Schexnayder 1

Lauren SchexnayderAP English Language and CompositionMrs. Vencie Maxey20 May 2014Child Beauty Pageants: Dazzling or Detrimental?Child beauty pageantry has long been an American tradition, especially in Southern regions. However, these beauty contests are only recently taking a prevalent role in the media as their negative effects are portrayed to the whole country, like with the case of JonBenet Ramsey and the TLC hit show, Toddlers & Tiaras. Despite the horrors of child pageantry broadcast through mass media, pageantry has only grown increasingly popular, and even more dangerous with the rise of "glitz" pageantry, an expensive and physically demanding breed of pageantry. The industry is no longer the sweet, natural faces with big bows and simple but elegant dresses; instead, an era of five year olds presenting themselves as twenty year olds dominates pageantry, a much more dangerous breed of beauty contests. Beauty pageants are detrimental to child development because of the physical, psychological, social, and financial impacts on the lives of contestants.As glitz pageants gain popularity and rewards become more lucrative, mothers often force their daughters into extreme grooming. For example, many children wear "flippers," or fake teeth to hide missing or crooked baby teeth. Other children wear intricate and often painful hair extensions for a mature appearance. Some of these practices have damaging effects on the health of children. The FDA has warned against kohl in eyeliners because the substance has been linked to lead poisoning in children as well as eyelash dyes that can lead to blindness and melanomas (Wolfe 433). Psychologist Lindsay Lieberman notes how "merely inhaling the chemical [DHA in spray tans] can cause coughing, dizziness, fainting or rashes pageant parents carelessly spray DHA on their babies' faces seemingly forgetting that DHA is a potentially harmful substance" (Lieberman 755). Extreme pageant mothers even encourage plastic surgery, and some child performers have been encouraged to get breast augmentation at age fourteen to be able to look older and more mature (Wolfe 434). The encouragement of such artificial and unhealthy additions to beauty, even with common practices like hair extensions and makeup, promotes an unattainable image of beauty that children are exposed to at an early age. Some beauty pageant contestants will strive for this standard of perfection for the rest of their lives and may develop a distorted body image and/or an eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia.

Table 1Means (Standard Deviations) of Scores on Eating Disorder Scales by Beauty Pageant Category

Source: Ackard, Diann, Judith Henderson, and Anna Wonderlich. "Childhood Beauty Pageant Contestants: Associations with Adult Disordered Eating and Mental Health." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 34.1 (2005): 23-27. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.

As seen in Table 1, women who have participated in beauty pageants as children often have a much stronger drive for thinness as well as much higher body dissatisfaction than women who have never been beauty pageant contestants. Beauty pageant contestants' BUILT-R (Bulimia Test Revised) scores were also consistently higher, meaning that women who participate in pageantry as children are inclined to develop eating disorders as they mature. William Pinsof, psychologist and president of the Family Institute at Northwestern University, warns how pageantry pressures can "unleash a whole complex of self destructive experiences that can lead to eating disorders and all kinds of body distortions" (Nussbaum 234). Children are also encouraged to consume copious amounts of caffeine and sugar to stay energized throughout long days of competition. Contestants often fill themselves with Red Bull energy drinks and Pixy Stix (popularly known in the industry as "pageant crack") despite warnings by the American Academy of Pediatrics that this unbalance of energy can lead to cardiovascular and neurological issues. Not only are the preparations for pageantry harmful to children, but the mindset of pageantry and the pageantry process can damage the health of contestants long after their days of bows and sparkly dresses.Not only are child beauty queens at risk for physical harm, but also psychological damage. The spotlight comes with great pressure and fears of failure, heightening the competition of pageantry. Lindsay Lieberman writes about the effects of competitions on the ability of children to interact with others:Child psychologists report that competition inhibits children from forming positive relationships with other kids. Failure to engage in healthy interplay with peers leads to delayed social development and various other problems relating to a child's social capacities. As portrayed in Toddlers & Tiaras, the competitive pressures manifest themselves in the girls' moods and attitudes. Some girls are depicted as irritable and cranky, while others handle the stress of competition with ruthless ambition. (753)Furthermore, a pageant crown comes with confusing jealousy issues; Table 1 also portrays the interpersonal distrust as well as the social insecurity that plagues pageant contestants more heavily than those who have never participated in such events. The "winner-take-all" mentality of pageantry promotes a drive to win at all costs to not be considered a loser (Giroux 44). The intense nature of pageantry prevents contestants from positively interacting with others, and this inability continues for many years after pageantry days. However, even worse than the inability to develop relationships is the tremendous stress on the mother-child relationship in pageantry. This disruption confuses contestants, making them believe that they "must behave as adult females while on-stage but, once off-stage are expected to become children once again" (Robinson 347). Pageantry confuses the children and their expected maturity as well as placing tremendous pressures on such young girls. Martina Cartwright laments how the immense pressure from parents may confuse children to believe the affection of their parents depends on their success in pageantry; this leads to what psychologists call "Princess Syndrome," a strong and unhealthy emphasis on physical appearances to continue winning contests (Wolfe 436). Parental pressures often cause this imbalance of values, as many pageant contestants learn to value their appearances over education. Mothers often live vicariously through their daughters as the driving force behind pageant involvement, so when their daughters do not perform well in pageants, the loss emotionally impacts these mothers. Social worker Lois Miller described how parents attempt to force their children to perform their best, as she has "seen parents who have pinched their children for messing up their dress or not looking appropriate or not wiggling enough or not throwing kisses" (Giroux 41). These unbalanced values and immense pressures on such young girls can only lead to increased stress and confusion as they age. The competitive nature of pageantry can only harm children psychologically in their relationships with other people as well as their own families.Socially, pageantry can also be harmful. Pageantry forces the feminine stereotype and forces a subservient value upon the young girls. Pageant contestants strive to look like some ideal female figure, like a Barbie doll, and ultimately lose their own identity. Meg Gehrke elaborates on the hazards of gender stereotyping by describing how "this exchange of beauty for power is ultimately destructive to women because it results in dependency on men and lowered self-esteem and sense of self-worth" (Wolfe 438). Young girls do not know how to act naturally socially because in pageantry, they embody the most feminine ideals: sparkly dresses, long curled hair, heavy makeup, etc. Pageantry is detrimental to individual identity as well as the feminist movement because it forces upon the girls the "national identity defined by white middle-class norms" (Banet-Weiser and Portwood-Stacer 258). Pageant contestants cannot truly express themselves and are forced to conform to a preset and outdated ideal for females. Also, pageantry opens up a hazardous door to sexual exploitation. Melissa Henson of the Parents Television Council has described pageantry as "the most blatant example of sexualization of a child that I have seen" when asked about one Toddlers & Tiaras contestant who was dressed in Julia Roberts's scandalous costume from Pretty Woman (Triggs, West, and Aridillas). The American Psychological Association Task Force has warned against the sexualization of pageantry, correlating data between premature exposure to sexuality with onset eating disorders and depression (Lieberman 754). Premature exposure to scandalous costumes and provocative dance moves matures the child too early, taking away carefree years with a harsh and uncomfortable reality. As with the case of JonBenet Ramsey, a child pageant queen found murdered in her home, sparking a huge media outburst over her pageant career, children are not allowed to act their age and their parents are failing to protect them from being sexualized and commodified. This can open a door to even worse objectification and exploitation, i.e. pornography, down the line. Pageantry is simply unacceptable in the wider social scale because of the gender stereotyping and sexualization that keep young girls from simply being children.Pageantry has often been labeled a "rich man's sport" due to the immense amounts of money spent on preparing for pageants (Levey 200). This nickname is rather true, as some parents spend up to $70,000 on pageant preparation for their daughters (Lieberman 739). Most of these parents do not receive a dime of their winnings back, as they spend more on pageants than they earn. Pageant registration is often one of the major financial burdens from pageantry, as simply registering for a pageant usually costs around $1000, and registration fees are typically more than the actual prize money (Triggs, West, and Aridillas). Other parents regularly hire coaches to teach their children how to pose and perform. However, for the families that are not in the upper class, pageantry is an expensive burden that can take precedence over necessities. One pageant mother declared that she knew "people who have spent so much on pageants, they lost their trailers" (Cromie) and another described how "some families have gone into debt paying [pageant] entry fees before paying the rent" (Lieberman 745). Pageantry is an expensive sport, and sometimes its costs can hurt children later in life. A place to live is much more important than a title or crown.Some mothers often claim that pageantry has boosted the self confidence of their children as well as teaching them poise and other valuable life skills. There are several flaws to this claim. Values like sportsmanship and confidence may be what the mothers want their children to learn, but the contestants may be picking up competitive values and insecurities instead (Levey 202). Furthermore, self-esteem is not always positive. As pointed out by Henry Giroux, "Self esteem in this context means embracing rather than critically challenging a gender code that rewards little girls for their looks, submissiveness, and sex appeal" (39). These girls may be more confident, but they are only confident in artificiality and gender stereotyping which will have much more detrimental long-term effects than a boost in confidence in the short term. The claim that pageantry teaches valuable skills may be true, but the reality is that no skill learned from pageantry is as prevalent as the damaging values from these contests.Pageantry, despite its many critics, has only grown more popular as its evils are exposed. Girls are physically harmed by the preparations for pageantry as well as body distortion and even eating disorders. Psychologically, positive interaction with other children and parents is inhibited by competition and pressure. Gender stereotyping and sexualization promote an unrealistic and limiting feminine ideal, and pageantry can also be damaging through its expensive costs and financial burdens. Beauty pageants are detrimental to child development because of their prevalent negative impacts on children, destroying innocence and becoming potentially hazardous.

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