Artificial Beauty And Eating Disorders

Improved Essays
Artificial beauty, confidence, and eating disorders are a few things that may come to mind when talking about beauty pageants. Beauty pageants have been around since Ancient Greece, but didn’t start becoming popular until 1960s. (Nussbaum, 1) “A beauty pageant is operated in a couple of ways, either corporate sponsors, where the competitors must meet eligibility requirements to participate, or the second way is by putting the responsibility on the participants. The applicants are responsible for traveling and lodging entry fees, wardrobe, and sometimes the cost of the crown and prizes” (Nussbaum, 5). Beauty pageants empower the people in them, but not so much the people that watch them. Many parents that enroll their children argue saying “It …show more content…
While competing in beauty pageants, children will hatch new relationships with whom they are competing with, mostly rivals but more importantly friends. Eventually, they will learn what friendly competition is and how to handle it (buzzle, 5). Friendly competition gives young children the experience of losing to someone they are fond of, and how it’s acceptable to have fun with others while still striving to be the best that can be. A little bit of friendly competition gives young children the opportunity to see what it’s like to lose; it gives them a taste of the real world. The real world is all about competition but it’s never friendly, and this is simply an introduction.
Beauty pageants have more to offer than just confidence and friendly competition; it can make them more ambitious. They create higher expectations for themselves, and it leads them to push themselves even further than they normally would. When they are performing they’ll think of that reward, a big, pink Barbie doll house, and they’ll try
…show more content…
Confidence and ambition are a few of the positive aspects they are able to achieve while competing in pageants, while still being able to experience a bit of friendly competition. Though they are some beneficial factors to these pageants, they are detrimental factors that go along with them. When entering pageants all they are worried about is their image and appearance, which can lead to some harmful side effects. The children’s provocative appearance exposes them to sexual predators; it sexualizes them way too early. Which brings me to my final point, they are entered into beauty pageants really early; sometimes they can’t even walk or talk and they’re already competing. Being in beauty pageants at a young age doesn’t give children the liberty to be kids, because they are too busy trying on evening gowns and rehearsing dance routines for the talent round. Ultimately, children beauty pageants have not only beneficial factors but detrimental

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