Children's beauty pageants encourage the horrible, horrible trend that is "stage moms" and instill children with early senses of 'skin-deep' beauty and possible confidence issues that will last throughout their lives. It seems cruel, subjecting a child to something s/he has no say in, particularly something that may be damaging to the child, seemingly just for the parents' enjoyment. This lifestyle forces children to grow up far too fast, which seems like it leads to earlier experimentation with sex, drugs, et cetera, in an attempt to claim independence and relax after a life in the limelight. I don't know much on the topic, and I was (maybe) lucky that my mother turned down modeling contracts when I was young (I was so cute), so I've never experienced this myself. This is just sort of what I see. Am I wrong?
249 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Yea, I totally agree. In fact, it's never the child's wish to do this stuff, it IS the parents (the mothers) desire to give her daughter something she could never accomplish herself. Not to mention, forcing a child into beauty pageants is ingraining the sense that beauty if physical, period. I really do NOT care how much I hear that beauty pageants are about more than what people see on the surface, because I believe the bottom line is that is what they are about. Otherwise, they wouldn't be expected to walk around in damn bikini's, with high heels, tans, overdone make-up, and a super toned body. Good way to ingrain a low sense of self-worth (because most of them will develop eating disorders, amongst an addiction to everything requiring the necessity of physical beauty). They should definitely ban them. Or just get rid of them. Parents are more and more destroying their child's abilities to have a real "childhood," and it's getting ridiculous every decade that they come up with more things to make a child "grow up fast."
249 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Being a lover of freedom, I would never argue that beauty pageants be banned (though I would argue they are detrimental to society). But child beauty pageants are an entirely different can of worms. Many parents enter their children before they are even school-age; the decision can in no way be considered autonomous. Some parents will bring children into the pageant world as babies, thus they never know a world and culture that does not prioritize winning and beauty. Children are made to wear false teeth over their own, to get spray tans, to diet, and to practice ridiculous routines for these elaborate shows. The worst part is that when a child does not win, the stereotypical show-mom will either demonstrate her disappointment or disparage the winning child. The only good thing I could see coming from these pageants would be a lesson in grace and dignity in competition (a lesson that can be taught in MANY different competitive arenas). If that is lost, really there is less than nothing left.
248 days ago | Tagged As: yes
If you put your child in a beauty pageant, you aren't fit to be a parent. They should be banned.
248 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Those crazy parents should be banned. (; But yeah I think an education should play a bigger part in ones childhood than obsessing over competitive glamor. And beauty should not be a competition.
248 days ago | Tagged As: yes
The 50 word rule be damned...the answer is YES! They should be banned and the parents should be severely rebuffed.
247 days ago | Tagged As: yes
If you've even seen the commercials for that TLC show "Toddlers & Tiaras", you can tell that these things suck for the kids and the parents are insane. BANNED!!!
244 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Why do they exist!.. They purely promote fake beauty. Why is beauty being judged.. and that of a child! Why are we allowing it. Bringing up a child in this environment is completely wrong. Those that do so should have their children removed from them, or shouldnt be allowed to have any in the first place. Not that I adhere to press hysteria, claims they are everywhere, but suggestive poses of children in photographs...that no doubt will end up on the internet, well those that condone these pageants would be the first to protest at just the thought of a paedophile taking advantage of this such material. Organisers should be protested against, Egged and press hounded until this awful thick makeup coated regime gets pushed into the sea.
244 days ago | Tagged As: yes
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Beauty has always been praised in our society, so pageants are natural. The children have a choice. Many of them grow out of beauty pageants and decide to quit. A lot of little girls like the dress up and attention aspects. Yes, judgment is harsh, but it's not anything they won't be exposed to sooner rather than later.
248 days ago | Tagged As: No
In child beauty pageants, the girls don't have a choice. They're usually 8 year old girls who are forced to go on outrageous diets and even go to tanning salons in order to be fit for these pageants. See the movie "Little Miss Sunshine". It's like that, but take out the comedy and add the drama from "Jesus Camp".
248 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Tanning salons are 18+ So unless the parents own their own then the children get spray tans. That's why they're so orange. And I don't know the validity of the diets thing. Most upper class children don't eat at fast food as much as the lower class. Lower class families don't have the money to do pageants, so it's mostly only upper class. Children live active lives, and if they eat well, good. I think the diets might be a bonus in the fight against childhood obesity. No one wants to see a stick thin child, not even pageant people. I own little miss sunshine. It's a cute movie, but she's an eccentric kid. She's the type that quits pageantry. Others might like it more. It's not like forcing religion on a child. The child can say, no!
248 days ago | Tagged As: No
1. It doesn't matter. Parents do it anyway. 2. The diets are done unhealthily. Little kids, especially the ones forced into pageants, are supposed to have a certain amount of fat. the parents diet them to a point where they have an unhealthy amount of body fat. 3. I wasn't referring to the girl herself, i was referring to the other girls in the show. 4. A child can say no, but parents in general don't respond to a child's no... seriously, how many parents say "eat your dinner" and then when the kid says no all of a sudden they just let off.
248 days ago | Tagged As: yes
I disagree vehemently on the issue of children having choice. Pageants allow babies to compete, and clearly babies cannot be seen as having choice in the matter. And even for children who are of an age that they can have a choice, still parents are pushy. They force them to practice, to get those ridiculous tans, or the fake teeth. I've watched many documentaries/specials about child pageants, and one theme that is consistent is that kids don't enjoy that aspect of pageantry. And yet their parents (read: mothers) make them. As for the dieting being a bonus in the fight against obesity? Absurd. There's no doubt that childhood obesity is a growing epidemic, but dieting is always dangerous. It may just be that I'm hung up on the word "diet" here, because there is nothing wrong with having children eat healthy, and in fact every parent (as well as school) ought to see that they do. But diet connotates low-fat foods and calorie counting, neither of which looks at the big picture. Fat is fine. Calories are fine. It's all about proportion and activity-level.
247 days ago | Tagged As: yes
I agree with you, average children shouldnt go on diets in the regime sense, but they should bave good diets That's why I specified that no one wants to see super skinny children. Babies don't have an opinion. They like the attention, and they just get paraded around. Babies don't care. Children have as much of a choice about this activity as they any other. Children play soccer, get tutors, et cetera. Parents want their children doing something. If they really really don't want to do it, the child can voice that. If you dont know how annoying a little girl can get when you're making her do something she doesn't want to, the you have not been to the second circle of hell. That's how annoying they can get. The girls can throw the pageants, mess their hair up, et cetera. Ps the teeth are fake, the tans are spray on.
247 days ago | Tagged As: No
Again, it's the word diet that throws me off. Diet has bad connotations. Eating right and being healthy is fine, but should not be confined to pageants and should DEFINITELY NOT be done for the specific goal of the pageant. Regardless of whether or not babies care, the point is that children are in pageants against their will. Ha! Having been a tutor, I can guarantee most of the kids I tutored had no choice in the matter. I think the point isn't that children despise pageants and are forced to do them, but rather that they are manipulated into them by their parents. "Ps the teeth are fake, the tans are spray on." Yes, I've pointed that out. And that the children do not enjoy these aspects of the pageant world.
247 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know that the wathcing of countless documentaries made you an expert on the subject. You have no idea how those girls feel. Some girls do pageants from the time they are babies until they are 23 or more. They obviously didn't hate it!! Tutoring is forced upon the children, so children shouldn't be tutored? Oh, and I'm sorry you don't understand the difference between and diet and a diet. That's your problem, not mine.
247 days ago | Tagged As: No
"Some girls do pageants from the time they are babies until they are 23 or more. They obviously didn't hate it!!" That's not a necessary conclusion. They could very well have hated it, but been convinced to do it for the money. Which, if we're being honest, is the main reason parents involve their children in pageants in the first place. And who gets that money? Clearly not the 18-month old who won it. "Tutoring is forced upon the children, so children shouldn't be tutored?" I didn't say that. I was merely drawing attention to the fact that your example sucked. Just because kids are involved in other activities doesn't mean their parents aren't forcing them. Involvement in an activity doesn't necessitate desire to do that activity. But I would make the case that pageants ought not be forced. "Oh, and I'm sorry you don't understand the difference between and diet and a diet." I'm not quite sure what the difference between and diet and a diet is. Or even what the hell "and diet" is.
247 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Yea, seriously, I agree with the other guys against you... you're not understanding the psychology of entering a child into this stuff. You're making it all seem so simple-minded; 'they have a choice, and if they do it for 20 years, they MUST LIKE IT!" Doesn't work that way. They could've been doing it for so long because they weren't given the opportunity to realize there's more to life than pageants. They could also have been threatened into remaining in pageants, as well as, manipulated, and/or on a contract. I posted a debate a month ago about a kid that was actually like 12 or something, that didn't want to do western medicine methods of curing his cancer. His parents agreed with him, or perhaps actually just convinced him to agree that he shouldn't get it done the western way. Either way, his parents got the upper hand... and unfortunately, the government had the upper hand against all of them. Point being, any child can say what they want, but if you're under 18, it's going to happen the way your parents want it to happen, period.
247 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Actually one does not have to be 18 to tan. In many local tanning salons all that is required is a parent guardian signiture. You also stated that pageant people dont want to be stick thin? Then how come weight and apperance is on the scoring grid of a child beauty pagent. The child can say no but the crazy pagent moms are the ones living through them. How many times when you were under ten talked back to your parents?
74 days ago | Tagged As: yes
um, I read down this long list of replies and counter replies to your arguement, and I have to say that you are missing something here. 1. kids that young don't want much of anything but to play, and if they seem to want to do a pageant, I promise it is only for the positive attention their parents give them as a result, and not out of any true desire to go through with the actual act. That's like child psychology -101, whatever the most basic possible level is. To continue on that theme. There are plenty of ways to give children this positive attention they are looking for, without teaching them the oh so valuable lesson of vanity. 2. Ask yourself why anyone would want to watch little girls, dressed up like big girls, trying to look pretty... Aha! you starting to see now? These pageants are a den of pedophilia, and any parent who is not mentally ill or a pedophile themselves would know this. These parents are sick one way or another, and these pageants need to be outlawed.
247 days ago | Tagged As: yes
I have been doing beauty pageants since I was 2 months old. My Daughter now does pageants too. I am a 22 year mother who couldn't be prouder of her pageant daughter. You really have to think from a pageant mom's side before posting something on-line. Nothing ever happened to me and pageants gave me confidence as a young child. My 2 year old daughter does pageants because she loves them. THE DAY SHE TELLS ME "MOMMY, NO MORE" IT WILL BREAK MY HEART AND I WILL PROBABLY HAVE A HEART ATTACK, BUT IT WILL BE THE LAST PAGEANT SHE WILL DO!
234 days ago | Tagged As: No
You've taken a perfectly legitmate debate and turned it into down vote heaven simply because you disgree with those who disagree! We don't do things like here. It's known a karma bombing and no one is going to put up with it.
230 days ago | Tagged As: yes
Are you for real about this ( I get the sense that you are joking) If:for real - then: Does your kid often times win? - if she dosent, does she still find it fun to take part? - Dont you think that your kid has more important skills to spend her time and energy learning (especially if she has won a few times)? - Does it not worry you that although she is gaining confidence - that confidence might setup a false sense of achivement and that she will get used to things falling into her lap without making an effort (for lets face it: being in a beuty pagent takes little effort and no earned skill - only a "skill"/gift that you are born with) Last but not least: Do you find nothing wrong with a two year old defining herself first and foremost on prepped up outer looks?
230 days ago | Tagged As: yes
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