“In life’s rich beauty pageant we put children on a stage, said flash your soft white belly child, but just don’t act your age.” – Rodney Crowell
Personally, I think beauty pageants are dumb. I mean it’s always nice to appreciate good looking people. I, as a heterosexual male wont complain when I see it on television. However, I can’t see how this ‘event’? ‘Sport’? ‘Competition’? does anyone, any good. Unfortunately, as a society we value beauty and vanity above almost anything else. Perhaps, equal to materialistic riches and in some ways both go hand in hand. Have a beautiful girlfriend or boyfriend? Well done, you must be doing well. Pretty car or house, wow, you really have done a lot with your life. It goes back as far as we can dig, even in the stone age, bracelets, rings and other ornaments of beauty were made as signs of wealth and prosperity. I mean just peek for a moment into the animal kingdom, and you can see how vanity is a commodity of sex and prosperity, just look at peacocks…
So, I’m not ignorant to why beauty pageants exist. I understand the admiration of vanity. However, I don’t see how this ‘competition’ is beneficial to anyone. It creates stereotypical beauty standards, body dysmorphia, jealousy, lust and a lot of room for sexual abuse and exploitation. I dread to know what goes on behind closed doors with these woman, and if you are ignorant enough to think nothing happens just look at the abuse often alluded too within the porn industry or in Hollywood.
I’m not here to spoil everyone’s fun, I mean if it gives people joy or empowerment to be Miss USA or Miss Columbia, and they are consenting adults go for it and more power, and protection to you, but children? Now, this is were things get weird. Why, on earth is it deemed expectable for adults (sometimes male) to organise and judge child beauty pageants? Isn’t it borderline peadophilia?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so they say, so what is it the eyes are supposed the be beholdering? Lets explore what beauty is, just to understand what we are judging these infants and children on.
According to the English dictionary, beauty is ‘the quality of group of qualities in a person or object that gives pleasurable senses to the mind’. It is also defined as ‘the quality of being physically attractive’, attractive being the word defined as ‘arousing interest or pleasure’.
What business do children have being judged by adults concerning their physical attractiveness. Are these judges, judging these children by how they find the underdeveloped and child bodies and features pleasurable to their own senses?
There will be many of you that argue ‘A child can be beautiful without being sexualised’, and I’d say no they can’t, a child can be cute yes, but beautiful? absolutely not. But for argument sake lets pretend that this is a statement worth talking about. If we were judging these children by their ‘beauty’ then why do the mothers and fathers of these children dress them in provocative clothing, force them into preforming sexual dances and plaster them in make up? Oh, and to give them stage names, yes like strippers and pornstars have to hide their identities. One child, according to an online source, called herself Nicki Minaj (Minaj meaning a threesome). If we are to judge children for their ‘beauty’ should we not have them dressed as children, or perhaps judge them on what really matters in this world, their character?
We often ban certain objects in an attempt to save children from physical or emotional harm. For example children can’t buy cigarettes or alcohol, this is our attempt of saving them from health risks. A child can only use safety scissors in school in an attempt to save them from cutting themselves or others. Teachers, foster families and carers are put through extensive training to look out for signs of abuse as a protective stance against child abuse. Additionally they have to be put though a vetting process to help reduce the chances of allowing access to children to people who are predatory or abusive. . The legal age for a tattoo in the U.S is 18, this is to protect children from making stupid decisions and getting a Telly Tubby on their neck for their fifth birthday.
Why then, are these beauty pageants legal? It leaves room for abuse, to the highest degree. In 2011, a child was taken away from her mother as a result of Botox injections. Mrs Campbell, the abusive mother, stated how “A lot of the moms there are giving their kids Botox, I’m not the only one who does it,”. Well Mrs Campbell, a some fathers abuse their wives, does that mean its acceptable for another to do so? Some people sell their children into sex slavery, does that make it right to do so? My mate Ben at school was allowed to play video games until 1 AM on a school night, does that mean I could? No!
And body mutilation is just the beginning of the abuse that comes out of these child pageants, sexual exploitation, grooming, sexual and psychological abuse to name a few. Lets take Jimmy Savile, the worlds most recognised peadophile. He was the face of “Jim’ll Fix It”, a T.V. show were children write their wishes to Jimmy and he will have it come true. Turns out, this low life was abusing the children on his show for upwards of twenty years. Should we ban these sorts of shows? potentially yes. Should thereat least be more security measures put in place to help prevent abuse? Absolutely. Why then would we willingly send our children into potential harmful environments, such as these pageants, without the best possible security against predators. I think shows like Blue Peter have a positive impact on children, they allow dreams to come true and for children to strive towards a goal. However, beauty pageants do not do this. They promote nothing that can’t be done through other means.
A lot of the mothers and fathers that allow for these pageants to continue, stress that they are good for their child. That it promotes confidence and self respect. Do you know what else promotes this? Boxing, Football, Hiking, Climbing, Tennis, Horse riding, literally any other sport. Of course abuse can come from these also, however, when running around a pitch in mud and sweat kicking a ball with your friends there is no sexualisation of children. At no point is the child’s body lured at by strange, invited adult eyes. Football does no promote exploitation, at least no sexual, and coaches, trainers and teachers all have to pass a vetting process.
There are of course vetting processes that happen for the child beauty pageant judges, and I expect they are thorough. It does no take away the dangers involved. Dangers that will last a lifetime. Scaring the victims
Using Sunburst as an example, there are many categories for beauty pageants. Each category is based on age and sex of the participant. On the Sunburst website, the age groups are as follows;
Girls
(0-1)
(1)
(2 – 3)
Pee Wee (4 – 6)
Little Miss (7 – 10)
Pre teen (11 – 13)
Teen (14 – 17)
Miss or Mrs (18 – 17)
Boys
0 – 23 months.
2 – 4 years
5 – 9 years
These are children, and some of them are toddlers of babies. They are plunged into a world of vulgar vanity before they are even able to understand what those words mean. Starved from a normal childhood by over bearing parents that want to either make money off them, or live their failed lives through them in an attempt to see glamor and fame. Exploiting a child from some of the most precious periods of their life for what? Money? a snap shot on a magazine or a slim chance of fam?
The risks outweigh the rewards. $10.000 is not enough money to bring back the trauma of a childhood of neglect. A shot at fame is not worth the changes to a child’s personality, a personality that will cause them a lifetime of conflict and pain. Beauty pageants promote narcissism, arrogance, self entitlement, jealousy, and judgmental attributes among its competitors. Children exposed to this behaviour often mimic its influence into their own personalities and the cycle begins.
We put enough pressure on kids these days as it is. GCSE’s, expecting them to know their what career path they want to take by the time they finish puberty. Pressures of social media, some are carers by the time they can walk, or a father or mother figure to their younger siblings as they start to discover strange going ons in their bodies.
So why on earth are we applying beauty standards on top of an already pressurised childhood. Children should be playing, enjoying the freedoms they possess while they still can. Not squabble over a trophy that promotes vanity, self admiration and egotism.
The truth is, children of a certain age will do anything to spend time with their parents. Although they seem to be enjoying themselves or enthusiastic about certain activities they spend their time doing, most of them just want to have quality time with the two people that are put on this earth to protect them from harm and teach them what this strange world is all about. I remember spending a lot of time ‘helping’ my dad paint the house, or move furniture or go to BnQ to pick up tools. The truth of it was, I hated doing these chores, but it got me to spend time with my dad, a otherwise busy and hardworking man.
These children, although I do not wish to speak for them all, enjoy spending time with their parents, and if that means dressing up like a stripper and dancing on stage to make them smile then they’ll do it. Children follow by example, and if their parents are telling them that vanity and selfishness is expectable, they will follow them to it.
Uncharted Thoughts. 
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