Child Beauty Pageants
Today’s social and cultural expectations are changing at a rapid speed. Our view of beauty can vary, but people still feel the inner stress of not fitting into that perfect beauty type. To try to feel pretty people can do some drastic things to their bodies. Extreme diets, expensive hair and makeup products, plastic surgery, and inner turmoil are some of the many effects that our cultural views have placed on people. But what happens to those who grow up always being beautiful, cookie cutter images of what society wants? In the eyes of children that are contestants in beauty pageants they view beauty as a necessity for winning. The biggest crown gets awarded to the one with the most points. Points that are accumulated for being most photogenic, most beautiful, best personality, best hair, best dressed, and so on. Most of these children they start at a very young age, even some in their infant years, aiming to be crowned ‘Grand Supreme’. Their lives revolve around the pressure of having voluminous perfect curls, thick fake eyelashes, flawless stage makeup, expensive glitzy costumes, and much more that makes them a winner out of a pool of other cookie cutter children. These girls, and sometimes boys, really know how to strut their stuff (sometimes too much stuff) in front of an audience and judges. They show their confidence and abilities that they have grown to accumulate. The spotlight is on them and that’s where most of them love to be. What happens though when the light is turned down, the stage is put away, and life continues as these beauty children are no longer dressed as little Miss Americas? Within this paper I will identify and analyze the common psychological effects of child beauty pageants on its contestants. By revealing these effects I hope to enlighten the positive or negative conclusions about the overall use of beauty pageants within our society and culture.
To start one needs to understand the basis of a beauty pageant, especially those geared towards children. Beauty pageants are defined as “An assemblage of girls or women at which judges select the most beautiful” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, online). Beauty in these competitions is based on many different aspects of the child and what society views as beautiful. One major child beauty pageant is Paramount Beauty Pageants. Some of the important aspects that the judges look at in the young girls is their use of formal wear, beauty, creativity, personality/stage presence, and overall appearance. Swim wear is also judged in most child pageants, but generally they score based on costume and personality rather than body type. Beauty is centered on the contestant’s facial beauty and use of complete makeup and the neatness of the contestant from the neck up, including hair. Creativity applies to the costumes and formal wear. It is important for them to be neat, put together, creative and original, glamorous, and match the theme. Another make it or break it standard is the enthusiasm and character of the contestant on stage. Eye contact, poise, smiling, and a confident attitude is important for the judges to see in order to please them. Overall appearance wraps up the criteria by making sure everything fits together and works as a whole (Paramount, Sec. Judging Criteria Para. 3).
To start one needs to understand the basis of a beauty pageant, especially those geared towards children. Beauty pageants are defined as “An assemblage of girls or women at which judges select the most beautiful” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, online). Beauty in these competitions is based on many different aspects of the child and what society views as beautiful. One major child beauty pageant is Paramount Beauty Pageants. Some of the important aspects that the judges look at in the young girls is their use of formal wear, beauty, creativity, personality/stage presence, and overall appearance. Swim wear is also judged in most child pageants, but generally they score based on costume and personality rather than body type. Beauty is centered on the contestant’s facial beauty and use of complete makeup and the neatness of the contestant from the neck up, including hair. Creativity applies to the costumes and formal wear. It is important for them to be neat, put together, creative and original, glamorous, and match the theme. Another make it or break it standard is the enthusiasm and character of the contestant on stage. Eye contact, poise, smiling, and a confident attitude is important for the judges to see in order to please them. Overall appearance wraps up the criteria by making sure everything fits together and works as a whole (Paramount, Sec. Judging Criteria Para. 3).