Beauty pageants have always been a subject of controversy when it comes to women's rights. Beauty pageants are seen as blatant objectification of women as sexual objects, admired for their physical appeal yet downgraded to something less than human. The controversy is increased tenfold when the focus is not on women but on little girls...
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From a reality show documenting the life of children's pageants:
"In the swimsuit competition we allow both one piece and two piece suits to be worn by the girls, but the two piece suits cannot be of the thong variety. There just aren't many girls who can pull a thong off."
So it's not about it being morally questionable, but about the girls looking good in a sliver of fabric or not? WHAT?!
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These things creep me out so badly. I love Little Miss Sunshine, when she actually gets to the competiton and the other girls are terrifying. There was also a documentry on BBC three called Baby Beauty Queens about the first Miss Mini UK pageant which you can watch here. That was pretty scary, it's getting to the UK! ARGH!!! No way would I let my child compete in such a thing.
I don't see how people think these things are good for their children. To me it seems to put the ideas that if you're pretty everyone likes you, you can be as bratty as you want without getting in trouble , also that to get what you want you can use your bodies.
I read a story about a woman that buys her 11 year old daughter everything she asks for (designer clothes, shoes, pedigree dog, etc) and encourages her to go for dream which is glamour modeling. It really worries me that a woman will consider buying her child breasts so she can take her top off when she hasn't even hit puberty.
I sometimes wonder what happened to mothers who encourage their daughters to become doctors, vets, artists, etc rather then hoping they'll be the new Jodie Marsh or X Factor reject.
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How can any sane mother put her child into somehting that is, basically, child pornography?
For their own selfish reasons. Maybe they wanted glamour but too old to achive it or want their child to be the best cause they're the best therefor use their child like a pawn.
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Yes, I think you're right. I was watching a program about it the other day and one mother was syaing 'Well, I can't do it anymore, but she can and she will win.' Alos, I was horrified by another mother who said 'if you don't like it then you must have an ugly child' which I think is a horrible thing to say.
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I know. I think it's happiness that makes a child seem bright and pretty (seeing them play and laugh) rather then a weeks worth of spray tan, 3 inch fake nails, etc. All that fakery makes them look sad and like a unwanted doll.
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I forgot to put it in the article, but there is a really interesting documentary if you're interested in finding out more about child pageantry that aired on HBO called "Living Dolls." It follows a little girl who participates in child pageants, showing the pressure put upon her to succeed by her overzealous mother. It can be found on YouTube.
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Did anyone watch that program on BBC3 last year called something like "Sasha: Beauty Queen at 11" or something similar. It followed this little girl and her family as they went to America so she could compete in a beauty pageant. This 11 year old girl looks at least 21, and wants to be just like Jordan. My steps-sister is 10, and the thought of her turning around and saying she wants to be like Jordan makes me feel a bit sick :/
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I just watched the Baby Beauty Queens thing on BBC iPlayer and it was almost too difficult for me to watch. The girl called Madison clearly didn't want to be in the competition, and it was horrible watching her mother pluck her eyebrows and spray tan her when she was so obviously not THAT interested. When she said she wanted to win you could tell it was 'I want to win because Mummy wants me to win'. It really bothered me. And the whole thing about God giving her beauty as her 'talent'. Eurgh. As for Tyla, when she was saying how her glasses were more comfortable but her mum would shout at her for not wearing her contact lenses, jesus christ! What kind of a mother puts her daughter through that? The third girl, I forget her name, I like how she seemed a bit more natural than the other girls and when she wore makeup, she did just look like a little girl playing dress up. I'm glad it helped boost her confidence even though she didn't win. The woman running the pageant absolutely disgusted me when she said something along the lines of 'I don't care how much your hair cost, your money should've been and would've been better spent on that little corrective surgery' in response to a woman with crossed eyes :/
As for beauty pageants in general, I just don't support them. I like the idea of the talent round as it's much less superficial than the other rounds, but because the talents don't seem to range any further than singing or dancing and it's always in some skimpy outfit, I still can't say I like it.
edit: that last paragraph sounds like I don't consider singing and dancing a talent. They definitely are, but in these pageants it seems to be just another opportunity to show of an unsuitable outfit for a young girl.
-- Edited by loserbuttercup on Tuesday 15th of September 2009 03:00:42 PM
I don't think it's just beauty pagants that are the problem, it's our attitude towards "beauty" and "style" in general. Every day when I ride the bus I hear little girls talking about makeup and clothes, they're worried about their sizes already and they're still in elemtary school! it's insane how we've warped their view of themselves and made them think that beauty is being a size two with plastic lips.
It breaks my heart to hear them talk like that and I can't imagine putting a child through the stress and pressure of competing. It really does nothing for them.
^ That is actually a brilliant point. It IS our attitudes towards what is 'beautiful' which warp these pageants. I think that maybe if these pageants were focused on the child actually having a talent as I mentioned in my previous post and in the 'beauty' sections, the child was dressed as a child should be, none of this ridiculous makeup or spray tans, they wouldn't be such a topical issue. I don't believe that children should be judged on how they looked but I'd be much more comfortable for a child to win a pageant because they looked like an adorable little child rather than winning a pageant because they are the miniature version of their mother.
I can't believe how willing these parents are to put them into these pageants. I mean, a pageants for babies that are 2 and under and toddlers, it's just not right on so many levels.
-- Edited by Tabitha on Friday 23rd of July 2010 05:11:40 PM
What I don't fathom is why anyone would make their child focus so much energy on something as fickle and useless as youth & beauty when they could have them read books, enjoy nature and play chess.
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I just watched the Baby Beauty Queens thing on BBC iPlayer and it was almost too difficult for me to watch. The girl called Madison clearly didn't want to be in the competition, and it was horrible watching her mother pluck her eyebrows and spray tan her when she was so obviously not THAT interested.
I was just watching this on youtube and it was quite upsetting! She actually was frightened by the spray tan, and her mum told her it was 'good for her'. I personally didn't realise the health benefits of fake tan, but that's me told...
I was also thinking about how that little girl (Madison) has that 'believe board' with all pictures of models like Kate Moss, and saying how all she wants in life is to be a model. It's upsetting because she seemed to think that modelling was her only way of getting out and seeing the world - she seemed to think her options were sitting in the house, or model. And also because as she gets older and her body changes, the chances of her having a body 'correct' enough to be a model are pretty low. If that happens I don't like to imagine how all this build-up and then having the 'wrong' body will affect her self esteem...
Argh it's so wrong!! It's like...if you want to celebrate your kid's talent, put them in a class or club to have fun and improve, or even a talent show. Don't teach them that their success is dependant on how they look, and only how they look when they're all faked-up.
Argh it's so wrong!! It's like...if you want to celebrate your kid's talent, put them in a class or club to have fun and improve, or even a talent show. Don't teach them that their success is dependant on how they look, and only how they look when they're all faked-up.
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I think that beauty pageants are horrible enough, but for kids? It sickens me to the core to even think about five year olds in swimsuits (or whatever they have to wear) and fake tans with loads of make-up and mega-styled hair. It's like child porn as a competition.
I'm gonna sound like an old person but kids just grow up to fast. In my Brownie pack (7-10yr old girls) there's a girl who I'm gonna call Sparkle here. Lots of the older girls have 'boyfriends' and I did at their age but this girl takes the biscuit. She came one day covered in glitter, not just glitter lipgloss or eyeshadow but full on 80s roller disco glitter. Thinking that she probably wasn't intending to be so freakishly shiny I presumed she'd been doing something with glitter at home or at school and it just didn't wash off. By the end of the night everyone was covered in it so I knew how hard it was to remove. When I asked her why she had so much glitter on she said 'I like to look sexy'. Not pretty. Not beautiful. This nine year old girl told me she wanted to look sexy.
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^That kind of thing upsets me as well. I remember being maybe seven or eight, playing some game involving being woodland princesses with two other girls at school. They both met princes within the first ten minutes of the game. I, on the other hand, was preoccupied with "picking berries" or something daft. I did feel left out, though, and I said I wanted a prince as well. One of the girls I was playing with told me to "sit down, look pretty, and start crying, and the prince will find you." It just shows the ideas of women being seen and not heard, so to speak, being shown at such an early age. I know that's not really related to child pageantry directly, but it certainly says something about the way society is warping little girls minds.
Irilar, I completely agree with you. If I ever have a little girl, I'm going to place the most emphasis on her enjoying herself and being as smart as she can be.
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A few months ago (before my goth days, after my scene days and during my rocker days) I saw a couple of girls at a shopping centre. They were about 7 or 8, maybe 9. They wre both wearing high heels, hotpants, tight vests and loads of jewellery. Also, they were orange all over. I felt sick looking at them. It gave the impression of a ruined childhood and growing up way too fast.
^ I saw something like this too the other day - a girl who could only have been about 8 putting on mascara using a pocket mirror in the street ><
These pageants are awful but it's almost just like an extreme of what is going on already. This focus on looks in young girls can't be a good thing but it's everywhere, I guess since so much in the mainsteam media is about looks. I worked as an au pair for a little while, and the 7 year old girl I looked after was being called 'fat' all the time at school by these other girls. She wasn't fat, but she had a rounded stomach like lots of little girls have. Just a normal little girl tummy. But cause the others didn't and they all want to look like Miley bloody Cyrus and have tummies like the celebrities they see on tv, rather than look like kids, she took it so much to heart. And it's heartbreaking to see someone so young feel bad about their body.
I just watched that Baby Beauty Queen thing again on youtube and (excuse this) JESUS CHRIST HOW FUCKING SKINNY IS TYLER? In her talent dropped talen costume you can see her ribs. Most kids have a bit of puppy fat. Does that child EAT?
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