Child Beauty Pageants so What?

734 Words3 Pages
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. While the other picture is of the US pageant start Eden Wood dressed up in a swimsuit with full hair and make up. Harmer presents her contention well; she explains that people shouldn’t be getting all up in arms about child beauty pageants because in reality everyone exploits their children at one time or another in their own way. Her contention is also introduced in the title of the article with the words “SO WHAT!” which sends the message that people really shouldn’t care as much as they are now. In Harmers opening sentence she makes reference to a personal experience that she had while she was holidaying at a hotel in Bali, she says she watched young Balinese girls with their “torsos wrapped in golden fabric, hair elaborately styled, nails painted, eyes fully made up and lips stained ruby red” while they performed alongside their big sisters and mothers, dancing with sheer talent. Harmer later says that after a conversation at the bar afterwards that everyone agreed that it was beautiful to see these girls connecting with their culture, no one there was ranting that these young girls were being sexualized or that there was any self “grooming” from paedophiles in the audience. This statement shows her comparing the moral panic surrounding the child beauty pageants in an analogy with the use of this tradition. Harmer then

More about Child Beauty Pageants so What?

Open Document