Child beauty contests have become increasingly common and increasingly controversial in recent years. With entrants ranging from 3 to 18, some see the practice as a form of child abuse and child sexualization, while defenders see it as a means of teaching children important life skills such as determination and confidence. The main question in this debate is whether they should be tolerated, or banned with age limits such as 16 being set for entry. Beauty pageants started in 1921 when the owner of an Atlantic City hotel struck upon the idea to help boost tourism. However, the idea had already circulated through “Most Beautiful Child” contests held in major cities across the country. The Little Miss America pageant began in the 1960s at Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey. Originally, it was for teenagers from 13 to 17 years old, but by 1964 there were over 35,000 participants, which prompted an age division. The modern child beauty pageant emerged in the late 1960s, held in Miami, Florida. Since then, the industry has grown to include nearly 25,000 pageants per year in the US. It is an increasingly lucrative business, bringing in roughly 5 billion dollars a year. The murder of Jon Benet Ramsey in late 1996 turned the public spotlight onto child beauty pageants. Critics began to question the ethics of parents who would present their child in such a way. Dan Rather, for example, was noted for criticizing CBS for airing Ramsey’s tapes, calling them “kiddie porn.” Now, with child beauty pageants being introduced in other countries such as Australia, they are meeting greater global scrutiny, debate, and calls for bans.
The Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development, Wendy Lovell, said in regards to a planned beauty pageant in Australia: “we should trust parents to make the right decision for their children.”
Melbourne mother of four Kristin Kyle, who is organising Australia’s first beauty pageant in 2011: “We are asking people to educate themselves. Toddlers & Tiaras is a reality TV show. They have to make it dramatic so people will watch it. Our pageant is not going to be like that.”
The promoters of Australia’s first Universal Royalty Beauty Pagean defended the practice saying that it taught the lesson of “striving to be your very best.”
“Child Beauty Pageants Pros and Cons.” Squidoo: “Toddler beauty pageants pros and cons are both numerous. Child pageants are like just about everything else – there’s good and bad. Some pageants are better than others, but most of the problems that occur are often the fault of the parents themselves, and not the pageant or pageant system.”
“Child Beauty Pageants Pros and Cons.” Squidoo: “The majority of child pageants are well organized, fair, and fun. The best pageant directors go out of their way to ensure that every contestant has a positive, enjoyable experience.”
“Pros Of Child Pageants.” Squidoo: “The majority of child pageants and pageant parents work toward creating a sense of camaraderie among the contestants. The kids play together backstage, and the parents often help each other. Some contestants have made lifelong friends at pageants. When parents have the right attitude, the children will, too.”
“Pros Of Child Pageants.” Squidoo: “Pageants can be a lot of fun for kids. Most pageants sell foods that kids love, including pizza, hot dogs, popcorn, candy, and other snacks. Some of the larger pageants also provide backstage activities for the kids, and a few even have costumed characters interact with the younger girls.”
Ranking girls’ beauty is little different from winners and losers at a sports competition. If child beauty contests is considered abusive, then so should little league football, swimming competitions, and gymnastics, among a long list of competitive activities that very young children are allowed to do without complaint.
“I’d also like to point out that a little girl screaming, begging her mother not to ‘tear it off’ as she’s held down in a chair for a brow-waxing is not just insensitive on the mother’s part – it’s abusive. Putting your four year old child through hours of hair-dying, waxing, extreme dieting, tanning, and who knows what else is so she can look like Cindy Crawford is child neglect. Why this is even legal is beyond me. I don’t see a difference between repeatedly ripping your kid’s hair out in the name of beauty and repeatedly hitting your child in the name of authority.”
“Some pageant mums are living out their own dreams of ‘go[ing] somewhere in life’, as one mother put it, rather than being ‘stuck at home’ due to early childbearing. While self-focused female ambition continues to be stigmatised in Western societies – with the ambitious working woman always contrasted unfavourably with the mum who sacrifices her career to stay at home – pageant mums justify their application of false eyelashes or even Botox to their children as evidence of a competitive desire for their daughter to win.”
Shadow Australia attorney-general Martin Pakula said: “There really is no place in Victoria for these pageants.” As the father of a five-year-old girl, he found the pageants “creepy” and believes “they are not some innocent baby bonnet parade, they are something a bit more insidious.”
“I have seen stage parents where their ambitions for their child have eclipsed the child’s welfare to the point where the child becomes mentally unwell.”
There is only one overall winner in beauty pageants. All the rest lose. Most other sports allow for a broader sharing of victory and the sense of accomplishment that can come with that.
The promoters of Australia’s first Universal Royalty Beauty Pagean defended the practice saying that it taught the lesson of “striving to be your very best.”
The most cited reason parents give for putting their children into beauty pageants is to boost their child’s self-esteem, as well as teach poise, public speaking skills, tact, and confidence.
“She learns skills such as going out in a crowd, not to be shy, and to be herself while people are watching and focusing on her,” one mother noted.
Some of the criteria considered in judging a pageant are writing skills, interviews, personality, looks, confidence and talent, depending on the specific competition.
Another child beauty contest mother noted: “I want my child to be aware that there’s always going to be somebody better than her. It’s a hard thing to learn – it was for me – and I want her to start early.”
You see this a lot among people on the lower-income and education scales. They want their kids to learn skills that are needed to move up the social scale.
“Parents with higher incomes and education beyond high school often cite teaching a child how to deal with competition as a main reason for entering pageants. Many of them want their daughters to be doctors, dentists, or to have professional careers, Levey discovered in interviews.”
“Pros Of Child Pageants.” Squidoo: “In these cases, child pageants can teach kids to be gracious winners and good losers. They’ll learn the aspects of rules and fair play.”
“Claiming, let alone believing, an arena where very young children are primped like mini-adults and pitted against each other in a bid to decide who’s the prettiest is good for confidence or self-esteem, is to dwell in a fool’s paradise.”
William Pinsof, a clinical psychologist and president of the Family Institute at Northwestern University: “Being a little Barbie doll says your body has to be a certain way and your hair has to be a certain way. In girls particularly, this can unleash a whole complex of destructive self-experiences that can lead to eating disorders and all kinds of body distortions in terms of body image.”
Melinda Tankard-Reist, one of the founders of Collective Shout: “Competing in these events very young children are taught very early that their only value comes from their appearance and the way they look. This in turn leads to emotional problems, eating disorders and a distorted sense of self worth and self esteem.”
If you win a bunch of beauty contests at a young age, you might start to thinking you really are better than everyone else your age. This can be unhealthy.
“Anything good that a pageant does for a child, something else does it better. As a former basketball player and competitive cheerleader (yes, it’s a sport), I know that competition, and the wins and losses that went with it, educated me about the real world. But it’s exactly because I did those self-esteem building activities that I know there are options for parents who want confident, happy kids. In a childhood that’s full of opportunities for soccer games and spelling bees, why can’t we just put away the self-tanner and baby high heels?”
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