The Pros & Cons of Beauty Pageants

While the general public and recent success of TLC’s series Toddlers & Tiaras leads to a bad rap among the controversial subject of young girls in beauty pageants, the good is generally overlooked. Although they are many red flags among the process of pageantry, there are some positive aspects. This blog is geared towards a well-rounded view of focusing on the good as well as the bad factors that come out of youth participation in beauty pageants.

One of the most crucial positive factors of beauty pageants is that of confidence and self-esteem. Competing in pageants at a young age can instill strong self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth in early on in a girl’s life. This can diminish any inklings of shyness or introversion in a girl’s personality which will help her at succeed in all stages of life. However, pageantry can lead to superficiality and high values of materialism that stem from the overall concepts of beauty pageants.

Because beauty pageants place extreme focus on beauty and other feminine ideals, young girls are highly susceptible to gaining a corrupted view of what makes one beautiful. Emphasis is taken away from inner beauty and personality attributes. Gender stereotypes of women being only known for their good looks are enforced, as well as the stereotypical view that in order to be feminine one must exhibit poise. Young girls who participate in beauty pageants also learn to place a greater emphasis on physical perfection because of all the materialistic aspects of pageantry. In order to place high in a pageant, girls strive to present the most perfect hair styles, outfits, makeup and teeth. They are under extreme pressure to always look good and be thin. The positivity that comes out of this is a high emphasis on being physically fit and in shape, but pressure can be emphasized too much on these aspects. However, this can all lead to a high value of self-worth in the lives of these girls.

While the preparation and participation that beauty pageants require can be extremely expensive and time consuming, pageantry reaps other rewards. Besides from developing a go-getter spirit and becoming comfortable in front of large audiences and strangers, young girls who take pride in beauty pageants can become dedicated competitors. This can give way to dedication to a variety of other hobbies, such as dancing, drama, and music. Also, the opportunity to make life-long friends who share the same values presents itself in the world of beauty pageantry.

Lastly, while the fierce competition of beauty pageants can create negative feelings of hurt when they don’t earn a high title, winning pageants can be rewarding in the physical and emotional sense as well as the materialistic sense when cash prices are won. Like I said before, this can cause young girls to become dedicated competitors with a high sense of self-worth and self-confidence. Sometimes, the good can outweigh the bad.

Katie Duff - Second Post