English 051 5 August 2012 Stop Children Beauty Pageants
Remember JonBenet Ramsey, the six year old child beauty pageant queen whose body was found in her family basement hours after she was reported missing on December 5, 1996? Someone strangled and hit her in the head then wrapped her body in a blanket. Their been many speculation who killed her even her own family, but to this day no one really knows what happened in the Ramsey house when she was murdered. After that incident I would think that parents would be more cautious about their children but since then children pageantry has skyrocketed. There’s currently, more than 5,000 child pageants are held annually in the United states alone and approximately 250,000 of those children participating in those pageants; 100,000 of them are under the age of 12 (Child Beauty Pageants). Parents are exploiting their children and putting them in harm’s way, there should be an age limit on who is eligible to compete in children pageants.
Beauty pageants hit the scene back in 1921 when the owner of an Atlantic City hotel struck upon the idea to help boost tourism. It wasn’t until the 1960’s Child Beauty Pageants was introduced. Children's beauty pageants are judged by modeling sportswear and evening wear, how well they dance, and how much talent they have. The children themselves are judged by their appearance, how well they perform, and how confident they appear (Nussbaum). When I was younger I remember going into my mom’s closet and trying on their oversized clothes playing dress up, children pageantry is nothing like that it sexualizes young girls. Can you imagine seeing your little three year old daughter or niece a dressed up as a prostitute, who Julia Robert played in the movie Pretty Woman? That was one of the many disturbing image I saw while watching Toddlers and Tiaras. How can a mother let their young daughters go on national television dressed in skimpy outfits for the world to see? I don’t
Cited: Reed, Billy. "Child Beauty Pageants Should Be Eliminated." Beauty Pageants. Ed. Noël Merino. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. At Issue. Rpt. from "Time to End Child Beauty Pageants." Billy Reed Says. 2006. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 5 Aug. 2012. "Child Beauty Pageants." Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 11 Jan. 2010. Web. 5 Aug. 2012. Sandberg, Erica. “Toddlers, Tiaras -- and Debt: the Costs of Child Beauty Pageants.” Fox Business. 22April 2011. Web. 5 Aug 2012. Nussbaum, Kareen. Children and Beauty Pageants. A Minor Consideration. 2008. Web. 5 Aug 2012.