On “16 and Pregnant”, it is hard for those girls to get by in life. They have to rely on their parents and hope that will be enough. Last year there were 1.5 million views of the show Teen Mom. This just shows how many people actually do watch and care about this show. It also shows how many people support the lives of these teen parents.
When these words are put together you would usually think of a Las Vegas showgirl dressing room instead of the dressing room of a beauty pageant for young girls ranging from six months to ten years of age. Some people would say this is an honor for any young girl, and others including myself believe it is just exploitative to put a young child through what has become a highly controversial event, the Beauty Pageant. Beauty Pageants were introduced in the United States in 1920. This was a ground breaking year, as women from all over the country were given the opportunity to show their talent, outer beauty and inner intelligence. Little did our country know, that 40 years later, children as young as 6 months would be competing in beauty pageants.
Youthful Beauty In the world of spray-tanned nine year olds known as 'Child Beauty Pageants', spending thousands in an effort to win a simple tiara is a common--almost mandatory--act. Although, the tiara is not all that is won in these pageants; a sense of pride and supremacy is also at stake. What is risked when these pageant parents put all their emphasis on the outer beauty of their impressionable daughters? At such a young age, a child's future mentality depends on the morals and priorities they are brought up to have. To prevent the potential superficial women that may come from these pageants, there should be an age limit present in child beauty pageants.
She had worked really hard and taken lots of time trying to make Jing Mei a prodigy because Jing Mei was her last hope of becoming a “somebody” or famous. Jing Mei’s mother also expected her to be a prodigy because she emigrated from China; she thought America was the land of opportunity and “you could be anything you wanted to be in America [and] you could become instantly famous.”(199) Jing Mei’s mother didn’t know what she wanted her to do, so she experimented. This is the Inciting Force. It is the first sign of conflict. First she tried dancing and singing, “At first my mother thought I could become a Chinese Shirley Temple” (200).
Young girls tried with all of their might to be just like Barbie, to be perfect. In 1973 when Marge Piercy wrote this poem, she was conveying a message to her readers that no matter how hard we try, perfection is not something we achieve in our lifetimes, only in death. At the time this poem was written, Barbie had already been out for nearly twenty years. “Millions of children throughout the world, mostly girls, owned and played with one or more Barbie dolls, while some older people collected them (and some still do)” (Sherrow 1). Many of these women and young girls were trying to emulate her look at the time, which considering her measurements of 39-18-33, was virtually impossible.
For most parents and their little girls it is just good fun. They do not take the beauty pageants seriously. For a few parents the beauty pageants become an obsession. This is when beauty pageants for children can suddenly become very harmful. “Critics of the industry warn that the stresses of competition, coupled with an extreme focus on physical appearance, can have a negative effect long before these girls will be eligible for Miss America.” (Triggs, West and Aradillas 160-168) The loss of self-esteem, the inability to show a full range of emotions, the fear of failure, the extreme focus on physical image, and the discord with or fear of parents are a few of the symptoms those little girls will suffer from.
Plastic Surgery; Women in Today’s Media Plastic Surgery has increasingly become more acceptable, more attainable, and the fastest growing trend in young women in today’s society. Plastic surgery is becoming more and more popular among younger women because of what they see as acceptable in our society. Last year, twenty three year old, reality television star, Heidi Montag went under the knife for a second time, the first being four years ago, to undergo ten major procedures in one day. Heidi sacrificed her safety and possibly her life just to achieve what she has said as an “improved version of herself,” in her post surgery interview on Good Morning America; but what others have said is too drastic, too dangerous, and at too young of an age. I contend that socialization theory, social cognitive theory, cognitive dissonance theory, and the agenda setting theory have all assisted the media in promoting and encouraging these drastic and life threatening surgeries as only a small sacrifice in achieving the ultimate ideal of beauty.
Article analysis 2 In the article ‘Child Beauty Pageants. SO WHAT!’ written by Wendy Harmer and published the 2nd of August 2011. This article presents itself to be a very in your face article on the topic of child beauty pageants. In this article Harmer presents the audience with many persuasive techniques including an analogy, colloquial language and humour. In this article we are presented with two images, one depicts a young Balinese girl dressed up in all traditional styles of dress performing the local folklore dance as per tradition.
It all started when she was 16 years old and another teammates coach told her she needed to start thinking about losing weight if she wanted to run faster. Its nearly impossible to believe that an athlete of Avil’s caliber could withstand competing with a eating disorder and still become number one in their sport, but can you imagine how much greater she would have been if she had been at the top of her game. The truth is that we live in a society where female athletes are judge women on a much higher scale than males. Female athletes shouldn’t be torn down and insulted for their appearance instead they should be held up for the extraordinary feats they accomplish. Perhaps if Hollie Avil had received the appropriate praise for being the Junior World and European champion in 2007, she would have had the strength to overcome her anorexia before it resulted in stress fractures in both her shins.
Child Pageants: Unethical or Healthy Competition? By Cassie Pombrio October 21,2009 They arrive on stage dressed head to toe in pageant couture; faces painted resembling baby clowns, and as they begin to perform rehearsed routines, they eye the reason they’re there: the 5 foot-tall trophy and crystal tiara lying enticingly in the judge’s grip. According to the Rocky Mountain Collegian, child pageants provide poisonous competition at such a fragile, developmental stage in a child’s life. I quote them, “What these pageants communicate to participants is false conception such as: beauty merits recognition and self-worth based on physical attributes.” Is the strive to become “the complete package” in one of the fastest growing industries in American culture detrimental to self esteem or healthy competition? Beauty pageants entered American society in the 1920’s.