Young Girls Participating in Beauty Pageants

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Young girls participating in Beauty Pageants In my opinion, there are far too many reasons to not support these pageants. Mainly because it does lead these young girls into believing that these revealing and short, flashy dresses accompanied with loads of make-up is beautiful. These developed habits might lead to them becoming a sexual object to child predators in the future. Melissa (2011) claims that young girls are being “exposed” to hypersexualization in certain content published by the media, which is the cause of early sexualization in girls. Even though it might help with self-esteem and confidence, in my opinion the negative effects outweigh the positive ones. Another reason is because it also leads to children thinking that beauty is only skin deep, leading to a superficial attitude. The last reason why I am against beauty pageants is because it can lead to eating disorders or diets. Mandy (2012) argues that majority of young girls in the U.S. have been on “diets” or are diagnosed with eating disorders. With one thing leading to another, beauty pageants lead to hypersexualization and how it lead to beauty, then to superficial attitudes, then to self-esteem problems, and finally to health issues. Hypersexualization One of my main reasons why I am against young girls participating in beauty pageants is because eventually it can lead to sexualization and ransom for the sexual predators. Which could possibly lead to death. For example, Martinez and Karimi (2013) discuss the JonBenet Ramsey case, who in fact was a beauty pageant queen. JonBenet received a bike for Christmas in 1996, the day after Christmas she was kidnapped. The mother found a note demanding $118,000 for her return. Later that night the little girl was found dead in her own basement, she was sexually abused. In my polling, one of my questions was “do you think it’s wrong for children under the

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