But for the last few years, the concept of child beauty pageants has flourished, especially in the United States. It may look like a fun “dress up” game for little girls. But it is something much, much more serious. You never know what happens behind the curtains. How are moms actually destroying their girls by forcing them to participate in such contests?
Child beauty pageants, on the other hand, do not have such fatal influence on them. It is certainly quite natural that many parents wish for their children to grow up to be “wholesome,” but children also have their own will, no matter how young they are. If they want to participate in beauty pageants, parents should not restrict them because of their unilateral desire or the social ethics. This is the very objectification of their children, which happens by overprotection. Thus, the protest that child beauty pageants should be banned does not have any logical reasons.
Children under the age of eight lack the ability to understand the selling purpose of the advertisement. A majority of parents will give into a child asking for a toy as it not only satisfies them but also allows them to fit in better at school as they are not missing out on the new toy. This is sending the message that children need material objects to make them happy and to be accepted by society A majority of advertisements to children are gender based; girls wearing pink are playing with dolls and castles. Whereas boys are playing with electronic cars while wearing green. This can be seen in figure 4.
Some children fall behind others because their hair and skin color are undesirable. Parents already go through enough stress from work, relationships, and the encumbrance of their own looks, why should they have to deal with other imperfections in their life? If only there was a way to lift the burden of the parents’ duties to make the most quintessential child of all. Genetic engineering is the ideal method to weed out the second-rate children and give birth to a perfect generation. Genetic engineering is how children 's characteristics are artificially created to create a perfect child (Introduction to…”).
Young girls are tragically taught that they need to value outward beauty and wear short, tight clothing like Barbie and other dolls do. I came across one toy that looked like it might have the potential of being more than a beauty promoter but it ended up being just as superficial as the other toys. It appeared to be a scientific experiment lab, but in reality, it was a kit for making perfume because girls are taught they need to smell like candy and flowers. Boys have it just as bad because they learn that being masculine is important and physical strength trumps emotional strength. In conclusion, the ideas pushed on today 's youth are forcing them to be one thing instead of exploring other
For example, “It’s up to the parents to guide their children along the right path,” insisted Hart. “It’s not the pageants. It’s the parents.” (Child Beauty Pageants). Therefore, the parents are the ones to guide their children down the right path, bringing their children down the beauty pageant path, can be straight up bad parenting from forcing their children to get all glammed up for competitions. Also, parents force their children to participate in pageants for the money and prizes, “According to writer Andrew Stephen, pageant girls "learn that they are being valued only by conforming to an idealised, unreal version of feminine beauty, while the parents...grow only to measure their self-worth by their children 's triumphs and losses.
This can lead to many problems in the future. Many argue that having mixed gender classes is distracting, for example, in a journal entry a child wrote about her school, which tested out single-gender classes states, “We won’t get distracted by the boys” (Herron). While it might be true, children need to learn how to react and ignore the presence of others. Not being able to cooperate can cause a lot of difficulties for students when they grow up. These qualities play a crucial part in their adult lives and will help them when they get a job or are looking to get married (Stanberry).
It has already proved to be a success in many places around the globe and with more effort, the cases of child labor will greatly reduce. This will help children learn and create a good education foundation for themselves. Second, empowering poor people through knowledge and income generating projects would go a long way in reducing cases of child labor. Parental literacy also plays an important role in ensuring that the rights of children are upheld, and minors are not used as a source of labor. Empowering parents with this kind of knowledge can create a positive change in the society and encourage the shunning of child labor practices in communities.
Firstly the children can become shallow and overconfident. They may think that looks are more important after entering a beauty pageant and become conceited “Children may become more concerned with developing their looks than with developing their internal selves”. Children can easily believe after competing in pageants they should concentrate more on external and apparent aspects of beauty instead of developing internal values, qualities of caring for others and a love for learning. Make up is another huge part as it makes them look like Barbie or Ken dolls, but actually “makeup shouldn’t be put on young kids because it can ruin their skin”. Instead of focusing on their looks they should experience the natural way of developing their knowledge
In Made You Look, a book about how advertisements work, the author, Shari Graydon, mentions, “Some marketers estimate that kids have a say in close to $300 billion worth of their parents’ spending” (18). Because of this influence kids have over their parents, companies have taken advantage of it and have started creating many of their ads with a younger audience in mind. However, even though advertisers might have a younger audience in mind, they do not always have the wellbeing of the younger audience in mind. In America today advertisements negatively influence American youths’ happiness, self-image, and health. Through advertisements kids learn that in order to have value and worth they need materialistic possessions.