Child Beauty Pageants

[Lace Neil Singer]

Posting this so as not to derail the other thread. XD

Personally, they creep me out. Basically, these are children, little girls aged between five and twelve, who are being dressed as adults... and not just regular adults either. They're being given fake tans, hair extensions, ball gowns, high heels and their faces coated in makeup to make them look like beauty queens. They're being made to look much older than they are, and are being sexualised in a disgusting way. Little girls can be made to feel pretty without having to dress like whores and wear more makeup than a room full of drag queens.

Pros and Cons of Child Beauty Pageants

[DesignFox]

I was waiting for this to come up.

I second that it's creeeeeeepy.

And yes, I agree with the comments over on Yahoo that it is pretty damaging to the kids involved. One of them mentioned that show I referenced in the other thread. Until I had seen the show, I never knew how involved and expensive those things got.

It makes me sick to see the way some of the mothers treat their children, too. I mean, shouldn't we be striving to keep them young and innocent for longer? Rather than sexing our little girls up and encrouraging them to be street walkers? I don't get it!

[tabbyblack13]

I will be honest. The pageant crowd scares me. I am also worried about some of the children are growing up with that life style. What type of person will be child be? I can understand doing it for the money too but the amount of money that the parents put in is tremendous.

[tropicsgoddess]

I think it's beyond ridiculous to have such a young child do something like that.

[fireheart17]

There are three things that stand out for me...

1) The whole "prostitots" culture. Basically, being forced to dress up as something older than you really are. (Someone had the term prostitots over on Facebook)
2) Creepy indeed. Also a good breeding ground for paedophiles. Not only is it a kid, it's a kid that looks like an adult...
3) They're usually sexist as well. Do you ever see young boys competing for that sort of thing? Uhhh no.

[Nyoibo]

I use the term prostitots all the time.

[Flyndaran]

...
2) Creepy indeed. Also a good breeding ground for paedophiles. Not only is it a kid, it's a kid that looks like an adult...
...

I'm pretty sure that is way overblown.
They won't just let any non-parent into shows.
Besides, pedophiles like children to look like children. Isn't that kind of the point?

[Lace Neil Singer]

There's also the fact that these girls are being brought up to believe that the only thing worth having in life is good looks and being sexy. For a teenager, that's bad enough but for a five year old? It's just disgusting, and like fireheart said, encouraging pedophiles.

Some of these mothers are insane. They spend vast amounts of money on their daughter's fake tan, makeup, dresses, cosmetic surgery etc, money that would be better spent on the rest of the family. They bitch at the other mothers and encourage their little darling to see the other entrants in a negative way. They throw a fit if their daughter dares to put on a pound, and push them to diet and exercise at an age where kids should not be worrying about that as a general rule.

They make excuses like "Little Susie loves to perform!" and "Pageants teach Susie all about self esteem and she makes lots of friends!" when it's really all about them living thru their kids. In any case, it's bollocks. Little Susie could just as easily attend ballet classes in order to perform and make friends.

[Boozy]

Besides, pedophiles like children to look like children. Isn't that kind of the point?

I agree. I don't see child pageants appealing to pedophiles. But then, I'm not one and don't know any, so I'm just guessing.

My problem with these pageants is that they force kids into the nastiness of the real world at too young an age. Children have an entire lifetime of being judged by their looks ahead of them (sadly, that is the world we live in). But most very young children don't think like that yet, and we should strive to maintain that innocence as long as possible.

[powerboy]

They are creepy.

[McDreidel09]

As Lace pointed out, it can be damaging to the rest of the family.

Case in point: I was watching Wife Swap where one family had a daughter in beauty pageants and she was just a kid. They had another daughter, whom they claimed "was not cut out for it." All over the house, they had trophies and crowns from the "beauty" daughter. There was nothing to indicate that there was another daughter in the house. The sister had to put up with mommy spending money on her sister and getting the raw end of the deal. When the new mommy told the girl she had to put her beauty pageant stuff in storage and be a normal girl, the girl was not happy. She was not allowed to be catered to, as she was used to.

I love how they say that their almost three year old loves to do this and they chose it when they were only a few months old. No. You chose it for her. This child has no idea what she is really doing. All she knows is that she is dressed up and paraded around like some piece of furniture or show dog and treated oh so special.

What happens when these girls grow up and have to face the ugly truth? There is not much of a career in pageantry. If you make it to Miss America, that is only for a year and after that, you are basically a nobody. I don't know anyone who can name off any Miss Americas, except for the ones who go caught up in scandal.

[Flyndaran]

The horrors of that scenario could just as easily involve parents doting over one child for sports, academics, or anything really.

[Slytovhand]

One of my co-workers has a poster of Miley Cyrus up on his desk wall....

[Lace Neil Singer]

http://video.stv.tv/bc/entertainment...-child-pagent/

Take a look. I also recently read a story in a magazine about a woman who was, as she admitted, living her dreams of being a model thru her daughter by entering her in beauty pagents. She also talked about how cuz her dreams of modeling were, as she put it, crushed by her parents, she was going to get her daughter to be a beauty queen. It was actually a bit frightening reading about this woman glibly explaining away her obsession with living thru her daughter and claiming that entering pagents was actually good for her daughter.

I'd say that anything that makes a parent do this to her child, be it sports, beauty pagents, music etc is very bad for the child. True, some children show promise in certain areas, but to push them too hard is just as damaging as not encouraging them. And beauty pagents give children all the wrong ideas; telling them that in order to be successful, all they need is to look good; focusing on their weight at the wrong age; giving them an attitude that winning is everything; encouraging them to be spoiled and to be nasty to other entrants.

Another link to read; after all, no discussion on child beauty queens would be complete without it. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...et-Ramsey.html