33% of girls ages 7-11 are not happy w their appearance, and the pressure of child beauty pageants don’t help with that. Child beauty pageants in America mostly started in the 1960’s with the Miss America Pageant. In these pageants, children would dress up and present themselves and sometimes their talents on stage and would be judged against other children competing. Over time this gained the interest of many and became much more popular. As popularity increased, so did competition, and kids started wearing much more provocative attire and much more glamour. Children beauty pageants are a cruel to way display a child. While some people may say that beauty pageants promote confidence in the children, in reality it creates body confidence issues.
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Defenders of child beauty pageants say that “if you saw a little girl going up on stage for the first time, then saw her going up on stage her 10th time, you'd see a big difference in her self-confidence and poise” (“Child Beauty Pageants”). This statement is inaccurate because during child beauty pageants, children are trying to look better than the other contestants. This sets an image of how they think they should look, and they spend their time trying to look that way and can see their body negatively. Children are so young and “such an early emphasis on appearance and body image may distort a little girl's view of herself and lead to eating disorders and related behavior” (Eder). As these kids get older they result to changing their body by eating less to be skinnier, or wanting plastic surgery to change their looks. They abuse their body because they were taught from such a young age to look beautiful, and better than others. When participating in a child beauty pageant …show more content…
Children who are taught to “shimmy in miniature showgirl costumes, wink and blow kisses to judges, suggestively tear away velcro pieces of their ensembles and strut around in their bathing suits in public will not be able to tell what sort of behavior is age-appropriate outside of a pageant setting” (“Child Beauty Pageants”). Children are too young to understand that acting the way they do in beauty pageants is inappropriate in many other places, and they won’t know when they should and should not act like that. When looking at it “from a developmental standpoint, it's as inappropriate to try to teach a 6-year-old to pose like a 20-year-old model as it is to allow her to drive, drink alcohol or fight for our country” (Eder). They can develop an attitude and character that is too sexualized for young children to project. Participants of child beauty pageants are “strolling around in high heels and displaying their beauty at such a tender age. The fame that comes with those crowns can even mislead them since they are still young” (Donah). When children wear heels, makeup, and act like adults, they start to think acting like this is normal behavior and are being set the wrong example. Teaching kids “to strut, to look sexy for the judges, to emphasise sexualised behaviours is totally inappropriate for children” (Freymark). Kids are learning how to be sexy, and it is wrong since
Defenders of child beauty pageants say that “if you saw a little girl going up on stage for the first time, then saw her going up on stage her 10th time, you'd see a big difference in her self-confidence and poise” (“Child Beauty Pageants”). This statement is inaccurate because during child beauty pageants, children are trying to look better than the other contestants. This sets an image of how they think they should look, and they spend their time trying to look that way and can see their body negatively. Children are so young and “such an early emphasis on appearance and body image may distort a little girl's view of herself and lead to eating disorders and related behavior” (Eder). As these kids get older they result to changing their body by eating less to be skinnier, or wanting plastic surgery to change their looks. They abuse their body because they were taught from such a young age to look beautiful, and better than others. When participating in a child beauty pageant …show more content…
Children who are taught to “shimmy in miniature showgirl costumes, wink and blow kisses to judges, suggestively tear away velcro pieces of their ensembles and strut around in their bathing suits in public will not be able to tell what sort of behavior is age-appropriate outside of a pageant setting” (“Child Beauty Pageants”). Children are too young to understand that acting the way they do in beauty pageants is inappropriate in many other places, and they won’t know when they should and should not act like that. When looking at it “from a developmental standpoint, it's as inappropriate to try to teach a 6-year-old to pose like a 20-year-old model as it is to allow her to drive, drink alcohol or fight for our country” (Eder). They can develop an attitude and character that is too sexualized for young children to project. Participants of child beauty pageants are “strolling around in high heels and displaying their beauty at such a tender age. The fame that comes with those crowns can even mislead them since they are still young” (Donah). When children wear heels, makeup, and act like adults, they start to think acting like this is normal behavior and are being set the wrong example. Teaching kids “to strut, to look sexy for the judges, to emphasise sexualised behaviours is totally inappropriate for children” (Freymark). Kids are learning how to be sexy, and it is wrong since