Child Beauty Pageants, Right or Wrong?

Archeron

Just something I've been thinking about what with the recent case in the papers recently.

That little girl, JonBonet who was murdered has featured a lot in the newspapers lately. Her death was a terrible tragedy, and we all hope whoever done it will be brought to justice.

Over the past couple of weeks, a lot of pictures of the little girl were printed in the papers. When I first seen her, I honestly thought she was about 13 or 14, and couldnt believe when I heard she was only 6. I think its wrong for a little kid like that to eseentially have the innocence of childhood taken away, and be dumped straight into the the shallow pretentious world of beauty pageants. Then again, I'm an old fashioned fogey, so maybe its just me. I just kind of feel that children who are essentially professional glamour models at that age would find it difficult to grow up as a normal person.Not to mention the fact that we all know what type of people are getting real kicks out of seeing a child plastered in makeup and dressed like an adult.

Do you think its right for a child to spend so much time being dollied up for these type of events?

Rb

I've seen a few documentaries on these child beauty pageants. Their parents always come across as absolute failures who have driven the family into debt trying to live through their child, which essentially is what the whole thing is about, parents trying to live through their kids.
It's wrong for the kids, they're overprotected and spoiled and because of that, have a wrong view of life and the world around them.
Would like to see what these kids are like in their teens/adolescent years and how they act/treat their parents.

Kintarō Hattori

I voted incorrectly, I actually think they are terrible things and must damage the child somehow. They are kids after all, but they have their childhood taken away from them and they get caught up in the whole pagent thing.

Nuttzz

wrong, just wrong

Gone West

Its very wrong.
Dressing kids up in this way is extremely degrading and sick tbh.
Look at that JonBenet kid for a prime example.
Its gross.
IMO the parents have some problems...

kizzyr

Archeron wrote:

Just something I've been thinking about what with the recent case in the papers recently.

That little girl, JonBonet who was murdered has featured a lot in the newspapers lately. Her death was a terrible tragedy, and we all hope whoever done it will be brought to justice.

Over the past couple of weeks, a lot of pictures of the little girl were printed in the papers. When I first seen her, I honestly thought she was about 13 or 14, and couldnt believe when I heard she was only 6. I think its wrong for a little kid like that to eseentially have the innocence of childhood taken away, and be dumped straight into the the shallow pretentious world of beauty pageants. Then again, I'm an old fashioned fogey, so maybe its just me. I just kind of feel that children who are essentially professional glamour models at that age would find it difficult to grow up as a normal person.Not to mention the fact that we all know what type of people are getting real kicks out of seeing a child plastered in makeup and dressed like an adult.

Do you think its right for a child to spend so much time being dollied up for these type of events?

No and I agree with all that you have said above. If that makes me old fashioned then I guess I'll just have to deal with it. Kids should be kids.

xzanti

Has anyone watched that new series on MTV? Tiara Girls it's called... It's about teenage pagent queens and one show in particular sticks in my mind.. It's absolutely disgusting...

The mother literally forces her daughter to get collogen injections in her lips, ridicules her infront of make-up artits calling her fat and telling her she needs lipo suction.. The daughter looks mortified and even her own father starts telling her "Its a beauty pagent, not an ugly pagent" because she won't go and excersise.. It's unreal..

They send her to this military style Nazi of a pagent adviser who screams abuse at her in this office telling her how to stand and look.. It was scary..
Absolutely shocking.. And telling her she needs to take laxitives to try and flatten her tummy :eek:

She looses the pagent in the end anyway and her mother balls her eyes out and says "I should'nt have put her in it.. She wasn't good enough" It's really stomach churning..

L31mr0d

I voted that its up to the parents to decide. You could argue anything in this day and age is bad for kids. Admittedly i'd never watch it and think its depraved. But I also think parents who bring their kids to mcdonalds every week, people who smoke whilst pregnant or around their children, parents who force religion on their children, parents who don't censor the TV, games, music, internet that their children entertain themselves with are also depraved.

Now you could argue the pros and cons of all of the above until your blue in the face but you still will have those for, and those against. So in the end of the day it is left up to each parent to decide what they feel is right for their kids. How long have these pageants been running? I'm sure if these things where churning out warped, M.Jackson-esque adults they would of been shut down years ago, the fact of the matter is they haven't, nor has metal music or violent video games/movies. People will always protest, but the human mind is a lot more resilient then you believe and can endure the odd pageant or 2 as a child.

smk135

xzanti wrote:

Has anyone watched that new series on MTV? Tiara Girls it's called... It's about teenage pagent queens and one show in particular sticks in my mind.. It's absolutely disgusting...

The mother literally forces her daughter to get collogen injections in her lips, ridicules her infront of make-up artits calling her fat and telling her she needs lipo suction.. The daughter looks mortified and even her own father starts telling her "Its a beauty pagent, not an ugly pagent" because she won't go and excersise.. It's unreal..

They send her to this military style Nazi of a pagent adviser who screams abuse at her in this office telling her how to stand and look.. It was scary..
Absolutely shocking.. And telling her she needs to take laxitives to try and flatten her tummy :eek:

She looses the pagent in the end anyway and her mother balls her eyes out and says "I should'nt have put her in it.. She wasn't good enough" It's really stomach churning..

yeah i've seen that show...it is pretty shocking alright but then they are american... i thought it was funny in the beginning but then i just realised it was plain cruel. the girls are treated like bloody circus freaks. these kind of shows are the reason why i think ppl should have to pass a few tests before being able to become parents.
so yes i think it's an absolute disgrace to put your child in a pageant.

BoozyBabe

I think it's wrong.
Childhood should be all about innoncence, playing games, etc, etc, etc....

Unfortunately, we are not all born beautiful, there are even some not pretty children.
It's bad enough that we get a complex about our looks in our teens, it's horrible to to put ideas of the importance of good looks into such young minds.

Remember back to when you were a child. Did you ever even think that your best friend or you were ugly, pretty, etc.
No, it never came into it, was never even thought of.
It was more Ann can do the best cartwheels, has the nicest Barbie, John has the coolest transformer, etc.

I think that's how it should be left.

smallpaws

They're warped. The mothers freak me out beyond belief. I have seen documentaries on these things and they all always are sickening in the way that the children are dolled up like bait for child molesters and the parents appear willfully oblivious to what they are teaching their children about what makes a person valuable.

One documentary in particular was gross, the girl in the footage was doing some dance routine, at about age 9 or 10 (?) and the screen was split to show Demi Moore doing a dance routine from her sh1t movie,Striptease, and guess what? It was the same routine, move for move.
Just revolting.

toomevara

Child abuse, pure and simple. Halfwit adults compensating for some perceived failure in their own lives by driving their unwitting children through this incredibly damaging, heartless meat market. Its engineering neurotic, damaged individuals for the future...and thats just the ones who win these things..the damage to those who perpetually 'fail' must be inconceivable.

Black Swan

I voted against child beauty pageants, and would also vote against using children as fashion or photographic models. I was a child fashion model and speak from experience. Pageants and modeling are forms of child exploitation, often benefiting commercial enterprises and sometimes harming healthy childhood development.

uniquechic

i agree with everything being said above. I have read many articles about the jonbonet case and i think that it really is just a case of the parent(usually the mother) trying to live thru the child. It is taking away the childs innocence and I think in this day and age where young children are becoming increasingly body consious, to make them go up on stage for judges to decide that they might not be pretty enough to win the contest is just wrong.

SteamTrean

Wrong. Turns out big egos, leading to future a-holes.

Chinafoot

Wrong. Very, very wrong.

Children should be seen as asexual. They shouldn't be plastered in make-up or wearing short skirts and tiny tops. When the parents of these kids tart them up to look like adults, it's every paedophile's dream.

Saw a documentary a few years back about two little girls. I think one was called Asia or something unusual like that and I can't remember the other one. Anyway the other child was a complete and utter brat. She ruled the household and everything revolved around her and her pageants. The mother had spent thousands of dollars on costumes and make-up. One part that really summed up the loss of innocence for me was when they brought the child to a dentist to get dentures for her because she had lost her baby teeth in the front.. It was horrible.

The parents try to justify the pageants by saying that the kids enjoy them yet I honestly can't believe that these children would have the capacity to actually choose to do this voluntarily at their age without their stage-mothers pushing them so fiercely.

Dun laoire

Wrong wrong wrong.

Terry

they are beyond wrong.
****ing paedo playgrounds.

LadyJ

peachypants wrote:

Wrong. When the parents of these kids tart them up to look like adults, it's every paedophile's dream.

It always baffled me that paedophiles would be interested in kids that looked like adults. Surely it's a contradiction. However,not being a paedophile myself,I can't understand the whole thing.

Kids beauty pagents are certainly freaky. However,I'm less concerned about the fact that they could be soft core paedophile porn,(I mean,let's face it,pagents or not,there will always be paedophiles), rather than the fact that if a child grows up always trying to please people in every way then she will surely turn out to be a very messed up individual.

Mexicola

I would class that as child abuse. The parents should be made accountable for their actions. I think they are using the child as an outlet for their problems, or simply using the kid for finiancial gain. Not right at all.

Ruu_Old

I have seen a number of documentaries on these are some of the kids turn out terribly messed up. Its fine to be a bit competitive but some of the parents could be classed as vicious. Wrong.

brown*eyed*girl

I vote wrong seen lots of documentaries on them and the parents say the kids love it but I think its disgusting and after a while you see the kids don't love it and are literally saying what the parents have preached to them. Was watching one programme on Discovery Health called PUshy Parents and I was nearly crying with the pressure that was on the little girl and the way she was dolled up was so creepy. I've never/never will let my kids into any such disgusting competitions. In saying all that I did win a Bonny Baby competion when I was around 11 months old.

Laura Fitz06

wrong so wrong . and it was amusement city in dublin ruu

Blitzkrieger

Commonly known as 'Daddy's Little Prostitute' pagents. Creepy.........

Fanny Cradock

This type of thing is more than a little disgusting. It's just weird and, because of the subtle sexual connotations that normal beauty pageants have (I have friends who admit to setting the video to record miss world), it's completely wrong to convince/cajole a child into entering this disturbing, sleazy and ultimately pointless world. I really hope that it doesn't catch on over here.

iFight

Very wrong. Often see tv shows about them, fairly creepy alright.

DilbertPartII

i believe beauty pageants will boost child's self-esteem and confidence so it is more of a help really to the child!:rolleyes:

Ruu_Old

DilbertPartII wrote:

i believe beauty pageants will boost child's self-esteem and confidence so it is more of a help really to the child!:rolleyes:

That is a nice idea and all but the majority of the time its not the truth of what happens.

Red Alert

i think they're disgusting and are an outlet for the lowest common denominator of a parent.

Dudess

I agree with LadyJ. These girls, who look like little women, aren't going to do it for paedophiles. If anything, I'd be concerned about non-paedophiles being turned on by them (in a Lolita kind of way). As for those pageants - they're completely grotesque. I saw some of a documentary about them (had to turn it off - sickened) and the mother was shaving her eight-year-old's legs! She didn't even have hair on them! And the shaving eventually caused hair growth!
And I don't think it's just an American thing either. You can see the beginnings of it here - Irish dancing for example, and communions. Vile.

ronbyrne2005

wont somebody please think of the children!
seriously let kids be kids etc.

Black Swan

DilbertPartII wrote:

i believe beauty pageants will boost child's self-esteem and confidence so it is more of a help really to the child!:rolleyes:

Although your comment may have been well intended, there are so many other ways that a child's growth can be enhanced in sports, the arts, or enrichment education, and the risk is so much less to them than in child beauty pageants (which in many cases represent child exploitation for commercial, financial or parental status gains). When it comes to child beauty pageants, I think "the road to hell has been paved with good intentions," as well as bad ones.

Ickle Magoo

I think the pageants are all about the parents. There is no way a very small child or baby is interested in that kind of thing. The parents push it because of some kind of sick attention thing they want for themselves. It's greedy, selfish & self-serving. Agree with pretty much all of the above comments.

AngryBadger

L31mr0d wrote:

I voted that its up to the parents to decide. You could argue anything in this day and age is bad for kids. Admittedly i'd never watch it and think its depraved. But I also think parents who bring their kids to mcdonalds every week, people who smoke whilst pregnant or around their children, parents who force religion on their children, parents who don't censor the TV, games, music, internet that their children entertain themselves with are also depraved.

Quoted for truth, but i disagree with pretty much everything else you said.

AngryBadger

posted same message twice, sorry.

Chinafoot

LadyJ wrote:

It always baffled me that paedophiles would be interested in kids that looked like adults. Surely it's a contradiction. However,not being a paedophile myself,I can't understand the whole thing.

What I meant by "tarting them up to look like adults" was that they are sexualizing children. Yes they are wearing adult clothes, adult make-up and performing adult dance routines but they are still obviously children.

Look at John Mark Karr, the man who claims he killed JonBenet Ramsey. This guy said "I was with JonBenet when she died", he said it was "an accident" and he said that he "loved" her. There's a very intereting aticle on him in the current edition of Time Magazine. It's not known if he actually killed her or not but here is a man who was arrested in Thailand, was jailed previously for possession of child pornography and who lost many teaching jobs for his "improper behaviour" towards the young students he was teaching.

But, again I don't know all that much about paedophilia and quite frankly I don't want to.

LadyJ

peachypants wrote:

What I meant by "tarting them up to look like adults" was that they are sexualizing children. Yes they are wearing adult clothes, adult make-up and performing adult dance routines but they are still obviously children.

Oh of course it is sexualizing them. I don't disagree with you. It was just a tangent kind of thought I was having. I suppose if some people have fantasies about their partners in baby clothes then it makes sense that a paedophile could enjoy seeing a child made up like an adult.

However,regardless of all that,kiddie beauty pagents = bad.

Caco

I think it's sick and wrong. These parents need to stop living their lives through their kids as it WILL mess the kids up. I pity the kids because it's not their fault.

Here's part one of a series of one of those documentaries- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dJ-PvHv1HQ

SICK!!!!

WunderFull

It's not just in the US. We have the bonny Baby competitions here. Not even as much of a thign to be proud of when you realise everyone else has won one too. I know it's a much less serious thing (babies not wearing makeup etc) but it starts somewhere.

Dudess

Yeah, and as I said, communions. Fake tan, sunbeds, OTT hairstyles, expensive dress and jewellery. A mate of mine who teaches Irish dancing says it's become totally sick there too. And there are parents who are really bitter if their kids don't win etc. ****ing vile people.

EOA_Mushy

I voted "Totally depends on the child, the family and the circumstances. " but the majority of of familys that i have seen involved with this type of thing are complete loonies.... Possible not all though.

entropi

It's oh so wrong, and makes those kids look really freaky...:eek:

wishingstar

Now, this is coming from a kid who was every stage mother's dream.
I WANTED to be in beauty Pagents,
I WANTED to do modeling,
I WANTED to do Acting,
I WANTED to do Singing.

I UNFORTUNATELY was born to parents who HATE ALL of show business, they hate the fact now that I am in my 20's and have a 2 year old twin daughters of my own.

Now I have vowed never to PUSH Alaina and Aurora into show business,I will however NOT hold them back.

Now Alaina has expressed interest in such activities as pagents, and I simply told her, "It's not all fun, you won't always win, and it does take work. But if this is what you WANT to do, then we'll do it. But the first time you tell me 'this is no fun mom' is the last time we participate in anything like it."

Now yes I realize that Alaina is only 2, almost 3, but still two. However, I grew to resent my parents for never giving me a shot at my dreams, which I am just now going for (since the DAY I turned 18), so I won't do the same to my daughter.

So no, as long as the child WANTS to do it, I don't see how it hurts the child. No, they may not go on to be a supermodel, or a hollywoood actress, but it teaches them such skills as how to approach people with confidence and it looks good on resumes which can help them to land a good job one day.

Like me or hate me this is how I feel and how I plan to raise my daughters.:cool:

wishingstar

What about the kids who want to and mom and dad won't let them? They usually grow to resent their parents.... Read my other post....

MagicMarker

wishingstar wrote:

Now, this is coming from a kid who was every stage mother's dream.
I WANTED to be in beauty Pagents,
I WANTED to do modeling,
I WANTED to do Acting,
I WANTED to do Singing.

I UNFORTUNATELY was born to parents who HATE ALL of show business, they hate the fact now that I am in my 20's and have a 2 year old twin daughters of my own.

Now I have vowed never to PUSH Alaina and Aurora into show business,I will however NOT hold them back.

Now Alaina has expressed interest in such activities as pagents, and I simply told her, "It's not all fun, you won't always win, and it does take work. But if this is what you WANT to do, then we'll do it. But the first time you tell me 'this is no fun mom' is the last time we participate in anything like it."

Now yes I realize that Alaina is only 2, almost 3, but still two. However, I grew to resent my parents for never giving me a shot at my dreams, which I am just now going for (since the DAY I turned 18), so I won't do the same to my daughter.

So no, as long as the child WANTS to do it, I don't see how it hurts the child. No, they may not go on to be a supermodel, or a hollywoood actress, but it teaches them such skills as how to approach people with confidence and it looks good on resumes which can help them to land a good job one day.

Like me or hate me this is how I feel and how I plan to raise my daughters.:cool:

I know 2 year olds who would love to drink the bleach under the sink...

I'm sorry, but what? Your two year old is interested in pageants?

If your daughter is 15 and interested in pageants that's one thing..... But 2 years old? That's just rediculous.

And please don't drag up year old threads.

wishingstar

Ickle Magoo wrote:

I think the pageants are all about the parents. There is no way a very small child or baby is interested in that kind of thing. The parents push it because of some kind of sick attention thing they want for themselves. It's greedy, selfish & self-serving. Agree with pretty much all of the above comments.

I wanted to....my cousin is 3 and literally has gotten on her knees and BEGGED her mother to let her be on TV. Her mother has never encourage beauty pagents. And no, I know pleanty of little girls who do want to do this, and their parents DISCOURAGE them, which leads them to resent their parents.

wishingstar

MagicMarker wrote:

I know 2 year olds who would love to drink the bleach under the sink...

I'm sorry, but what? Your two year old is interested in pageants?

If your daughter is 15 and interested in pageants that's one thing..... But 2 years old? That's just rediculous.

And please don't drag up year old threads.

Know what? I will if I want. You don't have to be a jerk.....

MagicMarker

wishingstar wrote:

Know what? I will if I want. You don't have to be a jerk.....

Nice attitude... Your daughty is a lucky gal.

Terry

wishingstar wrote:

Know what? I will if I want. You don't have to be a jerk.....

Bam.