21 Aug. 2006. 2 June 2009 This source discusses the anger of beauty pageants. Beauty pageants promote the sexualization of young girls and provide to those involved in pedophilia. Parents are the ones who are at fault for exposing and subjecting their daughters to the sexual use of beauty pageantry. I’m going to use this info to prove that Beauty pageants aren’t just for fun and games, that there child could be in danger .
Because the girl in the poem does not fit the standard set forth, she is laughed at by her peers and devalued for her lack of classic beauty. She had many positive qualities "possessed strong arms and back" (8), "test intelligent"(7) and "abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity"(9). But, because of her larger nose and fat legs, the negative self-image pushed her to self-mutilation and suicide. The message is blunt, traditional beauty standards are harmful, and the women and girls who do not live up to them lack worth in society’s eyes. In the first stanza, the "girlchild"(1) is born.
They compete against other contestants for an award of money, pageant titles, trophies, and a big sparkly tiara. However I don't approve of the parents position to put their child through this, and how they treat their daughters throughout the competition. Not only are they exploiting their five-year-olds for their own personal gain, they are putting their child through so much misery to look beautiful. They live through their daughters fame and glory, and make their daughters look very high maintenance. The Toddlers and Tiara girls go through hours of make-up, to different hairstyles, and wearing big fake wigs.
This is disappointing to me. How are little girls suppose to grow up with any self confidence when something as big as the Miss USA pageant is making them feel like their bodies need to be altered to be beautiful? In our society thick or bigger women are not acceptable. It is skinny, tall, big boobs, and a tan that is in. And if your natural body type is so far from that, well then hurry and change yourself with thousands of dollars in cosmetic surgery.
All over the world, girls often go through a "princess phase", made up with anything pink and pretty. When it happened to Peggy Orenstein's daughter, the writer decided to examine the phenomenon. She found that the “girlie-girl” culture was less innocent than it might seem, and can have negative consequences for girls' psychological, social and physical development. From a very young age, girls learn to define themselves from the outside in, and a lot of researches suggest that our culture’s emphasis on physical beauty is the root of problems such as negative body image, depression, eating disorders and high-risk sexual behavior. I strongly agree with the Peggy Orenstein’s article.
How is she supportive when she tells her child this one sided statement of winning to whatever means possible. Adding to this atrocity; she outfitted her daughter, then 4 years old, with faux breasts and padding for her derriere to more convincingly portray the curvaceous Dolly Parton. When I read about it, this display of pageantry is immoral and down-right disgusting. I’m thinking this was her way of reasoning “do what it takes.” Most stage mother’s claim that their child wanted to enter the
Literary Analysis: “Barbie Doll” Today’s women hold themselves to unreachable and unreasonable standards of beauty. With media and social networking on the rise, the standard of beauty is skewed to what others portray it to be. Girls and women of all ages and diversity have self-esteem issues due to the “beauty myth”. Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth, defines it as an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society’s impossible definition of ‘the flawless beauty’.” In Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll”, the deadly effects of the beauty myth are revealed. It all begins with a young girl being born into the world of judgment.
Toddlers and Tiaras Toddlers and Tiaras is a reality show about the very competitive world of child pageants. The show follows families and their daughters as they compete in beauty pageants in hopes to win sparkly crowns, pageant titles, trophies, and money. Some of the children competing in these shows are as young as two years old. In no way are they old enough to decide for themselves whether or not they want to compete in these pageants, but their parents have made that decision for them. The parents of these young pageant girls force them to wear pounds of makeup, spray them with fake tanning spray, buy fake teeth to cover up their baby teeth, wax their eyebrows, and encourage them to eat very little so they can be as thin as possible.
This “perfect” image that is modeled by Barbie dolls has shaped the way young woman view themselves and others. Most girls, including the female in the poem, believe that Barbie is the standard for acceptance and any exceptions are viewed as ugly or weird. This has shaped our society for the worse in a sense that young girls are being bullied and judged for something out of their hands. Piercy shows this, through the use of irony when she states, “Then in
Who is Fairest of Them All? Child pageants such as the ones featured on television show young girls, usually no older than six or seven years old, wearing heavy makeup and parading around on a stage in front of the eyes of several judges and even more spectators. These children are then ranked not by who they are as a person, but by how glamorous they appeared. Because of this, young girls are left crying, feeling that they are not beautiful enough to warrant recognition, and thus these girls are left with the notion that they are lesser than the child who won. Imagine the long-term effects that being told that she was not pretty enough will have on the confidence of a young girl, especially after all the hard work she had put into her performance.