Toddlers In Tiaras Rhetorical Analysis

In the article: “Toddlers in Tiaras” the writer, Skip Hollandsworth, brings about different topics debating wether pageants for little girls has a negative or a positive effect in their lives. The exigency he uses, is the story of JonBenet Ramsey who was brutally murdered after she had been kidnapped at a pageant in 1996. His purpose is to teach people that pageants for children are not as harmless as everybody makes it seem. These pageants not only strip young girls of their innocence, but it also lures in predators and pedophiles. He goes on to show the audience the ways that the provocative behavior of the girls can reap negative attention from all types of people. He writes, “It’s impossible to look at these photos and not see a terribly exploited little girl” (Hollandsworth 2). Pageants also teach the girls at a very young age, to be focused only on appearance. The target audience would mostly be southern mothers and grandmothers who tend to allow their daughters to sign up for the contests. The context of the article focuses on how everyone enjoys seeing these girls perform on stage. A response from one of the adults he questioned states: “We love the beautiful dresses and big hairstyles. We love the bling and makeup. We love our girls showing lots and lots of style, we love seeing them sparkle”

“After an hour and thirty minutes her daughter has become part Barbie, part Madame Alexander doll, and part Las Vegas showgirl” (Hollandsworth 1). These shows strip the girls of their childish innocents and use their oblivion to do so. They cannot process, with their undeveloped brains, to tell the difference between right and wrong in how they compete in the pageants. They base their worth by their appearance rather than what they are capable of doing. They grow up without a real identity and are only use to being exploited for how they look and