Persuasive Essay on Beauty Pageants

Darling Divas or Damaged Daughters?
When it comes to development, the first six years of life are the most crucial. This is the time to teach your child about happiness, danger, responsibility, and love. Dressing them up and doing their make-up is not the way to raise a modest child.
When beauty pageants first began, they were not judging contestants solely on their outward appearances, but also on the individual as a person. The beauty pageant winners served as positive role models that showed the younger contestants what being a well-rounded young woman was like. These role-models proved to the younger girls that external beauty was not everything, and that internal beauty would benefit them greatly in many aspects of their futures. As the competitions have grown, the pageants have become more intense with contestants willing to do anything in order to gain advantage over the other girls. With everyone intensifying themselves, it creates a more stressful environment that can severely damage a girls developing self-esteem. I think this topic is interesting and also sad. With girls only having a few short years to feel completely confident with themselves before society begins to criticize them, I believe that this time of development is essential in developing a strong and confident teenager. Beauty pageants seem to be stripping girls of their innocence too fast, which leaves these girls at a risk for psychological and physical abuse that will stay with them for years to come.
These girls have unrealistic expectations to be thin, physically beautiful, and perfect. In one article that I read, it talked about how research has been conducted to see if former pageant participants are more likely to suffer from eating disorders, and a small study published in 2005 showed that formed childhood pageant girls did have higher rates of body dissatisfaction, which factored into eating disorders.
Take a look at the show Toddlers and Tiaras. Tears, tantrums, and fits are frequently shown on these shows, and of course instead of supporting or comforting their daughters the adults are mocking all of the crying children. As a result, child contestants may believe that internal beauty comes from how perfectly they look or how well they perform on stage.
Parents and other adults need to understand the potentially long-term impact super-competitive, beauty-inspired pursuits can have on a young girl 's psyche. Participation in activities that seek superior physical appearance releases the idea that physical beauty and superficial charm are the keys to success, thus making self-worth and self-esteem tied to attractiveness. The take home message for society is that natural beauty or brains aren 't enough to make it in the real world, and that the only way to be on top is to be prettier than the girl next to you. Lunman discusses the negative effects of beauty pageants in her article, “Beauty Pageant Winners Are Not Good Role Models.” She states that beauty pageants can influence a growing girl’s body image and self-worth, and proves her assertion by talking about a small study that was done in 2005 that showed pageants contestants had higher rates of body dissatisfaction. She goes on to talk about how the young women she has worked with to get over their eating disorders were all trained at a young age to value physical perfections, thinness, athletic prowess, and attractiveness. Her last valuable point that goes against Beauty pageants has to do with the amount of stress and pressure put on these young girls. They are always under enormous pressure, and constantly feel like they are not good enough to win which causes them to have emotional break downs. These girls grow a tendency to believe that their parents will love or approve of them more based on how perfectly their routine on stage is. These girls are not given the opportunity to pursue anything else besides being beautiful.
“Time to End Child Beauty Pageants” by Billy Reed provides a negative outlook on child beauty pageants. Reed supports the claim that Beauty pageants are a form of child abuse, due to the exploitation of the young girls who are entered in them. He states that many children will have damaged self-esteem from their past in beauty pageants, which may lead to eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia. Also, the young girls who are dressed in clothes too mature for their age with professionals doing their hair and makeup attract pedophiles. After stating his two main points of his argument, Reed ends with his belief that no one under the age of eighteen should be able to be enrolled in a beauty pageant.
In the article, Reed quotes a newspaper article which states “Some parents are so warped, so starved for attention or some kind of self-validation, that they will shamelessly exploit their children’s physical beauty without regard for the possible consequences”. These mothers are choosing to live vicariously through their children, by dressing them up in adult clothing and making them look picture perfect. When their children win pageants, it is somewhat of an accomplishment for the mothers that they have done something correctly. This is so wrong in so many ways, these children are not given a chance to be kids! They are taught from ages as young as 2 that it is all about who is the prettiest, has the biggest crown, the longest eyelashes or the biggest hair. Their view on reality becomes extremely distorted and will most likely remain that way for the rest of their lives. Perhaps the greatest example of the dangers of child beauty pageants is the story of six year old Jon Benet. Jon Benet’s mother was a beauty queen herself, and seemed to relive her dreams through her daughter. Jon Benet was portrayed through social media all the time, and as a result was kidnapped and murdered. The prime suspect in the case said he became interested in Jon Benet through the child beauty pageants. While outlawing pageants for anyone under the age of 18 may seem a little extreme, it has become necessary for the public to become away of the situations occurring behind the scenes.
Beauty pageants degrade women to mere objects. If the beauty competition was based on skill or ability, that would be fine. But nowadays people judge them for their outer appearance. For example, if five people were running in a race, only one will win. There is no doubt as to who ran faster. There is also no need for anyone to judge such competitions. These competitions also affect the self-esteem of some women who feel that a size ten isn’t good enough for the competitions. In every pageant or competition, you always see every contestant at a size zero to five. This brings a lot of high self-esteems down because they feel that the world revolves around skinny models.
Beauty contests are well promoted by the media, with television and images, which influence young women’s opinions on appearance. The participants of these contests are poor role models for these girls as they set impractical body weight, breast size and clear skin standards. This is another way of saying you have to be perfect in order to even compete in these competitions. This sets an ideal female body, which only a minority of women can then become incredibly harmful to young women by encouraging dieting eating disorders and cosmetic surgery, or simply making them feel inadequate and ugly. For instance, when young girls see these models on television they automatically think that throwing up, over exercising, and getting plastic surgery is a good thing to do. The models are showing them that this is the way to fit in. Every woman is beautiful, if she can just be herself. The moment women flaunt themselves, as in beauty pageants, they become an object to be degraded and an exploited sex object.
Young girls who compete in pageants often look sexy by wearing makeup, hair extensions, fake teeth, revealing outfits, and by learning provocative poses and moves. Paul Peterson, president and founder of A Minor Consideration, said on “Good Morning America” that beauty pageants are “feeding the sex industry.” Phillip Block, chairman of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, told the Australian Associated Press, that he supports a ban on child beauty pageants in Australia because pageants judge contestants on “sexualized ideals.” Being judged that way impacts mental and emotional development and affects self-esteem and body image. Pageants are not competitions that encompass naturally beautiful woman who decide one day that they want to enter into a beauty competition. These contestants, whether they are seven or forty five, have dedicated their lives to these competitions. These pageants are not just a meaningless event to them; they are some of the most important days in their lives. These women engage in plastic and cosmetic surgery as well as dieting to win these pageants. Disqualified or losing contestants often lead lives of depression, eating disorders, and suicide.
Nicole Hunter, a former beauty pageant specialist, states, "I don 't even know what it is to feel attractive without make-up on my face. Whenever I saw my mother and I wasn 't wearing make-up of some sort she would literally pull a tube of lipstick out of her purse and say, "You need make-up." Perhaps it 's because Nicole has worn make-up on her face since a young age. When children enter beauty pageants at too young of an age, they can develop poor self-image, low self-esteem and even eating disorders. Beauty pageants tend to cause these sorts of issues among women especially when children compete at these competitions. These beauty pageants may be too much for children to handle and cause them to question their true beauty. These pageants are extremely competitive and cause jealously and hatred between the opponents. Many thoughts that woman think about after losing these pageants are: Am I not good enough? Am I a loser? These thoughts are only the beginning of self-hatred which can lead to depression. The idea that everything that a contestant does is judged can really have a long term effect on these young children. For some children, it begins to be difficult to decipher the stage from the real world. Children shouldn’t want to look like someone else, they should want to embrace what they were given and show it off to the world.
Beauty pageants are expensive. Pageant moms waste money on these competitions when they could use the money for educational needs, emergencies, or even just family vacation trips. The average cost of a pageant dress is $1,000, and some cost as much as $5,000. Entry fees for pageants typically cost $100 or $200 and some pageants require contestants to wear several outfits, which can raise the price tag even further, not to mention travel expenses, which are often part of the deal.
Pageants are not competitions that encompass naturally beautiful woman who decide one day that they want to enter into a beauty competition. These contestants, whether they are seven or forty five, have dedicated their lives to these competitions. These pageants are not just a meaningless event to them; they are some of the most important days in their lives. These women engage in plastic and cosmetic surgery as well as dieting to win these pageants. Disqualified or losing contestants often lead lives of depression, eating disorders, and suicide.
Low self-esteem is common among woman of any age. These competitions tend to put a strong focus on appearance rather than inner beauty. It is true that some pageants have a talent portion, but this portion in child beauty pageants is irrelevant because most contestants are too young to have a real talent or opinions on world issues. Any questions answered right are based off of what the contestant 's coach has taught them to answer. In reality, these child pageants are solely based on looks. This fact can influence children to become completely obsessed with their look. Children that are entered in beauty pageants often grow to hate fat people and the way they appear. This causes woman to grow up being as skinny as possible. For example, many former pageant girls grow up suffering from anorexia. Some even feel bad about themselves after eating a salad with too much dressing.
Not all pageant participants will have body issues when they get older, but some will. For the girls who do develop image obsessions, it appears that the hypercritical environment of their youth produces a drive towards the unattainable goal of physical perfection. Unrealistic expectations to be thin, physically beautiful, and perfect are at the heart of some disordered eating behaviors and body dissatisfaction. A small study published in 2005 showed that former childhood beauty pageant contestants had higher rates of body dissatisfaction. This is only my mere opinion, but it is my job today to try and convince you all not to let your child into these self-torturing competitions. Some people put their daughters into these competitions so that their daughters will learn to stand out and not be shy. They want their daughters to be brave and show themselves off. Well, let me ask you something. If these women want their daughters to show themselves off, then why on Earth are they dressing their daughters up to be something that they aren’t? These little girls should grow up knowing that what they were given at birth, is beautiful in its own special way. They shouldn’t feel the need to wear tons of make-up and expensive clothes in order to be accepted in life.
Is this really something that you want your child to go through?

Works Cited
Billy Reed. "Child Beauty Pageants Should Be Eliminated." At Issue: Beauty Pageants. Ed. Noël Merino. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. PARISH EPISCOPAL SCHOOL. 12 Feb. 2012 .

Cited: Billy Reed. "Child Beauty Pageants Should Be Eliminated." At Issue: Beauty Pageants. Ed. Noël Merino. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. PARISH EPISCOPAL SCHOOL. 12 Feb. 2012 .