Child Beauty Pageants: “Life-Affirming & Fabulous” or Child Abuse?
November 3, 2009
Go-go boots, fake eyelashes, hair extensions, exaggerated make-up, bikinis, spray tans, and tea-cup chihuahuas aren’t just for big girls anymore. The billion-dollar world of the child beauty pageant industry is, apparently, a growing past-time for many Americans. But, honestly, I hate to call the adults who enjoy and perpetuate this phenomenon “Americans.” If I was the type, I would say they were unAmerican. But I’m not the type.
Recently, a surge of uncritical media is capitalizing on the spectacle of little girls dressed-up, hair-sprayed, clothed, and posed like special edition Barbie dolls. You’ve probably all seen or heard about the reality TV shows that cover such pageants. TLC broadcasts Toddlers and Tiaras, and there’s a new one coming out called Little Miss Perfect on WEtv.
And now, in the new book High Glitz, Susan Anderson photographs young participants in full pageant costume, and if you have a queazy stomach, I suggest you don’t bother looking through the images. Anderson, whose credits include editorial and fashion work for People, Glamour, and Playboy (!), says it’s “admirable” how these young girls are so “professional” and “like little adults.” And Simon Doonan, who serves as Barney’s NY creative director, calls the pageants “life-affirming and fabulous” with a remarkably straight face. I couldn’t make up stuff like this, people!
Not to rain on Anderson and Doonan’s parade, but the professionalism seems more like a violation of child labor laws, and the fabulousness is quite simply hyper-sexualization and objectification. My question is, why is the whole child beauty pageant industry booming? Why is it not criminal and illegal to distort and display and profit off of the bodies of young girls? Why don’t we think it’s perverted and criminal to forge the appearance of cleavage onto an 8-year-old? Am I being overly sensitive when I say this is child abuse?
I don’t think so,
Spring
November 3, 2009 at 10:23 am
i don’t think so either! pageant moms and dads… cringe… take the kid outside and let her play in the dirt!
November 3, 2009 at 11:14 am
I was in a pageant in the early 80s when I was eight years old. For the most part, little girls still looked like little girls and I didn’t have to wear a bathing suit. But, when I lost, I remember seething with hatred-I would not call this an exaggeration. So, not only was the feeling of losing very devastating, it created animosity toward the other girls. At eight, I was supported by several adults to foster the feeling of hatred towards girls who I viewed as prettier than myself. This type of competition centered around the dichotomy of pretty/not pretty created a road for self-esteem problems and emotional turmoil, paving the way for a future of nasty behavior toward other women, who should have been viewed as a fellow woman also struggling with the same issues. My summarized statement is this: these pageants foster feelings of inferiority and hatred in little girls which breaks down the ability to build a strong community of women.
November 3, 2009 at 5:38 pm
well said, kay!
November 3, 2009 at 9:51 pm
I was in a pageant in 6th grade. Mom kept telling me I’d hate it, but I pestered her until she let me enter. She was right. I just remember sitting there with this girl I didn’t know anxiously squeezing my hand wondering why the hell she cared so much.
November 3, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Also, go look at a pageant retouching web page like this: http://www.photoretouchinglab.com/miss-teen-usa-pageant-photo-retouch-online-glitz.html
Ew ew ew ew ew.
November 4, 2009 at 3:41 am
eeewe, holly, why’d you do that to me?
November 4, 2009 at 12:06 pm
C’mon. It takes an awful lot of talent to make toddlers not adorable. These people are *masters.*
November 5, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Well said, KBee! In my small Georgia town growing up, pageants were the thing for girls to do, so I did maybe four or five. There was great pressure put on the girls of my elementary school to be the next Little Miss Sugar Hill (several pages in the back of each yearbook were devoted to it). Nothing was oversexed (this was the late eighties), but I never left a pageant feeling good. It took me years to shake that feeling of competition I learned at age eight.