AHS Are Beauty Pageants Exploitive PDF

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AHS 107 are beauty pageants exploitative...

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Running head: TRUTH ABOUT BEAUTY PAGEANTS

The Unspoken Truth About Beauty Pageants Riana Ismail 20788588 Thursday, October 18th, 2018 AHS 107 University of Waterloo Dr. Wade Wilson TA Name: Betsy Farrar

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The Unspoken Truth About Beauty Pageants The innocence of beauty pageants has been contemplated for decades and is known to bring a family closer over their competition to the opposition of a young girl. One of the most controversial issues is the engagement of young girls participating in such activities as beauty pageants have a direct effect on both physical and emotional aspects of well-being. The increase in popularity of beauty pageants over the years has become overwhelmingly alarming and should be further contemplated. Position Statement Beauty pageants are detrimental and exploitative to a child’s well-being as it conveys a materialistic belief on little girls, it damages the child’s health and it imparts a message that physical beauty depicts one’s character while reducing one’s self-worth to appearances.

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Cartwright, M. (2012). Princess by Proxy: What Child Beauty Pageants Teach Girls About SelfWorth and What We Can Do About It. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 51(11), 1105-1107.

Within this editorial from a scholarly journal, Cartwright examines the issues that parents of beauty pageant contestants might be ignorant to observe such as overlooking their children to obtain a selfish prize. Furthermore, she discusses the idea that pageants can be detrimental to a child’s health and well- and the pressure put onto them by parents is psychologically destructive as they are missing out on the opportunity to experience a normal childhood.

Martina M. Cartwright obtained her Ph.D. and is both a dietician and a professor at the University of Arizona and specializes in the department of nutritional sciences. She has studied for over twenty years in the fields of medical education, clinical practice, and scientific research and has published in peer-reviewed medical journals, making her qualified to write opinions on developmental biology regarding sexual exploitation.

This editorial serves as a reminder that parents should make decisions for their kids in their best interest and not for personal, selfish, or vile reasons. My study will discuss the cons of beauty pageants, so I will use this editorial to better understand the arguments to support my opinion as well as the mind set of parents of contestants and television producers.

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Mills, A. (2011). Girls gone skank: The sexualization of girls in American culture. Feminist Review, 99(99), E16-E17.

Within this editorial from a peer-reviewed journal, Mills argues that young girls are being socialized to participate in their own torture and abuse by altering their behaviour to showcase sexually exploitative goods and images. She associates trends with an unmistakable social sexual exploitation of children and young girls. Lastly, she exhausts the idea that beauty pageants along with plastic surgery influence specifically young girls in a negative way as social media portrays a unrealistic image of a perfect woman.

Amanda Mills has been teaching business management at the University of Victoria for over 25 years and is the founder of Loose Change Financial Therapy which has provided workshops for social workers, psychotherapists, sex trade workers, and women’s groups. This makes her qualified to speak on the topic of sexual exploitation of young girls.

This journal article serves as a reminder that simple, innocent, public trends can be detrimental to a young girl’s mental health. The media constantly sexualizes women and young girls and it has come to a point where it is being not only ignored but accepted. My study will discuss the influences of social media and the role it plays on a young girl’s life and I will use the arguments in this article to support my opinion and further explain why beauty pageants are exploitative.

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Kelly, J. M., & Garmon, L. C. (2016). Perceptions of child beauty pageants and their impacts: What really lies behind the tiara? Atlantic Journal of Communication, 24(4), 201-215. doi:10.1080/15456870.2016.1208528

This peer-reviewed article, Kelly and Garmon impose the idea that beauty pageants are extremely controversial as they sexualize young girls and have been proven to lead to abuse. It utilizes a specific gratification approach to determine the reasons why beauty pageants have a strong viewing and their motivation and reasoning behind their decision. It was concluded that females are more likely to watch beauty pageants for mere entertainment purposes.

Jessica M. Kelly is a professor of psychology with her Ph.D., at Salisbury University who has had articles published in the Atlantic Journal of Communication. Lance C. Garmon is also a professor of psychology at Salisbury University and has had articles published about media understanding influences and emerging adulthood in the Atlantic Journal of Communication and the Journal of Moral Communication. Thus, this makes them qualified to speak about matters concerning sexualizing young girls in beauty pageants as it relates to adulthood and media influences.

This journal article serves as a reminder that young girls as well as women are being sexualized in the media and are their mental health is being overlooked. Moreover, their participation in such activities is leading to concerns about their mental well-being and abuse. My study will discuss the implications of such activities on both young girls and women and this article will help aid my understanding and contains numerous other ideas I can pursue such as anorexia and steroid abuse.

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As I began to research, I briefly deliberated key terms that related to my topic of exploitation of children and beauty pageants. After determining the key words, I used the University of Waterloo Library Catalogue and Scopus as well as applied various Boolean Operators (i.e. “AND”) in order to narrow down my research outcomes. I also verified that I utilizes the “peer-reviewed” section and adjusted the timeline to find the most recent articles. A few examples of the terms I used contain: -

“beauty pageants” AND exploitation

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“beauty pageants” AND children

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“beauty pageants” AND (children AND exploitation)

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Pageants AND (children OR exploitation)

I then proceeded to evaluate my search outcomes because if some outcomes that appeared were too narrow, I proceeded to expand my search by eliminating specific terms. Alternatively, if my search outcomes were very broad, I would input detailed terms to narrow my search down. Subsequently, I proceeded to glance at the summary and abstract of the article to determine whether or not the ideas were similar to mine. It was also vital to me that I search journal articles from both points of view to ensure I present my arguments in an authentic manner....