Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Child Beauty Pageants........Positive or Negative?








There are soooooo many more children, like the ones above, whose parents enter them into these "Little Miss Beauty Pageants" regularly. Would you consider this as a positive or negative? Do you feel as if these parents are trying to re-live their youth through their kids? True indeed, these are not my children and the parents reserve the right to enter their children into pageants if they choose, who am I to advise another person what they should or should not be doing with their children..........................However, this still does not change the fact that I'm entitled to my own opinion. One of my issues with the children pageants is that they seem to be more geared towards making these little children (I said children, not teenagers) look like little grown women. Another issue is that I feel like a child should receive an opportunity to be a child. I think it's ridiculous how some parents place a huge amount of pressure on their little children to win these pageants. Some time ago I saw a documentary about these pageants and what the children had to go through and I was in disbelief. Disbelief that their parents would pull them away from enjoying playdates with friends, going to amusement parks, running around at playgrounds, going to the zoo, watching movies at the theatre, going to the library, etc., just so they can practice non-stop on how they will perform at the pageant. In real life, we don't have a stop watch to stop time. Time isn't placed on hold for anyone and the more children are spending time in these pageants, the less time they are spending enjoying their youth.

2 comments:

  1. I have mixed feelings about them. It really depends on how the parent approaches the pagents w/the children. If it's for die hard competition - that's a big no no to me. I have known parents though who's child had a certain love for dressing up & things like that where the pagent world would be fun (as long as the parents KEEP it FUN) as well as those who have entered their "awkward" but talented children in a few to boost their confidence. I don't believe you should push a child to growup too fast though nor do I think you should teach them the "win or kill" attitude that seems to surround "pagent people". Winning and losing though are important lessons - whether it be on the ball field, the cheer squad or the pagent.

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  2. MediaCurves.com just conducted a study with 300 viewers of a video featuring the recent controversy surrounding child beauty pageants. The results showed that the majority of viewers reported that “disturbed” and “sad” were the emotions the felt most while watching the video. The study found that 84% of viewers reported that they felt the long-term effect on contestants was negative. For more in-depth results, please visit http://www.mediacurves.com/Culture/J7495-pageants/Index.cfm.
    Thanks,
    Ben

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