IA six year old girl, wearing a skimpy pink and black jeweled leotard, slowly climbs up to the stage and poses provocatively with her hands on her hips while she waits for the music to start. She bats her fake eye lashes and tosses her long blond hair in order to wow the judges. As the pop music blares through the speakers, the girl starts her elaborate routine that looks as though it’s from a music video. It may not surprise most people that some parents are willing to shell out the big bucks for their six-year-old daughters to be able to sing and dance in front of a panel of judges. However, many may find it disturbing to know just how much pressure is put on these children. When parents push their young daughters into child beauty pageants, they are putting them at risk for developing a negative self-image.
Although it may seem many parents are pushing their daughters into pageants, some parents insist that they are putting their child into pageants for their own benefit. They believe pageants will teach their preschoolers valuable skills needed in life, such as overcoming shyness, learning to compete, and even developing language. Others just want their kids to have a leg up in life, and believe pageants will help get them there (Cromie). Before five year old Leslie Gosney began competing in pageants, she used to be quiet and shy. Now, since she is competing, her mother says she displays an air of confidence and independence (Hilboldt-Stolley).
However, even though parents believe they are helping their daughters, one of the down sides to pageants is almost every girl in them has her natural appearance dramatically altered. Consequently, these girls live a life of excessive make-up, wigs, bleached hair and fake tans. But it does not stop there. One of the many techniques parents use to make their daughters look thinner is actually wrapping their stomachs in Saran Wrap. Fake teeth are also a commodity among young children in pageants. If a child loses a baby tooth and doesn’t re-grow it in time for a pageant, she is simply fitted for a fake tooth (Cromie).
Having to alter a child’s appearance in order to make her look “better” could most likely cause her to question the way she looks. While parents are concerned with whether their daughter will win the pageant title, many are not thinking of how these appearance alterations might be harming their daughters. At a child pageant it would not be unusual to see a three-year-old girl prancing around on a stage wearing nothing but a sexy little costume. However, this sort of dress and behavior is not normal for children. Parents are basically telling their young daughters that they don’t look good enough as they are. One of the repercussions that may come out of this is developing a body image obsession. According to William Pinsof, a clinical psychologist and president of the Family Institute at Northwestern University, telling a girl that her hair and body has to be a certain way can lead to “eating disorders and all kinds of body distortions” (Nussbaum).
Besides developing a poor body image, another down side to child pageants is that many parents get too involved and forget it is their child who has to compete, not them. They spend literally thousands of dollars buying their daughters several different outfits for the different acts in the pageants, as well as paying for the various fees required to enter, some of those are also in the thousands (Ralston). Many also hire make-up artists and hair stylists to make their daughters into child beauty queens (Ralston). According to a pageant mom, Deboran Tushnet, pageants do not just judge girls on natural beauty, but the judges are “looking for the total package: the clothes, the hair, the make up the modeling . . .” (Ralston). Tushnet’s daughter, Lacy Rose, will be wearing “white hot pants and a red-and-white blouse” while she competes in the 0-25 months division (Ralston). Not all pageants give out money to their winners, but Lacy Rose will be competing at the University Royalty National Pageant, which awards $1,000 to each winner (Ralston). According to the International Pageant Association, there are 25,000 pageants across the country and most allow children to start competing in them as soon as the child can sit up by themselves (Ralston). So whose dreams are they really competing for?
Not that many preschoolers are capable of signing themselves up for a pageant. Isn’t it the parent’s responsibility to make the right decisions for their children? It’s one thing for a woman over the age of eight-teen to enter herself in a beauty pageant, because she would be old enough to handle the pressure that comes with it and she would have the control over what she would want to change on herself. However, when it’s a child competing, it’s a completely different matter. They have little or no control over what their parents are willing to change about them.
Parents need to become more aware of the dangers they are inflicting on their young daughters. While the parents are busy making them look like Barbie, the girls are seeing their entire natural appearance being changed into somebody else. Pageants may help a child develop certain qualities that their parents aspire them to have, but they can also introduce young girls to sexuality and disappointment too early in life. Many of the parents who have their kids compete in pageants become too involved in the competition of winning and forget how much pressure they are putting on a child at such a young age. The child may think it’s just fun and games at first, like playing dress-up, but parents need to know when to step in and take the initiative to stop things before they get out of control.
Sources
Jeannie Ralston, “The High Cost of Beauty.” Parenting. Nov. 2001:132-133.
Kareen Nussbaum,. “Children and Beauty Pageants.” A Minor Consideration.
Lise Hilboldt-Stolley, “Pretty Babies.” Good Housekeeping Feb. 1999.
William J Cromie, “The Whys and Woes of Beauty Pageants.” Gazette.
