Child Beauty Pageants Should Be Banned Research Paper
1000 Words4 Pages
Should Child Beauty Pageants be Banned?
Layers upon layers of vibrantly coloured makeup applied without a single imperfection, spray tanned bodies wrapped in bejewelled chiffon dresses, and smiles that have been bleached to an even higher degree than the tightly curled hair piled atop of a young hopeful’s head. These are the images that come to mind when the words “Beauty Pageant” are uttered. One may immediately associate these images with prestigious pageants such as Miss America or Miss Universe, wherein to compete, the contestants must be at least eighteen years of age. These women are quite obviously capable of making their own decisions, and are willingly entering these pageants. However, the images of glamour and ultimately sexualization of young women are not exclusively applied to the pageants mentioned above. Child beauty pageants are now estimated to be a multi-billion dollar business in the United States alone. The girls who are forced to compete in these pageants can be a mere few days old, yet they are subjected to the very same treatment of makeup and spray tans as grown women are. This sickening trend has been both documented and popularised by the TV show ‘Toddlers and Tiaras”, which has been broadcasting children being stripped of their innocence by their own parents for the sake of a plastic crown or the rare chance of obtaining a cash prize since 2009. Why do these images not trigger a negative reaction within the returning viewers of the show? Any reasonably minded person would clearly see that this is child abuse. These people…show more content… It seems as if she does not understand the concept of a what a child should look like or in fact be doing on a usual day. Nor do any other pageant mothers, it seems. For these poor young girls, this is the very definition of