Child Beauty Pageants: Delusion Creating Machines

According to the Urban dictionary pageants are “a public entertainment consisting of a procession of people in elaborate, colourful costumes, or an outdoor performance of a historical scene” or “a beauty contest.” Child beauty pageants specifically, are beauty contests for girls under the age of sixteen. These contests include categories such as talents, interviews as well as costume and theme wear e.g. swimwear, western wear, outfit of choice and so on. The industry has grown very fast and it includes about 250,000 pageants every year. It is an extremely profitable business, bringing in about twenty billion dollars a year to the owners of these competitions.

But is it really okay for young girls to compete in these beauty pageants?

Since the first official beauty pageant was held in 1854 by entrepreneur P.T. Barnum a variety of pageants have been held all around the world on different grounds, for different people, at different ages. Amongst the well-known pageants of the world are Miss World, Miss Universe and bigger national contests like Miss America.

From the beginning of beauty pageants a controversy has spiraled around the contests with people questioning the extreme sexualization and bad effects it has on women's perception of beauty. Not to mention the antifeministic and sexist picture that beauty pageants have painted ever since they started. In an article in the New York Times about first Miss America winner, Margaret Gorman, a reporter comments on her “well deserved win” stating, “She represents the type of womanhood America needs; strong, red-blooded, able to shoulder the responsibilities of home-making and motherhood. It is in her type that the hope of the country resides.”

Back when the contests started this might have made sense in the man-ruled society, but now, almost 200 years later, the same pageants are being held with little to no change. Of course there has been some alterations and many of the contests claim to emphasize on “inner beauty” rather than just looks, but everyone knows that isn't the case. Now, while the contestants in the bigger, international pageants are 18+, and technically old enough to make the decision to enter the competition, there are a lot of pageants that do not require their contestants to be “adults”, in fact many of them are specifically designed for young children.

If you think about the legitimates of it, there should be nothing wrong with a little friendly competition with the guidance of parents in hope to win some money for their children’s future. However, there are a lot of aspects to the pageants that can easily get in the way of a safe, confidence-boosting experience for these young girls.

Super sexualisation

One of the biggest problems of these kinds of contest is the super sexualisation. Most parents behind the beauty pageants are willing to do anything they possibly can to win and spend approximately $9,000 on a single pageant. This is all done to make the girls look their best. They are dressed up and styled to look like barbies, but really look a lot more like miniature hookers. Contestants are always wearing full face makeup, fake eyelashes, flippers and hair extensions. It is also very common to send the girls to spray tanning and even waxing for the bikini contests. TV shows like Toddlers and Tiaras have made a lot of people concerned about little girls being shown as “sex objects on stage”. The children are forced to wear revealing and provoking clothes and then taught dirty dance moves to impress the judges. They are taught to preen and strut in order to look sexy.

They really emphasise sexualised behaviours which is totally inappropriate for young girls. When it has come to this stage; having a seven-year-old look a lot more like a 17-year-old, it is apparent that something has gone wrong. Making a child look like a hooker has become the norm instead of an exception. Not is this just all wrong making a child look this way but also can it affect a child’s mentality. Sexualisation makes the crucial task of developing a sense of sexual identity more difficult for young girls. Research has also shown that sexualisation of children can affect children’s body image, physical health and emotional development. It is obvious that these pageants are not about “who is the cutest baby”, but rather about adult competition, presenting kids pretending to be sexy adults. Beauty pageants really blur the line between what is cute and what is sensual.

Self image

Self image is a big problem today, especially with social media being such a big part of our lives. Beauty pageants are a big part of this problem and is making it even worse. Beauty pageants can cause a lot of mental problems. It must be hard on a seven-year-old to be constantly judged only based on her looks. Countless of experts agree that participation of children in activities that focus mainly on physical appearance can have a great impact on a teen or an adult body image and self-esteem. (Martina M. Cartwright. Phsycology Today. 2011). In these contests the young girls are made up like Barbie dolls. Clearly, natural beauty is not enough to win a beauty pageant. They need to go through a massive makeover in order to meet the judges’ requirements of beauty and looks. The message the children get from the judges is that in order to be liked, they need to look beautiful. It is very interesting to think about why a parent would want to send their child to a competition like this.

These contests have often little to do with the children and much more to do with satisfying the mother. Many psychologists and social workers believe that many mothers sign their daughters up for beauty pageants because of their own low self-esteem or use it as a way to compensate their perceived lack of attention and admiration in their lives. (Rick Nauert. Psych Central. 2018). The famous TV show Toddlers and Tiaras is a great example where we can see that mothers are more into the pageants than their children who are competing. The mothers experience pride and joy through their child’s achievements.

This is also very common with parents who are failed athlete superstars. And as a result, many girls feel like they have let their parents down by losing. But this can also cause many other problems in a child’s life. The constant beauty admiration can cause unrealistic expectations to be pretty, thin and physically beautiful. If a child is constantly winning a competition that is mainly based on her looks, she is more likely to be struggling with psychological problems later in life. Issues with self-identity in a girl’s teens are very common after competing in beauty pageants.

Girls often struggle with all kinds of problems all from image obsession to eating disorders. Eating disorders, depression, anxiety and body dissatisfaction are growing problems in our society and beauty pageants are making these problems even worse. The message girls get from adults is that a woman’s worth is based primarily on her looks. This is a total misconception that needs to be corrected. Girls keep driving towards the unattainable goal of physical perfection. Thinking you need to be pretty, thin or beautiful physically to be accepted by the world is delusional.