Persuasive Argument Agianst Beauty Pageants Essay

448 Words2 Pages
Do you know what flippers are? Not the kinds on fish and whales, the kind that a six year-old girl wears for a pageant. By the way, flippers are false teeth. While this word may not seem familiar to you, that and many other beauty-enhancing aids are very familiar to little girls of all ages who enter beauty pageants, even babies. While some people think it’s entertaining and fun, it can really dampen the contestants’ self-confidence by choosing which one is the prettiest or the best talented. Continual entrance in beauty pageants can affect children’s self confidence by teaching young girls to look like adults, making girls focus on their outward appearance, and pressuring the girls to fulfill their parents’ wishes. Better parental education about the detrimental impacts of beauty pageants would help to avoid these problems. This article will show that people who enter their children into pageants and who coordinate them are wrong to think it promotes self-confidence and helps girls come out of their shell due to the forced maturity, the focus on appearance and the parental pressure. Christine Sherman, a beauty pageant mother, says “I think pageants are terrific because kids get a positive attitude toward themselves\". Another pageant advertisement says “Entrants are told the ‘positive, fun-filled atmosphere’ encourages ‘self-confidence, education’ and ‘striving to be your best’”. On the contrary, beauty pageants are detrimental to little girls for at least three reasons. One reason beauty pageants are not good for little girls is that it encourages girls to think that they need to look and act like adults when entering pageants. Beauty pageants make little girls think it is acceptable to look like adults so they can impress the judges. But teaching girls that it is alright to wear inappropriate clothing can damage them and affect how they act in later life.

More about Persuasive Argument Agianst Beauty Pageants Essay

Open Document