5 Reasons Why Beauty Pageants Are Destructive For Young Girls
Source: Today
The glitz and glamour of beauty pageants does splendidly at hiding the ugliness of these competitions on the surface, but reality TV shows like TLC’s “Toddlers and Tiaras” have given viewers insight into the toxicity that exists in the world of beauty pageants. No matter the amount of money rewarded to the winner, young girls should not be subjected to such a poisonous environment, and here are 5 reasons why:
Unattainable Beauty Standards
People’s Magazine Double Issue on the backlash of Toddlers & Tiaras Controversy
After watching several episodes of TLC’s “Toddlers and Tiaras”, every parent was aiming for perfection when dolling up their daughters. Every contestant must perfect hair, professional level makeup, flashy outfits, and a excessive amount of grooming to get to that point. One enhancement that is well-known in the pageant world are “flippers”. Since young children are still losing baby teeth, their gaps must be covered up by fake teeth called flippers-or they risk losing points with the judges.
What does this teach these contestants? To believe that their imperfections lessen their worth. These young girls are already so beautiful, by constantly subjecting them to pageant standards, they grow up associating one’s worth purely with their beauty. While there are other parts of pageants such as the talent portion, the majority of the competition is scored on physical looks and confidence. In order to win, it takes more than an intelligent young girl to walk confidently across the stage. The contestant must be the very picture of perfection in every way. Parents will spend 5x the prize money amount on the things that must be purchased for to prepare of the contest. So is it really worth it to compete in these pageants on the off chance your child might place?
2. Higher Susceptibility to Mental Illnesses
Parents of these pageant girls often start them so young, at an age that they can not choose for themselves. Subjecting girls to the toxic mentality of the pageant world strips them of their innocence and burdens them with problems they should never have at such a young age. Many parents claim that their daughter enjoys the pageant life, but these parents are often in denial that they are just living vicariously through their child. This kind of relationship with a parent is surely indicative of an unhealthy family life which can have a severe negative impact on one’s mental health.
An environment that projects unattainable beauty standards to young girls is sure to produce higher rates of mental illnesses. Feeling like they must reach the expectations of their parents and judges may push these young girls to a breaking point. Depression, anxiety, and eating disorders are sadly common side effects of the pageantry life.
3. Physically Harmful “Enhancements”
In order to achieve the desired level of beauty for these pageants, parents will spend hundreds of dollars (sometimes even thousands) to make sure their child looks up to their standard of perfection. These little girls are enduring spray tans, fake lashes, fake nails, uncomfortable dresses and sometimes even waxing just to compete in these competitions.
Not only is the process of getting pageant ready taxing, but these girls are not allowed to take naps or mess around in fear that they will mess up their makeup/outfit. Some parents will stuff their kids full of caffeine and sugar to keep them awake which is incredibly unhealthy.
4. Sexualization of Girls
In the TLC video clip to the left, four year old Maddy gets ready for her pageant as a Mini Dolly Parton. This episode of Toddlers and Tiaras caused a great amount of contention in the pageant world, with Maddy’s mother stuffing her daughter’s dress to emulate Dolly Parton’s vuluptious figure. In the video, the makeup artist asks Maddy “Do you like your boobies in your outfit?” to which she replies “yeah”. The makeup artist then goes on to say “I don’t think I like them”, and says “you would look just as cute without them. don’t you think so?” to which Maddy answers “No.”
This clip from Toddlers and Tiara’s shows just how distasteful pageant parents can be when dressing their children in such mature ways. The oversexualization of girls at this age teaches them that you must be beautiful and enticing to be rewarded or noticed. This can lead to serious future problems with self-esteem, and constantly seeking validation from others.
5. Long Term Effects
Long term, pageantry can have daunting effects on young girls. Self-esteem issues manifest themselves in depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Since girls are impressionable when they are young, growing up always trying to achieve a certain level of beauty can result in a very skewed perception of beauty. Our experiences as children ultimately mold the core of who we are, so for pageant girls, the loss of innocence so young is something that must be healed as an adult.
https://www.babygaga.com/7-ugly-truths-about-child-beauty-pageants/
https://capstone-viray.weebly.com/negative-effects.html
https://www.teenink.com/opinion/all/article/991429/The-Negative-Effects-of-Child-Beauty-Pageants/
https://spark.adobe.com/page/xE1Yx/
https://sites.psu.edu/childbeautypageants/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0keCRE3iik
https://highschool.latimes.com/st-lucys-priory-high-school/opinion-toddlers-and-ti%E2%80%8Baras-comeback-is-for-the-worst/
https://people.com/tv/toddlers-tiaras-controversy-are-they-growing-up-too-fast/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBhFxRHuIs4
Wonderlich AL, Ackard DM, Henderson JB. Childhood beauty pageant contestants: associations with adult disordered eating and mental health. Eat Disord. 2005 May-Jun;13(3):291-301. doi: 10.1080/10640260590932896. PMID: 16864534.
