Stereotypes In Beauty Pageants
Imagine, being a little girl all done up like a Barbie doll, with a fake tan and fake nails. Imagine, being a little girl and not being able to nap after being awake for hours on end, for fear of disheveling your appearance. Imagine, being a little girl dressed up in a too-tight dress and high heels, prancing around on a stage for hundreds of people, being judged based on your looks. Imagine, being a little girl, standing with all of your opponents, and hearing the judges call the name of another little girl who won first place, watching all that you’ve worked for be placed in the perfectly manicured hands of someone else. Would you ever want to be put through this? Well, girls who are in beauty pageants deal with this and so much more every
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day. Put yourselves in their shoes. Beauty pageants are dangerous for the children involved and it is about time that these contests are stopped.
It’s no secret that some of the contestants in these pageants have gone to extreme lengths to achieve perfection. We can see this with our own eyes if we watch Toddlers and Tiaras, in which the parents of these pageant children dress them up in skimpy costumes, as well as give them fake tans and pad their chests in order to win the judges’ votes. Some parents even go as far as making their child diet. This poses a controversy for beauty pageants: do they do more harm than good? This constant fight for perfection is nothing but detrimental for the contestants, and can give them extreme self-esteem issues later on in life. By dressing them up in ridiculous costumes and altering their appearance, you are teaching them that they need to be prettier, thinner, and sexier in order to be accepted, when in reality we should be teaching kids that they are beautiful the way they are. Also, these competitions sometimes sexualize young girls by forcing them to dress and act provocatively in order to impress the judges. What if a pedophile is watching from the audience? Parents are constantly putting their child at risk because there is always the chance that a predator is lurking nearby at a pageant, waiting to snatch its prey.
By having kids dress up, wear make-up, and compete to see who has the most beauty, you are showing them that looks are more important than your personality or brains.
In the article “Child Beauty Pageants ‘About Parents Feeling Good, Not Kids’”, a registered dietician named Martina M. Cartwright was interviewed about her pageant experience and she said, “”Everything was based on what these kids look like and the way that children were displayed or dressed. They were fully made up; they looked like adult women, pint-size. They were judged on personality, but none spoke a word.” The statement that these girls are being judged on their personalities, but never speak a single word, truly shows how corrupt these pageants are. Pageants show kids that a person can be beautiful on the outside, but hideous on the inside, and still succeed in life. If kids grow up with the mentality that they can get everything just because they have a pretty face, they will not get very far. Children should be taught that a great personality, and intelligence will help them get what they need, because one day when they’re old, and can’t rely on their looks to get the job done, what will they do? How can people just sit back while these little girls are taught such poor
values?
Overall, beauty pageants cause more harm than they do good. If we don’t stop these competitions, more and more girls will have to suffer through long hours of grueling preparation, just to be exploited to a crowd of people, and judged based upon their looks. If we don’t stop these competitions, more and more girls will grow up to have self-esteem issues, and many will have a faulty outlook on life. Does this sound like something you want to see happen to the youth of America? If the answer is no, then do something about it, and protest these pageants.
day. Put yourselves in their shoes. Beauty pageants are dangerous for the children involved and it is about time that these contests are stopped.
It’s no secret that some of the contestants in these pageants have gone to extreme lengths to achieve perfection. We can see this with our own eyes if we watch Toddlers and Tiaras, in which the parents of these pageant children dress them up in skimpy costumes, as well as give them fake tans and pad their chests in order to win the judges’ votes. Some parents even go as far as making their child diet. This poses a controversy for beauty pageants: do they do more harm than good? This constant fight for perfection is nothing but detrimental for the contestants, and can give them extreme self-esteem issues later on in life. By dressing them up in ridiculous costumes and altering their appearance, you are teaching them that they need to be prettier, thinner, and sexier in order to be accepted, when in reality we should be teaching kids that they are beautiful the way they are. Also, these competitions sometimes sexualize young girls by forcing them to dress and act provocatively in order to impress the judges. What if a pedophile is watching from the audience? Parents are constantly putting their child at risk because there is always the chance that a predator is lurking nearby at a pageant, waiting to snatch its prey.
By having kids dress up, wear make-up, and compete to see who has the most beauty, you are showing them that looks are more important than your personality or brains.
In the article “Child Beauty Pageants ‘About Parents Feeling Good, Not Kids’”, a registered dietician named Martina M. Cartwright was interviewed about her pageant experience and she said, “”Everything was based on what these kids look like and the way that children were displayed or dressed. They were fully made up; they looked like adult women, pint-size. They were judged on personality, but none spoke a word.” The statement that these girls are being judged on their personalities, but never speak a single word, truly shows how corrupt these pageants are. Pageants show kids that a person can be beautiful on the outside, but hideous on the inside, and still succeed in life. If kids grow up with the mentality that they can get everything just because they have a pretty face, they will not get very far. Children should be taught that a great personality, and intelligence will help them get what they need, because one day when they’re old, and can’t rely on their looks to get the job done, what will they do? How can people just sit back while these little girls are taught such poor
values?
Overall, beauty pageants cause more harm than they do good. If we don’t stop these competitions, more and more girls will have to suffer through long hours of grueling preparation, just to be exploited to a crowd of people, and judged based upon their looks. If we don’t stop these competitions, more and more girls will grow up to have self-esteem issues, and many will have a faulty outlook on life. Does this sound like something you want to see happen to the youth of America? If the answer is no, then do something about it, and protest these pageants.