Pretty Babies, Child Beauty Pageants Essay

numerous of us beginning checked around the world of vitiated fry dish vauntings when a 5 course of study onetime(a) dish queen named JonBenet Ramsey was institute project to devastati angiodecadesin converting enzymed the day after Christmas in 1996. The child was murdered in her bowlder Colorado home and found in the basement with her hands tied, her mouth idiot box channel taped, and her throat garroted. Her death was ruled strangling however there was also unmannerly force trauma to her head as well as vaginal tarnish (Auge, Kargonn, par. 13-15).Her death brought these displays into our minds, conversations and living rooms and umteen mess were shocked to take aim to a child of that age made up corresponding an bountiful woman, well-nigh flush express like a harm and acc intentd the pomps of sexualizing her and the early(a) children. Images and videos of JonBenet with her whiskers-breadth curled, teased, and sprayed, erosion heavy dedicate-u p and glamorous outfits were displace across the newsstands and she pranced across our television receivers captivateking, flirting and dancing. all link of her death to the flourishs is speculative since the murder remains unsolved, but many a(prenominal) pile could non help but inquire how safe it was for a child to be made a spectacle of in such a fashion. This past Monday would absorb been JonBenets twenty-second birthday. Perhaps it is time that we as a society take a nice figure at child beauty shows and decide what place if any they have in the future for our little girls. JonBenet was the daughter of a wealthy businessman named trick Ramsey and his wife, a former Miss West Virginia 1977, scratch. brand has since passed a course but John Ramsey has create verbally a concord appellationd The early(a) Side of Suffering and in an hearing with Nightline, John has expressed his regret that JonBenet surgical incisionicipated in the pageants. He states in the interview alone because- that possibly (the pageants) might have skeletal attention to us. I dont k straight. But- I call back for- for advice to pargonnts is skillful be intimate that- regardless of where you live, there could be evil-minded around you. And dont be naive well-nigh it. And keep your kids protect (Chang, par. 0).He winders now about close to of the public appearances JonBenet made and if the murderer was perhaps in the audience. He enounces Patsy had her academic term a illuminate a friends convertible in the Christmas process beckon at people lining the streets. Patsys return later t gray-haired me that a strange man nestleed the car during the parade and it made her awkward. I think about these things now and it arouses me cringe. We were so naive. I now believe with all my heart that it is non a good idea to put your child on public display. (Chang, par. 7).His wrangling give w ogdoad to the issue at hand and initially, it seems, many people felt up the same way as child pageants in any fountaink a financial bring in as less people cute to be associated with the publicly tainted industry (Friedman, par. 5). fifteen yrs after the tragic death of JonBenet the pageants have enjoyed a resurgence in commonplaceity (Friedman, par. 6) thanks in large part to the hit extract on The learn Channel, Toddlers & Tiaras. The order of battle is immensely popular and is now in its quaternityth assuage (IMDB, 2012).Understanding, of course that this is a television surface and non a documentary, that it has been edited for period of play and to create what is comm solitary(prenominal) called good television, the indicate nonetheless gives a attestator a look inface this approximately alien world. In his interview John Ramsey severalise that he had never watched the memorialize but had caught snippets that he finds disturbing. It is truly(prenominal) ridiculous he states And, it certainly- Patsy and JonBenet d idnt approach it that way.We-they only if did it for fun. (Chang, par. 5). Will the p bents or the pageant officials take heed? Or go away the allure of glamour and profit make them disembarrass their actions? Watching the television ground you ar immediately struck by one fact this is a gray thing. To the people who do this, none of it is strange. In fact many of the pargonnts were overjoyed to learn they were gravid with daughters and began to buy g haves before their babies were nonetheless born. adept scram who has a boy and a footling misfire stated that she had been very upset when she found out that she was pregnant with the boy until she found out that boys could enrol in pageants as well. She counterbalance stated, on television, that she had only had children so she could put them in pageants. This would seem very strange to many people, but if you watch the manoeuvre you bequeath hear statements like this over and over, oft in front of the children an d always on camera (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012).What is app arnt is that this is in truth a culture. They call themselves Pageant population (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012) and this encompasses non only the dissenters and their families but also the adjudicate, pageant directors and announcers and the many, many overhaul people used by the contestants from snip off designers to take a leak artists and hairstylists to spray tanners and waxers and many of the misfires counterbalance get facials before a pageants even so though their skin wad non possibly look lots juvenileer.The popularity of this television show is evident, anyone use a search engine that types in the name of the show will be directed to literally position Ks of articles, opinion pieces and devotee based websites as well as many spoofs of the show starring fully grown names like Ashley Tisdale and Tom Hanks and has enjoyed the stature of success in the look of many, jeering on Saturday Ni ght Live. But what about the tiny stars of the show? How safe atomic number 18 they? Is all of this good for them? Watching the show you will see a hardly a(prenominal) kids and mums that seem approximately normal, of course these people never get to be the stars.The stars argon the children who are bratty, who throw temper tantrums, hit their parents, try to bite an former(a)(a)(prenominal) kids and just generally misbehave. The gravels who get the to the highest degree airtime are of course the ones who say the stringentest and most peculiar things. Who treat their children like performing monkeys and plainly will do anything to get their small progeny to perform on full stop. It is unprecedented to watch a child transubstantiate in just moments from a frothy banshee into a sweetly prosperous and composed young lady, or man on stage.The bulk of the children featured on Toddlers & Tiaras are minor girls but there are a few boys featured as well. It seems unfortu nate that the more poorly behaved the people on the show are the more they are rewarded with fame. whizz strange family has even got their own revolve off show called, Here Comes Honey boo-boo (IMDB, 2012). The children a lot throw fits because they are existence constrained to do manything they do not want to do. oer and over, in almost every result the children state that they abhor doing the beauty destiny of the competition.For those unfamiliar with how things take to the woods it important to know that the beauty portion is the most important piece of the pageant where girls are judged on their poise, their attire, hair and make-up, and most of all their facial beauty. They are not really expected to perform at this stage of the pageant but only to walk slowly from start to mark on the stage stop in brief at each mark to spin and smile sweetly at the resolve and the audience and slowly turn from side to side so that all spectators can take in their appearance. w izard low girl who was septette was criticized by a female per discussion judge for having alike much personality for beauty although of the same girl a male judge stated that he could not take my eyes off her( Toddlers & Tiaras, season 4, 2012). The girl went on to win the biggest wind in the pageant and a contract with an agent. The judges of the pageants can a great deal seem acidulous and mark the children rase for seemingly bankable things for the contestants to do, given that most of the girls featured on the show are only between the ages of four and guild.A six division overage was marked good deal because her mortise-and-tenon joint rolled. She was suffering high heels. A four year old was marked down because her fake teeth or quintuplet fell out during the beauty portion. most other girl was marked down for macrocosm too fake(? ). And in one episode the piffling girls were competing for ten thousand dollars and nigh former contestants came out of re tirement to compete. They were as old as twenty-one and some were doing very sexy dances the male judge was obviously captivated and would not stop talking about the aged contestants.A 20 year old won. Against little girls. (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012) You will see some moments on the show where the parents are caring and the children seem to be holding the whole thing in perspective. atomic number 53 of the fathers, who has 3 children in the pageants does not depart his kids to be tanned or wear fake teeth and lashes and says some of it is too far. He also keeps the bills for the pageants a little lower by renting the dresses and says he preferred the natural pageants. some other one of the parents, this one a mother, laughed when her nine year old daughters hair fell down during the pageant, she told her she did so good and reassured her when she began to anticipate that it was okay. thus express she was just glad she got a prime (in many of the pageants every contest ant gets some type of crown) and that she did not acquire to win the ultimate backup and the little girl stated after she calmed down win graciously, lose humbly. some other little girl who won a high title stated that the title she had gotten was really good because Theres a lot of girls here and they time-tested hard too. oneness mother who had seemed very extreme during the beginning of the pageant seemed to have an epiphany at some head teacher during the pageant and said that this would be her seven year old daughters last pageant and that her daughter was picturesque on her own. (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012). In one touching episode, a mother had only boys and it seemed that her six year old son and her had a very special relationship based on the pageants.The father, in spite of macrocosm supportive, was done with his son organism in the pageants and wanted this to be his last one. The boy seemed happy to do the pageants and seemed to have a very special relations hip with his mother. At the end of the show they were gross and hugging each other and it was actually hard not to be sad for them (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012) Most of the other parents are not like those ones and the majority of the faces shown depict these women as bitter and jealous. The way they speak of the other children is disgraceful.They say mean things in front of their own kids about the other children, especially if the other children win and their daughter did not, like that the girl who won did not deserve it and frequently say that the pageant was unfair or rigged. One mom on the sidelines said about a girl on the stage If she wins, she better go get some cellulite treatment done(Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012). The little girls definitely pick up this filthiness from their mothers. many another(prenominal) clock over these children say that they are better or prettier than the other girls.One six year old girl knew from her mother that one of the other gi rls was her biggest competition at the pageant. The other girl was well known for her continuing comforter dependency and first girl said that she had a secret weapon for her obstructer so she could beat her and held up a gag pacifier that had funny looking for teeth on the front of it and therefore snickered. In one sad scene there were sister aged ten and eight who were competing in the same pageant, the eight year old stated that she was red ink to beat her sister and if her sister started claiming she would beat her to he ground. When the of age(p) sister started to margin call and said that it was because she was being mean the younger one told her to point in time squawking, youre embarrassing me (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012).If you think the tiger moms would be less fierce to their own offspring you would learn that often that is not the case. Over and over when the children cry because they are hungry, tired, something being done to them hurts or they lost th ey are told not to cry because they are on camera or that the pageant is not over and their make-up will be ruined.One mom talking about her daughter said that she, the mom, had been better at cheerleading and that her daughter just cant get it like her. Her daughter was nine. One child was forced to stop doing gymnastics because it was making her muscles too big for her costumes and her mother told her that was sucky when she came off stage. Over and over the children are cruelly treat or ignored when they state that they are in pain, feeling sick, hungry or tired. In a heart stopping scene a nine year old girl went missing in full hair and make-up and was no grander in the hotel.In every scene shown by the television show the mom was worried about her being late for her age line up and not concerned for her safe. Luckily, she was found in time, and her standing in the pageant was unaffected. That the girls often cry when they lose is no wonder when you take in that the mothers often cry or state they are discharge to throw up and berate their daughters for blowing on stage by forgetting to smile at the judges or forgetting part of their routine. The moms let their daughters know that they lost too if their crown is not big enough and does not sleep with with a high title attached to it.The moms will tell their daughters who are smiling and holding a crown that they lost and the crown they have is for losers. One mom while sitting in the audience was pissed and going to cry and listed what the other little girls got and that her daughter didnt get anything. No wonder the little girl had a tantrum and screamed that she wanted a crown (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012) Many of these mothers are, like Patsy Ramsey, former beauty queens themselves and will stop and zero to ensure their daughters success in the pageant world.sometimes it becomes so extreme that it makes the news. In 2011 ABC News did a stratum on a mom who gave her 8 year old daughter botul inum toxin A injections because she had wrinkles (Hagan, Kunin and Ghebremedhin, par. 5). The mother was not a heal but an esthetician, which is basically a cosmetician for the skin. She claims her daughter wanted to try it herself because her wrinkles daunted her. This is hopefully a rare case but more commonly these young children have their eyebrows waxed, they receive spray tans, even if they are African American or bi-racial.They have acrylic nails put on, they are fitted for fake teeth to go over their own teeth called flippers, they have hair extensions put in because often their spoil fine hair both is not thick enough for the large hair-dos or not strong enough to take the heat and styling. Some of the girls have their hair bleached before a pageant. Sometimes these things hurt or are uncomfortable and the children complain. There seems to be a particular hatred amongst the little girls for the false eyelashes.Many of the girls scream and cry and beg to not have to wear them to no avail. These are typically services reserved for very high maintenance women and many adult women would not have the patience for them. The FDA has not done studies on the safety of these chemicals for use on children either. How does it feel to sit in make-up and hair for two hours for a child of say four? On pageant day the real conjury begins. The girls are up early in the morning in their hotel rooms. They are federal official breakfast and then the beauty political science begins.The pageants last all day and normally include several outfit changes and the achievement of practiced routines. The girls, some very young, are not allowed to eat or pile so their hair and make-up do not become ruined. To make up for this, the moms have found some magic. On pageant day the girls have scrawl cubes and Pixie Stix poured into their mouths all day long and are fed through a straw high caffeine and cacography drinks like Mountain Dew and some florid Bull energy drinks. Th ere is some serious concern over the safety of these drinks (Ostrow, 2011).One mother asked her daughter before the pageant if she wanted to relinquish doing them. The girl nodded yes and the mom said Lets look at your crowns Doesnt that make you feel better? (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012). One of the reasons many of the parents say they do it is often for the prizes, money, bonds and scholarships. Indeed, some of the pageants featured on the television show do boast some large prizes. But most of the parents appropriate that they have spent many times over what their child has received.Several of the moms meet to lying to their husbands about how much they send away and one single mom has travel in with her parents so they could continue to right for pageants and it is common for the mothers to take a pageant job (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012) to cover some of the expenses. Some of the parents spend lavishly on the pageants. Many of the pageants have a top prize of onl y several carbon dollars yet the girls will show up in 2500$ dresses. In one episode two sisters have their very own trailer for pageant accessories that have their pictures emblazoned on the sides.One very enterprising mother has published a pageant book about her daughter, recorded a numbers and had a doll made in her daughters image. In an episode where they went to the Tonight army she was saying how she was planning to get her daughter and agent and a two trillion dollar contract so she could quit her job and move to Hollywood. It seems as if the parents either have delusions about some have a bun in the oven off that will eventually come if they keep plugging away or they really have just found a very expensive habit that they justify for other reasons.