In 1997 images of a beautiful six-year old beauty queen flashed across the T.V screens in homes across the U.S. and around the world. Who had murdered JonBenet Ramsey? No one knows. The case brought all eyes to the attention of child beauty pageants. Videos and pictures of JonBenet were literally on every news-program and in every newspaper and magazine. The world of beauty pageants had been exposed. ??The world of child beauty pageants that ?to an outsider- seemed to tread a fine line verging into pornography?(Branson).
The sights of these little girls imitating adult beauty queens in pictures are shocking. Pageant children are seen as having been deprived of their childhood by being taught sexually provocative behavior while performing on stage.
Children as young as one month old were parading or being paraded around with pounds of make-up on and over-extravagant dresses, decked out in sequins and pearls. They sing songs such as ?America the Beautiful?, dance and strut what stuff they do have, or throw a baton in the air a couple of times. But, rarely do these pageants have anything to do with talent; to win, children have to be physically attractive. What kind of a message is this sending to the kids? ?This sends the wrong kind of message that a cute smile and nice hair are everything?(Briggs A-4).
Is it right that parents are allowing their children to do this, posing as 18-year olds rather than the eight year olds they really are? Children should be allowed to live their own lives as carefree kids rather than trying to keep up with the pressures of impressing others and their own parents. Most pageants occur on the weekends and, when a girl is constantly competing, she may spend her whole weekend on the road in a car or mini-van. Hopping from one town to the next, hoping to claim a small prize. The weekends are a time for kids to relax and enjoy spending time to themselves and little playmates either running around in the yard, hanging off the jungle gym or playing house, like the other kids their age. JonBenet?s murder caught the attention of the public?s eye when it forced them to take a closer look at what our society holds as what is right and moral today. The death of the child beauty queen raised serious questions about the things that influence children?s lives. The parents are concerned with winning the prizes: ?They show no interest when it comes to possible negative effects of dressing their children up in provocative clothing, capping their teeth, putting fake eyelashes on them, and having them perform before audiences in a manner that suggests a sexuality well beyond their years?(Giroux 1).
The Essay on The Negative Effects of Child Beauty Pageants
... the clear deleterious effects engendered by the parents of beauty pageant children; this proverbial "dark side" of child beauty pageants cause critics to question whether any prospective ... sciences" (Blue), attended a child beauty competition with kids as young as 4 months to as old as 15 years old. She witnessed a ...
It?s not healthy for a young child to be constantly on parade. It is more often than not that a child will act in a manner more mature than other children their age because, that is the way they have been taught, to impress adults. They do not know how to turn the adult mature level off; they do not know how to live life like a carefree child. ?Instead of napping, playing, and learning from the warm environment of home and family, these thrust into the spotlight by ego-driven parents? (Solomon).
By participating in these pageants at an early age, a child will not have the opportunity to experience the norms of becoming a pre-teen, such as putting make-up on for the first time. Neither will she get to experience the joy of putting on her first ?Cinderella? dress for her high school?s homecoming. Child Psychiatrist Dybell says, ?You lose the opportunity to have that innocence. A five-year old can?t say, ?Ten years down the road I won?t have anything to look forward to??(Bernstein).
The Essay on Child/ parent relationship in the Little Boy Crying?
The poem, Little Boy Crying, written by Mervyn Morris is mainly about father and sons relationship. Poet shows the two main themes through this relationship; fathers love towards his child and his effort to lead his child into a right world in life. Mervyn Morris explores the child and parents relationship by using second person narration and language techniques such as allusion and emotive words. ...
Children start parading the stages, beginning their pageant careers, before many of them can even walk. ?Show Biz USA offers baby pageants for infants 1 month old to kids just under four years?(Briggs A-4).
How can a child truly experience growing up as a little kid, when he or she constantly has to practice their smile, their walk and their talk? A first memory for a normal child maybe their first birthday party, their first bike or their first little playmate. Then you have the kid that competes in pageants every weekend, their earliest memories are ones of being judged by strangers and gawked over by on-lookers, or being spanked by their mother for not performing as well as they should have.
The whole pageant industry started around 15-years ago when many of the pageant gurus realized they could draw in more money by holding more pageants geared towards younger children, and their parents. Hundreds of these child beauty pageants are held each year throughout the U.S;?in Houston, Texas, there?s at least one such pageant going on in the area almost every weekend?(Pugh 1).
With a pageant every weekend going on you have the parents who go to every single one of them, spending hundreds, even thousands, on entry fees, food, transportation and lodging, all for the sake of a small prize, if the child does their job and wins. With an estimated three million children and young adults participating in these pageants, half of them are under the age of twelve. Children who enter in pageants tend to come from working class families with fantasies and the hopes of winning a small cash prize. Most of these local pageants have entry fees ranging from twenty dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars. Middle and upper class families attend the larger and more expensive pageants, able to spend a great deal of money on voice and dance lessons, pageant coaches, costumes, and high entry fees. These fees can range from three hundred dollars and up, and these are just the entry fees. Parents will often spend $200 to $500 on photo shoots, but the greatest set backs are the designer and handmade dresses, costing as much as $3,000 and another $100 to $200 for various other pageant costumes. ?I know people who have spent so much on pageants, they lost their trailers?(Cromie 2).
The Essay on Is Daycare Beneficial For Children And Parents?
When you are a child, who takes care of you? Now, the cost of living is so high that many people under age twenty-five are moving back in with their parents. Young people are getting married later now than they used to. The average age for a woman to get married is about twenty-four, and for a man twenty-six. Newly married couples often postpone having children while they are establishing careers. ...
Are the stress, the time and the money really worth spending just for a trophy or a teddy bear? In contrast, there are some contests that do give out prestigious awards such as scholarship money, cash, savings bonds or even cars.
Parents who push their kids to participate in these pageants often back up their reasons for doing so with the ideas that the pageants will pave the way for their kids to get into careers such as modeling. More often than not it does happen, many child models are past or reigning beauty queens. Other reasons are the cash prizes, ??And sometimes the parents are blinded by the stars and the trophies and have a tendency to trust people more than they should,? said Ted Cohen, president of the International Directory of Pageants, an information clearinghouse for the industry?(Briggs A-4).
Some mother can turn vicious in the heat of the competition; they?ve been spotted hitting their kids with shoes, dragging them off stage and into the bathroom for a good yelling, or in one case, a mother purposely burnt her daughter with a curling iron for being to squeamish while having her hair done. These ?pageant? moms? behaviors, have brought up questions concerning whether or not these pageants are ?ultimately for the benefit of the child or the parent?(Gleick 48).
Dateline NBC ran a poll where 62% of those questioned said parents benefit more from child beauty pageants, where only 3% said that children do benefit (Pugh1).
Supporters for pageants do have their reasons for pushing their kids into the spotlight. They can teach a child how to show good sportsmanship, raise self-esteem, provide communication skills for the future, and raise the chances of becoming famous. ?The most frequently used rationale for defending pageants is that they build self-esteem?It builds self-esteem and character, it gives them poise and confidence and teaches them how to get in front of a crowd, it teaches you to respect yourself,?(Solomon) Sometimes, it?s not the parents who push their kids into doing the pageants, kids love them. They get to meet other children there and become more social. Kids who were once shy now have self-confidence and often times become honor students. In the spirit of friendly competition these pageants can provide life-long lessons; it?s just when these competitions become intense and turn foul.
The Essay on Do Children Owe Their Parents
There is a question that I have been thinking of: "Do I owe something to my mom and dad"? - Who knows... Sometimes we might think that we owe them a lot, but then other times we might think "Why should I do something for them? I have my own life. I have lots of to do without taking care of my folks." But then again, how can I leave them in trouble when they are the same bloods? I look like them ...
What happens when a child loses, the child loses simply because she didn?t wear the right outfit or have that ?certain? look? How can losing a contest, a beauty contest no less, build self-respect, character, confidence and most importantly self-esteem? Like any concerned and caring parent, they encourage their children to do and be anything. This is normal, however, convincing a child into thinking they are perfect, the best at everything, and basically flawless only sets the child up for great disappointment when they do fail. ?When a parent tells their child that they are going to win, and they do not, this really hurts the child?s feelings?(Bernstein).
Parents have yelled and punished their kids for making a mistake in their routines, often causing the child to feel worthless and becoming aware of the disappointment they have caused their parents. Children shouldn?t be pressured into becoming beautiful, perfect entertainers; at that stage in their life they shouldn?t be experiencing that much stress and pressure, too much emotional pain. ?Many young children lack the maturity to handle the pressures of these tough competitions?(Bernstein).
No matter if a child is three-months old or twenty-three years old, pageants put enormous amounts of pressure on an individual. Pressures to walk with that certain ?pep? in their step, look a certain ?made-up? way, respond to questions in a specific way, and even weigh a certain amount. The pressures of winning, combined with the stress of actually getting up and performing in front of an audience and judges can cause any individual to have some psychological problems at some point in their life. Yet, parents seem to think that pageants are a good way to teach their kids to lose gracefully, to deal with rejection, and to face the fact that there is always going to be someone who is better than them. To teach kids that beauty is a way of life is only going to set them up for rejection, the moment a girl walks into the room with shinier hair, or bluer eyes or ten pounds skinnier; rejection is bound to happen. At the age of four, how can beauty hold any significance to a child? Maybe in the retrospect that they want to be just like their beautiful mothers, but that?s normal for a young child to be just like her mother. Boys around that same age think girls are the devil, are yucky, have cooties and should stay as far away from them as humanly possible. Parading around on a stage looking and acting like an 18-year old, with hair bleached or highlighted, make-up caked on, and revealing outfits along with suggestive dances, is not normal. Any parent, who would allow their child to do that, and to be viewed by others as a little sex toy, is also not normal. It?s sickening.
The Essay on The Notion of Beauty in Bronte’s Jane Eyre
The notion of beauty, what it is and whether it is an inner or outward quality, has been long debated. For centuries people, and particularly women, have struggled with the concept of their own inner beauty as something as important, if not more important than their outward, physical beauty. This is no less true in literature. The idea of female inner beauty has not always been valued. In ...
When it comes to a child?s childhood, let them live it. Let them have the chance to grow up, make mistakes, and become socially accepted on their own like every other kid. Parents need to stop trying to live their live dreams through their children and open more doors to the future for them. Encouraging them on their schoolwork or athletic events is a very positive and uplifting manor for a child. Parents who promote this type of behavior are allowing their children to live a normal carefree life and grow more spiritually. Now who killed JonBenet Ramsey and why, the world may never know. Some say it was her own mother out of jealousy, some say it was her father, other says say it was a jealous parent of another child beauty queen and some say it was a sex-crazed pedophile. The unfortunate death of this child beauty queen could have been in result of her numerous competitions and the jealousy and envy of others. But, did the beauty pageants really have anything to do with her murder? The sad part about her untimely death was that she was only six-years old; she had not even begun to start living her life. ??I hope that was not her whole life. People see it and they see another pageant kid ?big hair and all the makeup gooped on. Hopefully there was more to her life than being a beauty queen, said Barbara Kelley, a pageant judge and former 1958 Miss Virginia? (Little Women).
Weighing out the good and the bad sides of these competitions are difficult. In the long run, more problems are going to arise in girls dealing with weight problems or self esteem issues. If these troubles are worth the trophies and crowns and sashes, then so be it, it?s only an innocent child?s life that is at stake here.
The Essay on A Life Lived In Fear Is Aa Half
What I want most in life is to be able to look back and say there wasn t anything I regret, no chances I didn t take, and nothing I passed up. Life is to short to be spent asking yourself "what if?' What if I had tried harder, done more, been better. There are many things beyond our control that keep us from our dreams, but fear is the worst, and we bring it upon ourselves. Webster's Revised ...
Bibliography:
Works Cited Bernstein, Ellen. ?Child Beauty Pageants Pushed Into Limelight.? Corpus Christi Caller Times (TX) 19 Jan. 1997. Branson, Louise. ?From Tragedy to Celebrities- Big Bucks in Selling Child Beauty Pageants.? The Straits Times (Singapore) 27 Mar. 2000, world sec.: 18. Briggs, Bill. ?Talk Swirls About Merits of Child Beauty Pageants.? The Denver Post (CO) 12 Jan. 1997, chase ed.: A-4 Cromie, William J. ?The Whys and Woes of Beauty Pageants.? The Harvard University Gazette. 8 Jun. 2000 Giroux, Henry A. ?Innocence Lost: Child Beauty Pageants and the Politics of Abuse.? New Art Examiner v. 25 no9 (June 1998): 26-31. Gleick, Elizabeth. ?Playing at Pageants.? Time. 20 Jan. 1997: 48-49. Little Women. Transcript of Anne Taylor Fleming. PBS, Online Newshour. 24 Jan. 1997. Pugh, Clifford. ?Eye of the Beholder- Pageant Moms, Child Psychologists Differ on Lessons Contestants Learn In Competitions.? Houston Chronicle (TX) 22 Jan. 1997, 2 Star ed.: Houston sec.:1 Solomon, Wendy E. ?Exploitation, Fun, or Something else?? York Daily Record (PA) 20 Jul. 1997, Dispatch Sunday News ed. Zaret, Elliot. ?The World of Child Beauty Pageants Breeds Controversy.? Daily Camera (CO) 11 Jan. 1997.
