Child Beauty Pageants Essay

Two year old Mia dons perfectly curled blonde extensions, fake eyelashes, and a full face of makeup as she dances around the pageant stage in a skin tight gold dress with fake breasts sewn in. Mia is only one of the many pageant girls featured on TLC’S Toddlers and Tiaras. This TLC show displays several young girls’ journeys through various pageant preparation processes which includes training, spray tans, temper tantrums and a multitude tears all in hope to win the grand supreme title. Child beauty pageants encourages young girls to think poorly of their peers, place too much identity in their outward appearance, and exploits them; the negative ramifications of these pageants are abounding. After the success of the Miss America Pageant, the first Little Miss America Pageant was held in 1961. Within three years more than 35,000 contestants had enrolled (“Child Beauty Pageants”). Child beauty pageants have grown into a multi-million dollar industry that at its core is nothing more than the blatant objectification of young girls. Children involved in these
In most cases, it is likely that pressure is being placed on the child by his or her parents to compete. As one author points out, “sleeping with their hair in curlers, having to sit quietly while their hair is being tinted or rolled, fake nails being applied or their body being spray tanned hardly seems like activities very young girls would choose over having fun with friends in age-appropriate play” (Wiehe). In a small study of twenty-two women, half of which were former child-pageant contestants, these women scored 62% higher in body dissatisfaction, 133% higher in interpersonal distrust, and 479% higher in lack of impulse regulation (“Child Beauty Pageants”). It can be understood from this evidence that child beauty pageants are mentally, emotionally, and possibly physically