Imagine living in a world where life revolves around spray tans, botox, fake eyelashes, and young girls walk around in inappropriate outfits. Most girls are pressured to be perfect in the society of beauty pageants. Many of the children’s parents are making their children grow up too fast. These parents pressuring their children can lead to bad communication skills, as well as bad relationships. Children are focusing on their beauty and not their education, or relationships. Beauty pageants have a negative effect on female adolescents, because of low self esteem, children growing up too fast, and beauty enhancements performed on young girls.
Self esteem and and bad relationships are effects on girls from participating in beauty pageants. Many young girls are also taught that they’re beauty is the most important thing. Furthermore many young girls have low self esteem from watching and competing in beauty pageants. According to psychologists, it is unhealthy for girls to watch and compete in pageants. For example the television show, “Toddlers and Tiaras” teaches young vulnerable girls that beauty is
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In many situations authors of these databases witness many times that the mothers are not given a break because they believe their daughters have to stay flawless. According to Cartwright, there have been many situations where mothers are putting a lot of pressure on their daughters to look and act like an adult, as well as teaching them that beauty is what matters most not what's on the inside. She has also witnessed parents chastising their kids for a bad performance, or not looking enthused and flawless. Cartwright also wrote that these pageants could lead to eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and stress. Children are also sleep deprived and parents refuse a rest or break. The parents usually give them candy, soda, caffeine just too keep them awake (Child Beauty
The article, Toddlers and Tiaras written by Skip Hollandsworth first came about in the August 2011 issue of Good Housekeeping. The article tells us about the world of child pageantry and attempts to convince the readers that the girls participating are being exploited and hypersexualized on stage. He also suggests that some parents are to blame referring to the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls quoting “...parents who put their daughters in pageants can contribute “in very direct and concrete ways” to “the precocious sexualization” of their daughters (Hollandsworth 493). The author uses imagery, professional references, and shadowing the pageant world to put this article together and give the readers
It’s an argument we’ve all heard before and there are more than a few books that have tackled the subject. But what’s different from even the last three years is just how widespread the media has become. Today’s teens spend an average of 10 hours and 45 minutes absorbing media in just one day, which includes the amount of time spent watching TV, listening to music, watching movies, reading magazines and using the internet. This is a generation that’s been raised watching reality TV – observing bodies transformed on Extreme Makeover; faces taken apart and pieced back together on I Want a Famous Face. They are, as Tina Fey puts it, bombarded by "a laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful.”
She 's also a pageant mom: Her eldest daughter is currently going through the Miss America circuit process. Lee prefers natural pageants, not only for aesthetic and philosophical reasons, but financial. "It is outrageous!" Lee says of the glitz pageants, which are popular in her city. "I live in a military area, and military parents don 't make a lot of money."
The 1950’s was a very controversial time specially for woman, during that era they symbolized the traditional gender roles; housewife’s, submissive and conservative. Surprisingly, Marilyn Monroe, Barbie and beauty pageants became very popular even though they challenged the image of an ideal woman at the time by portraying more beauty and sexuality. These icons symbolized various messages while still upholding some of the traits that dominated that era. The beauty pageants portrayed various messages regarding woman’s beauty and sexuality a very dominant one was the qualifications to be considered a candidate for Miss America.
Societal pressures such as unrealistic beauty standards fetter teen girls and women
Unfortunately, this generations idles and figures have been misconstrued. Reality TV stars have become role models for many young girls. Young girls have come with the idea that in order to be beautiful they can just throw their body around, get surgery, or do something little to become famous. To many times I have seen little girls dressing much older than they are so that they can look like the girls on the reality shows. These are big problems within our generation and I would love to be able to address these.
In “Toddlers in Tiaras” there is a wide variety of concepts discussed and Hollandsworth's opinion on any of them is relatively cut and dry as he provides commentary on the events of the article in a way that is easy to decipher if the context is understood. Hollandsworth’s thesis idea can be stated as such - The pageant industry pulls in mothers and daughters alike with the allure of fame and fortune using various avenues such as toy production and media coverage. These little girls are plunged into an expensive world of neuroticism and are coaxed into semi-sexual performances for judges who determine their self-worth - whether they enjoy what they do or not, it is an extremely damaging environment for these girls to be in. The mothers of these pageant girls are subconsciously pushing them to live a life they wanted for themselves and this vicarious relationship leads to an array of lifelong trauma and experience that has been shown to impact past pageant stars as well. This thesis idea can be split up into a few different themes that correlate to the essential message - sexualization, popularization, and socialization.
Skip Hollandsworth’s “Toddlers in Tiaras” argues the negative effects of participating in beauty pageants for young girls. Hollandsworth supported his argument through the use of the following techniques: narratives, testimonies, logical reasoning, appeals to emotion, facts, and an objective tone that attempts to give him credibility. These techniques are used to help persuade his audience of the exploitation of young girls in beauty pageants and the negative effects that pageants will have on their lives. Hollandsworth begins his article with how a typical beauty pageant runs and describes the multiple steps Eden Wood, a pageant contestant, goes through in order to get ready for a competition (490).
Whether it be in the workplace or walking down the street there is always going to be more pressure and judgment being focused on women than men. Why is this? Gender plays a big role on the reflection of our identities to society. We have been brought to believe that there are certain ways men and women should and should not act, dress and talk. These social norms do not just apply to what is acceptable in regards to public safety but rather, it is used as a way to control and evaluate behavior.
The topic of self confidence is a subject that is heavily discussed when it comes to girls of all ages. Journalist, Stephanie Hanes, examines the current trend of sexualization amongst young girls. In the article “Little Girls or Little Women: The Disney Princess Effect”, Hanes examines the current trend of sexualization amongst girls. She addresses the issue of desiring to become a women too soon. Hanes develops her article by using the literary techniques of pathos and logos to describe the emotions young girls feel when they see images of women with unattainable features.
People of all ages throughout the years are very familiar with the concept of Disney movies. Some notable classics of Disney are “Beauty and the Beast” which was released in 1991 and “The Little Mermaid” which was released in 1989. Among the children, the Disney princesses left a good impression on them like Cinderella from “Cinderella”, Pocahontas from “Pocahontas”, and Mulan from “Mulan”. However, many believe that Disney movies serve as a good influence to young audiences but people should know that Disney also has its flaws. Disney have showed negative portrayals of Disney princesses in their films especially when it comes to their usual unattainable beauty ideal and portraying their princesses as inferior to men.
As a little girl you are encouraged to be who you want to be. You fill your world with fairy tales or Barbie dolls that inspire you to believe that the sky is the limit. But little do you know, that as you grow older, the dreams you are forging for yourself is no longer achievable. Where you once saw the sky as the limit is now transformed to be seen as a man’s word as the limit. No little girl, you are not liberated nor are you empowered…you are simply propagated by a man’s world to believe that you are.
Many now wonder if competing in beauty pageants adversely affect a child’s development. Beauty pageants deprive children of their confidence and childhoods because they lower girls self esteem, they force children to look and
Meaghan Ramsey's TED Talk "Why thinking you're ugly is bad for you" is a powerful speech about low body confidence. Ramsey talks about how society's pressure to be perfect is one of the main reason for young girls' (and boys') low body confidence and how these feelings of low esteem can impact their lives and futures. I chose to analyze this speech because I have experienced low body confidence and I have felt those feelings of low self-esteem. In Meaghan Ramsey's speech "Why thinking you're ugly is bad for you", she discusses how low body confidence is undermining academic achievement, damaging health, and limiting the economic potential of today's youth who are growing up in a world of social media. Ramsey has a strong start to her speech, using a photo and a story about her niece to gain the attention of the audience.
Beauty pageants have a negative effect on young female children because