I read the online article called, “Living Dolls: inside the world of child beauty pageants” from a website called The Guardian. This article is about girl named Amber who is seven years old. She is like many other children her age and she has a love for beauty pageants. When Amber was asked if she enjoyed pageants she responded “yes” after a pause to think about the question being asked. This lead the person who was speaking with her to think that Amber was uncertain, but she knew what her parents would like her answer to be. Amber is from the UK where several beauty pageants are held every year, but they claim the fame of beauty pageants aren’t as big there as in the United States. A typical beauty pageant consists of several rounds, often including an "evening wear" section, where children parade down a catwalk swathed in taffeta and Swarovski crystals, and a talent round, in which contestants will display a particular gift, such as singing, dancing or baton-twirling. They are very similar to the pageants in the U.S. Spray tans, fake nails, and bleaching of hair are all things that take place before a pageant. These beauty pageants are huge debate with the public and there are strong points made on each side of the argument.
Critics say pageants are exploitative. They feel that children are being pressured, made into something they are not, forced to adopt semi sexualized adult mannerisms, grow up too fast, and most importantly they are taught that appearance is the most important factor for winning and being the “favorite.” Many people argue that these children are being taught at a young age that humans are not judged as a whole, they are being shown that others only focus of the physical aspect of people. Although there are strong arguments against the idea of these pageants, others believe that they give children self confidence and boost their self esteem. According to this article, “In 2009 a poll of 3,000 teenage girls showed that more than a quarter would spend their money on their looks rather than their studies, while one in five had considered plastic surgery. An Ofsted study of almost 150,000 children aged ten to fifteen found that 32% worried about their body, while a recent BBC survey highlighted the fact that “half of girls aged eight to twelve want to look like the women they see in the media and six out of ten though they would be happier if they were thinner.” Many people believe that since pageants are strongly based around physical appearance, children feel like they have to have the “perfect” body, skin tone, hair, and body parts.
Katie Froud is founder of Alba Model Information, a modeling service in the UK. She states that "I'd rather these girls were concentrating on keeping themselves fit, eating healthily, having good deportment and putting their hard-won pocket money into an outfit for a pageant than spending it all on the lash, out on the street." The instant fame of reality television stars and image-conscious glamour models, demand for child beauty contests has risen exponentially. Pageants may give away excellent prizes such as large amounts of money, scholarships, vacation packages, vehicles, and many more options. This seems to encourage families and their children to enter the pageants hoping to come home with the prize. There is a beneficial side to well run pageants. Many pageants will donate a portion of their profits to charity. Contestants can promote "grace and good manners and wanting to do well. The girls who enter learn about focus and they can start to learn better behavior." This helps young children realize that they can help their community and they feel like they do so when the pageant they are in contributes to different charities.
There are both positive and negative views on children being in pageants. Many factors take place in how an individual feels about children being on stage such as, the role their parents play in it, the costumes they wear, entrance cost of pageants and the amount of money put into them, prizes given away, and if the pageant is donating to a charity or not. There will always be a strong argument on each side of this subject due to the different roles pageants play in each family’s lives.
Brittany Krause—Second blog post
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