Child Beauty Pageants: Robbing Little Girls’ Innocence There are over 5,000 child beauty pageants held annually across the United States with girls as young as two-years-old competing in them. Little girls strut across the stage with make-up painted on their tanned faces, hair teased into big and luscious curls, fake teeth, and a raunchy dance to complement it. There’s no doubt that the very young girls do not resemble their age when they are on stage and performing; they’re transformed into “sultry, Lolita-like waifs” (Giroux 270). Millions tune in and watch shows exploiting the children such as “Toddlers and Tiaras” and “Little Miss Perfect” where we see the little girls strive to be the best and prettiest. Parents should not enter
She wore tight dresses with heels and red lipstick as she walked a sultry strut across the stage, seductively pulling a feathered Mardi Gras mask across her blue eyes. JonBenet, like many other little girls in the pageant world, “play[ed] the role of [a] sex kitten” (Giroux 270). Child beauty pageants are a “breeding ground for paedophilia” (Paparella, paragraph 3) and they encourage not only that they’re beauty is what defines the girls, but also their sexuality.
It can clearly be stated that beauty pageants focus on showcasing the appearance of the young girls, but not the intellect or personality of them. Due to the unnaturalness, I strongly criticize child beauty pageants. If child beauty pageants were to set regulations on the participants, then the little girls wouldn’t be over sexualized or exploited. If a parent wants to truly enter their child into a pageant to build self-confidence and courage, then make-up shouldn’t be allowed, provocative clothing and movements should be forbidden, and age-appropriate, onstage questions. Beauty pageants should be about the true natural beauty of one’s inside and outside.
According to Farlex dictionary, beauty is “the quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness, and