Pageants: The Good, The Bad, and the UGLY.

Watching little girls parade around on stage with “airbrush tans, hair extensions, uncomfortable costumes, and false eyelashes” is a concept that many people find hard to understand. These little women girls, are expected to remember stage routines from the tender age of 2 or 3, while maintaining their “Barbie-esque” appearance for a panel of judges at all times. Most would argue that watching children shake their hips and wiggle their butts to provocative dance music is COMPLETELY inappropriate. Although these little girls may not realize the suggestiveness of their performance, parents do. Dance or acting lessons allow children to perform on stage without being subject to the fake and unrealistic aspects that come hand-in-hand with full glitz pageants.

               

Beauty pageant advocates, however, feel that the majority of arguments proposed by critics are due to their complete lack of knowledge on the subject. Unlike most people choose to believe, pageants aren’t solely based on “superficial beauty”. They give girls a chance to show off their talents, and enhance their self-confidence. They are judged on “speaking ability for age, modeling ability for age, personality” and many other aspects that have no relation to their appearance. How is the “fake stuff” that pageants get so much flack for, any different than the gear and equipment children require in other sports or activities? Pageants provide children with a safe environment that allow them to have fun, make friends, and express themselves.

While both sides make compelling arguments, we feel that beauty pageants are in fact a little on the ugly side. Despite the fact that children are building their self-confidence, there is an underlying sense of emptiness associated with this “safe environment”. We feel that the superficial aspects of pageants do in fact outshine the idea of inner beauty and personality. It’s almost impossible to see who a child really is under all that fake hair and make-up.

“You are beautiful, no matter what they say.”

               

http://suburbanturmoil.blogspot.com/2006/09/pageant-mom-responds.html