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Beauty Pageants

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Beauty Pageants
Child beauty pageants are known all around the world. They are advertised through magazines and reality shows. The young girls are marked up to be someone they are not. They resemble Barbie dolls with the fake lashes, fake boobs, fake nails, the pounds of makeup, spray tans, hoops, fake hair extensions, flashy and not age appropriate costumes. I am personally not a fan of the child beauty pageants for several reasons. I feel as though the children are being robbed of their childhood. The young girls should not be looked at in heels and a crop top. It is completely and utterly inappropriate. Many of the girls are forced into these pageants. Child beauty pageants are a form of child abuse and should be stopped. The young girls involved in child beauty pageants have an image in their heads that beauty consists of fakeness. Girls at the age of two are strutting around stages with seductive costumes. “Teaching young girls a very narrow version of beauty, transforming their bodies so that their beauty can be measured and judged, or to use their sexualized bodies to earn money for the family is disgusting.” Girls have a hard enough time with dealing with self esteem and living up to certain standards that they do not need to think that spray tanning your skin and wearing loads of makeup make you beautiful. “The toxic culture of the pageant world, the judging of beauty, is confusing to young children who have not reached emotional- intellectual milestones of understanding reality and competition.” Natural beauty is a topic that should be stressed and taught to these girls. These child beauty pageants are not just emotionally harmful but they are also dangerous to these young females. The procedures that some of these contestants go through to win is mind blowing. “When you add to this the chemically dangerous spray tans, butt glue, eyelash glue, hairspray, and cosmetics applied to these tiny, developing bodies, it is not a stretch to say these pageant programs are


Cited: Page 1. Cartwright, Martina M. "Food For Thought." Child Beauty Pageants: What Are We Teaching Our Girls? N.p., 12 Aug. 2011. Web. 22 Nov. 2012. . 2. Sengupta, Saptakee. "Beauty Pageants for Children." Buzzle.com. Buzzle.com, 03 Sept. 2010. Web. 22 Nov. 2012. . 3. Russell, Maranda. "Children in Beauty Pageants - Is It a Bad Idea?" Examiner.com. N.p., 5 Jan. 2011. Web. 22 Nov. 2012. . 4. Schultz, Kristen, and Ann Pleshette Murphy. "Beauty Pageants Draw Children and Criticism." ABC News. ABC News Network, 24 Feb. 0000. Web. 22 Nov. 2012. .

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