Negative Effects of Beauty Pageants
By: Anayeli Yasmeen Gonzalez
Effects on Confidence
Little girls and women in beauty pageants are required to dress up. They get their hair, nails, and makeup done. It doesn't matter what age they are. Always dressing up and wearing so much make is bad. Especially for the little girls. A psychologist at Northwestern University said, " Being a little Barbie doll says your body has to be a certain way and your hair has to be a certain way." This means that they are so used to wearing so much makeup and all the clothes they feel that if they are not wearing certain clothes they don't look pretty. They start feeling insecure about the way they look. In an article, "The Ugly Truth to Child Beauty Pageants" by Claire Lindsey, it says that all the preparation for the beauty pageants teaches little girls and women that "their looks are what matters". For young girls they grow up thinking that and adults live their rest of their life like that.
Psychological Dangers of Beauty Pageants
Beauty Pageants have many psychological risks on women and young girls. One of them is that it causes many eating disorders. Girls and women want to look a certain way, so they turn to anorexia and bulimia to achieve the 'perfect look'. Pageants also are very stressful on girls, It doesn't matter how old they are, the stress is always there. Th causes of the stress is all the practices and preparation for the actual beauty pageants. They are constantly preparing for the pageants and contests they rarely have any time to themselves. This is especially harmful to the younger girls involved in pageants.
Beauty Pageants
Overall, pageants have many negative side effects on women and little girls. They have effects on confidence. It also has harmful psychological effects. These effects are long term and remain with them until they grow up.
Works Cited
"Beauty Pageants - Are They Crossing the Red Line On Morality? [analysis]." Africa News Service 7 Feb. 2014. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
"Ending the Hypersexualization of Girls." Christian Science Monitor. 19 Sep. 2013: N.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
Lindsey, Claire. "The Ugly Truth to Child Beauty Pageants." Uloop. N.p., 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2014.
Nussbaum, Kareen. "Children and Beauty Pageants." Children and Beauty Pageants. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
Williams, Zinzi. "Beauty Pageants and Its Effects on Children." N.p., 6 Dec. 2010. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.