the innocence of children, which is ultimately psychologically damaging (Giroux). In Lindsay Lieberman’s article, "Protecting Pageant Princesses: A Call For Statutory Regulation Of Child Beauty Pageants”, she emphasizes the destructive, physical and mental developmental issues accompanied by beauty pageants. Lieberman begins her article with a brief introduction to the societal and developmental issues child beauty pageant participants encounter in adolescence as well as in adulthood (Lieberman 739). She discusses Eden, a four-year-old beauty pageant queen. Despite her impressive winnings and prize money ranging from $20,000 to $30,000, she and her family have yet to receive any profit due to the immense amount of money invested into her pageant course, approximately $70,000 (739). Although Eden expresses her passion for living a pageant, extravagant life, it is controversial if a child should be devoted to such an seemingly unbeneficial occupation. $70,000 had the potential of being utilized for Eden’s future education. In contrast, Brooke Breedwell, who is now an adolescent who participated in pageants claims to have “suffered from stress and anxiety while striving for an unrealistic standard of perfection” (740); her prior pageant life continues to haunt her. Her and her mother’s obsessiveness with winning in physical attractiveness resulted in her “severe social and psychological consequences” (740). Family therapists believe that “girls who participate are prone to persistent lifetime challenges, including body shame, perfectionism, depression and eating disorders” (740). Another former contestant, Nicole Hunter, claims to suffer from low self-esteem and anorexia nervosa. Despite the scrutinies of pageants, such as “young pageant girls [being] trained to flirt and exploit their nascent sexuality in order to win” (741) they continue to gain outrageous popularity in the media. The author emphasizes psychological effects such as hazardous developmental issues with competition for “beauty”; children who fail to to participate in healthful activities and companionship often results in postponed social advancement and issues (743). The early importance or emphasis on looks and the need to accommodate numerous individuals’ expectations is mentally damaging for a woman for the remainder of her years (Lieberman).
Lieberman also mentions physiological damage while speaking about the show Toddlers and Tiaras, where obsessive mothers use appearance-enhancing products on their children to