Should Kids Be In Beauty Pageants?
Are they fun.....Or just torture?
A Little About Child Beauty Pageants
Child beauty pageants have been around since 1921. They were temporarily banned though because of the Great Depression, from 1929-1932. Since then, they have started back up and now becoming a major problem, between just wanting to be skinnier to toddlers having eating disorders. Some people say child beauty pageants are good. They help children with their speaking skills, boosts their confidence levels, and are just harmless fun. On the other hand, you also have to consider that almost NO scientists or doctors said that beauty pageants are good. Sure, young girls like dressing up, but when they're made to wear fake teeth, spray tanner, and eyeliner, it sort of defeats the purpose of the word "fun."
Competitions Bring Prizes But Also Major Problems
- Over the past 10 years there's been a 270% increase in the number of hospitalized girls because of eating disorders
- Pageant girls are 60% more likely to go on a diet before the age of 10
- Studies show that half of the girls that compete are unhappy with their size and have or will go on a diet
The Girls Are Mostly There Because of Their Parents
- Martina M. Cartwright, a registered dietitian, has attended 2 child beauty pageants and says most kids are there to satisfy their parents' needs.
- The parents want, and will, get more social status, self esteem, and money
- The parents enter the girls because their pride and satisfaction get achieved when their child participates
~All approved and said by Martina M. Cartwright, Ph. D and RD
Studies Show Almost Nothing Good About Child Beauty Pageants
- Chantal Jouanno, a senator and former sports administrator, says "the girls were disguised as sexual candy in a competition over appearance, beauty and seduction."
- According to Travis Stork of CBS’s The Doctors, hair spray contains chemicals that can act as hormone disruptors, and have been linked to stunted growth and even lung cancer.
- A study has shown that, "Many pageant parents attributed their daughters' higher self-esteem to pageantry, the high self-esteem was mostly true for girls who won the pageants. Girls who lost more than they won had lower levels of self-esteem."