Are Beauty Pageant a Good Thing for Kids and Young Girls, Essay Example

Introduction

Even as they are consistently presented as innocent forms of entertainment, child beauty pageants are essentially harmful to the children involved. As will be seen, they unethically place personal value in the child’s mind on only appearance and outward attractions; they create dangerously unhealthy sexualization in and around children; they remove from the young girl or boy the normal opportunities to develop in a healthy way. While there are large concerns regarding the deviant sexuality of kiddie pageants as promoting pedophilia, and even as these concerns are valid in themselves, the larger reality is that no real good is in place for the child involved. Child beauty pageants are, in essence, an adult activity that degrades the children under the guise of innocent fun.

Argument

The nature of any beauty pageant is to promote appearance over other qualities, so the process of placing young children in such an arena is inherently unethical, if not outright dangerous. Adults may be able to separate appreciation for attractiveness from other values more important, but children are intrinsically impressionable. Their values are not yet formed and the kiddie pageant, focusing on beauty beyond any other concern, is then teaching a very specific lessen.

In kiddie pageants, girls and boys aged two wear false eyelashes, hair, teeth, and fake tans to masquerade as adults (Goodyear-Brown 198), and to exemplify adult images of attractiveness in a setting where appearance determines worth. It is then extremely likely, if not inevitable, that such girls and boys perceive their own value only as being defined by appearance. This is reinforced by the fact that many adults object to adult beauty pageants as promoting an inappropriate emphasis on appearance; as a young child is only just learning what the culture perceives as important, then, the exalting of appearance must create skewed ideas of self-worth as relying on physicality.

Then, and more in regard to young girls, kiddie pageants generate wholly inappropriate ideas and representations of sexuality. More exactly, as adult feminine appearance is linked to sexuality, these children are being rendered objects of sexuality. Padded bras are used on girls aged six and under, and make-up and costume are geared to reflect physically mature young women. In no uncertain terms, beauty pageants for young girls fully meet the criteria established by the American Psychological Association for unhealthy sexualization, chiefly in terms of their being promoted as “images” of sexuality for the purpose of gratifying expectations or desires of others (Coon, Mitterer 443). These are young girls paraded in make-up and “sexy” clothing,, and reflecting adult preferences (Rosewarne 87). What this may do to a child’s thinking in regard to sexuality is a frightening prospect, just as there is clearly reason to anticipate such pageants attracting pedophiles. Kiddie beauty pageants blatantly sexualize those nowhere near biological sexual maturity, and this is itself a form of pedophilia, which is any attaching of adult sexuality to a child. The repercussions in terms of the child’s emotional and mental health alone are staggering to consider.

The actual activity of the pageant aside, these events are usually complex and demanding occupations for both the children and the parents who enter them into the arena, so there is little to no chance for the child to develop in a normal way. Children require stable environments and a foundation of good values to grow into mentally and emotionally healthy adults; months of practicing for a pageant, then, with intense training and a consistent emphasis on winning in this sphere, must distance the child from anything resembling a normal upbringing. These are girls and boys essentially removed from ordinary life. That the pageant world reinforces unhealthy values is bad, but no more so than the displacement. Put another way, it seems remote that any young child, encouraged to seek prizes or stardom in these venues, could develop in a reasonably healthy way, simply because they are being placed in unnatural environments for long periods of time.

Counter

Many feel that concerns over kiddie pageants are, at best, excessive. The children, it is claimed, understand that the contests are superficial. Then, the responsibility for the child’s welfare rests with the parents, who should ensure that they are not unduly influenced. It is all about the fun of dressing up and putting on a show, children typically enjoy such things, and there is no reason to equate immorality or unhealthy processes with something meant to be only harmless entertainment. Such arguments, unfortunately, cannot succeed, simply because the harm is “built in.” Adults may engage in adult pageants in a rational way, but children do not yet have the necessary maturity to separate the importance attached to the pageants from real values. Moreover, it is irrational to expect that the child encouraged to participate would get any sense of larger values from the parents who necessarily instigate the processes. To assert that kiddie pageants may be perfectly healthy environments for children is to ignore the overwhelming reality that everything about them is inherently unhealthy.

Conclusion

Certainly, no good and reasonable adult wishes to prevent children from experiencing fun. Kiddie pageants, however, are not about fun, certainly in regard to the children, and this is validated by the simple fact that this is an industry created by adults. It is also dangerously irresponsible, if not outright criminal, because it exists to emphasize sexuality as an aspect of young children. Linked to this is the equally insidious element of young children being taught that appearance matters beyond anything else, and at ages when their values are first being shaped, just as pageant life must rob the child of the opportunities to develop in normal living. Kiddie pageant supporters seem to rely on a thin idea that the fun exists for the children, when in fact everything about the pageants is created to serve adult interests, and of very disturbing kinds.

Ultimately, child beauty pageants are an adult activity that degrades the children under a pretense of innocent fun.

Works Cited

Coon, D., & Mitterer, J. O. Psychology: Modules for Active Learning. Belmont: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.

Goodyear-Brown, P. Handbook of Child Sexual Abuse: Identification, Assessment, and Treatment. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Print.

Rosewarne, L. Part-Time Perverts: Sex, Pop Culture, and Kink Management. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Print.