No matter who the Professor is or what subject
they teach, I believe each one has about the same goal in mind. The thing most
Professors want to see by the end of their class is the excel of their
students. This semester, as a writer, I believe I have grown in just about
every way possible. Research techniques, grammar, thesis; it all hit me this
year. Regarding research, before this class I would not know how to pick out
the important information and leave out the extra. For grammar and my thesis,
as a writer I have just grown. Making the words come out better, and easier to
understand. Out of everything I have gotten better at, the thing I have grown
most in would defiantly have to be getting voice on paper. Before this year, I
really did not know how to get my voice on paper. Sure I could say it aloud and
it sounded great, but putting it on paper is a completely different story. I
would have to say project two really helped me with this. The blog was a great
way to get our voice out on issues without it being in a traditional paper
format. But all in all, I believe I have grown in a writer in just about every
way possible.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Child Beauty Pageants: Excellent or Exploitive?
Haley
Bubac
Professor
Tetterton
English
1100-72
11
November 2012
Child
Beauty Pageants: Excellent or Exploitive?
Spray tans, acrylic nails, eyebrow
waxing, and hair extensions are all things you would expect to hear from the
Miss America Pageant, but that is no longer the case. These things are becoming
more and more popular in beauty pageants for girls as early as six month old.
Some say beauty pageants are truly great, but there are also many sources that
believe otherwise for numerous amount of reasons. It’s five o’clock AM on a
Saturday morning and nine-month-old Holly is being woken up by her mother. They
are about to drive five hours so Holly can be in a beauty pageant where she
will have long days of make-up, hairspray, and being judged every second of it.
Holly is one of the thousands of children being forced into beauty pageants
each year, and her mother is to blame. In the early 1960’s, child beauty
pageants became very popular. The young kids are judged based on looks, poise,
perfection, and confidence. Pageants consist of the following: modeling of
sportswear, evening attire, the way they can dance, and their special talent (Nussbaum). Beauty pageants within children are
very exploitive because they promote a materialistic belief to young girls,
damaging self self-esteem, and encouragement to be “divas.” To me, being
exploitive means to do something for a selfish or unethical reason. I believe
you can do exploitive things both to yourself and others around you. For
example, a teenager may buy a dress for herself with her money. Sure that’s
fine, but add in her owing her older brother twenty dollars makes it a selfish
act. The reason being because now she doesn’t have enough money to pay her
brother back, all because she bought that dress. In these pageants, these
exploitive acts can all easily be blamed on the parents that allow their offspring
to go through such horrific situations such as the inappropriate outfits, the negative
attention, and the way these young stars are pushed so far that result in them
not knowing what to do and who to turn to. I believe pageants are corrupt
because of the negative influence on young kids. Pageants can cause kids to
have numerous issues growing up, and sometimes those issues the contestants
face can be fatal. The materialistic belief and pressure from others aren’t
good on children either and the pageants truly must be stopped.
On the other hand, many parents of
child beauty contestants believe that it’s a great idea for young kids to
participate in beauty pageants. They say pageants can help influence healthy
habits and promote proper self-esteem. Many parents with children in pageants
say it’s a great way for them to gain confidence that will help them later in
life and help them become socially acceptable. One parent stated, “I was trying
to give Meaghan some exposure as far as public speaking,” Jones, of Garland,
Texas, told Curry. “When she was young, she was really, really shy. I wanted
her to develop her own type of personality and she did just that.” (Inbar) Some
really believe pageants are a great way to get young kids comfortable being in
front of crowds, especially strangers. The most important reason parents
believe pageants are actually positive is because it is agreed it is a great
way to make life long friends. Many young girls create friends behind the
curtains and get to see them at each pageant! Friends they will have for their
made-of-honor and to name their daughter after. Seven-year-old Allie said, “I
like doing the pageants because they’re fun and I like making new friends.
Sometimes I get to be in other pageants with my friends. And when my friends
win, then I’m really happy for them” (Inbar).
Although within the pageant business,
there is pressure everywhere for young girls for multiple of reasons. First, it
is believed the contestants must act a certain way, dress a certain way, and
look a certain way. Beauty Pageants have five major categories: casual wear,
swimwear, holiday, and outfit of choice. To be clear, Pageant Beauty is an
assemblage of girls or women at which judges select the most beautiful (Cartwright).
How wrong is it to teach young girls to judge a book by its cover? After asking
young girls to describe what they thought beauty was, 9 girls out of 10
described a person, the way they thought a “beautiful” girl looked. Not one of
the girls matched the description they defined “beauty” as. It really makes you
take a step back and think a bit. The girls were talking about the girls all
tanned up, in beautiful dresses from the TLC’s hit show “Toddlers and Tiaras”
and it was very disturbing to me. The shows materialistic belief was that you must
be look this was and wear this size to be crowned. Young girls as young as four
were getting their teeth whitened because that’s “the look”. Young contestant,
Mackenzie, stated, “You have to look perfect for the judges to win… I want to
win”.
Sure we get the wrong idea of materialism
from magazines, the Internet, and TV too. The idea of social media screams
materialist, or nonrealistic things. But with kids, it is extremely easy to
strive them away from things such as TV and the Internet. I don’t know a four
year old that chooses they way they dress because Vogue Magazine told them too,
but beauty pageants do exactly that. There is a certain look judges are looking
for, and if you have that look you will win the prize everyone is fighting for.
The question I would like answered is when do we start teaching kids that
beauty is only accomplished by fake materialistic things? What ever happened to
teaching them that beauty comes from the inside and shines its way out? There
is a television show called Little Miss Perfect (Cartwright). With the name, it
starts off with the cutest girls at home playing and preparing for the beauty
show that day. In the end of the show, when it is show day, the girls go from
the cute age of five to looking 17 with their spray tan and inappropriate
attire. Again, is that the image we want for our girls, the materialistic view
of life? What happens when they grow up and can no longer obtain that lifestyle
that everything is like it seems on television? It is almost like we are
setting up kids for failure by doing pageants. When I say failure, I mean just
that. The overall consequences of pageants are really not worth being involved
with them for any reason at all. The behavioral issues, tempers, and since of
life being “perfect”.
When the materialistic view, or perfect
view, is no longer obtainable to the young girls, it is easy to say everything
can fall apart pretty quickly. Pageants can damage the self-esteem of a young
girl when things do not go as she would hope (Nussbaum).
Sure there is no problem if they win the pageant, the lucky winner gets a
beautiful crown and has a great prize to take home as well. They get to look at
themselves and say they are the most beautiful person and have the best
talents. Unfortunately, only about 25% of the girls at pageants get to be some
kind of winner. (McDaniel) Some may win
but not the title they wanted. The ones with no prize leave the pageant feeling
upset, ugly, not good enough, and sometimes even in trouble with their parents.
What are you suppose to say to a four year-old when they come up to you and say
they lost because they were not pretty enough? A good number of girls have life
long issues because of pageants: poor self-esteem, anorexia, depression, and countless
number of more issues (Cartwright).
Parents need to be aware of the way they
act towards their daughters. Sometimes I wish there could be an undercover
camera recording the negative things. Maybe it would bring attention to the
parents. But really it is sad; sometimes mothers push their daughters too far. Is
the damaging effect really worth the prize? Little Mia who regularly
participates in pageants said, "I practice for mommy and poppy because I
want them love me so much, they really love me so much, because when I do good
they love me." How sad is it when a four year old says her mommy and poppy
only love her when she wins pageants? She reportedly also has a favorite
stuffed animal that she only gets to have when she wins the pageant she’s in,
or else no bear for little Mia. (McDaniel) This makes you think the pageant is
not even for the “positive” effects for Mia, but just for the prize for her
self-centered parents.
Beauty Pageants encourages young girls to
act like “divas”. The show “Toddlers and
Tiaras” is an excellent example of how girls act so negatively. On one episode,
a little girl name Maddie disappeared for an entire hour because she was angry
with her mother. This is the same seven year old that screams at the top of her
lungs until she gets what she wants. This behavior ties into the self-esteem
issues and materialistic lifestyle some are allowing for their children. The spray tans, acrylic nails, eyebrow
waxing, hair extensions, and flippers are all things that can be avoided for
our young kids. These are things adults can look forward too and we do not need
to push our young girls to grow up; this isn’t 13 going on 30 now. Beauty
pageants within children are very exploitive and they do promote a
materialistic belief to young girls, damaging self self-esteem, and
encouragement to be “divas.” I think pageants are a great thing for adults, or
older teenagers who can make their own decisions. But for those girls not old
enough to even make their own lunch, I think its best to stick to play dough
and the playground.
Works Cited
Cartwright,
Martina. “Child Beauty Pageants: What Are We Teaching Our Girls?.”
Psychologytoday.com.
Sussex Publishers, LLC,
12 Aug. 2011. Web. 30 Sept. 2012.
Inbar,
Michael. “Parents defend putting their kids in beauty pageants.” NBCNews.com
Msnbc, 27 Jan. 2009. Web. 30 Sept. 2012.
McDaniel, Julie. “Children Beauty Pageants How
far is to far.” JulieMcdaniel.
Hubpages.com, 29 May. 2010. Web. 30 Sept.
2012
Nussbaum,
Kareen. "Children and Beauty Pageants." minorcon.org
Dec.1998. 30. Web. Sept. 2012.
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