Beauty Pageants are Harmful PDF

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This is a debate topic that my partner and I have wrote up as an assessment for Global Perspectives....

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Beauty Pageants are Harmful (Kids) (Hook)-”There is no real beauty without some slight imperfection,”-James Salter. Society has set certain stereotypes to girls and women about what is beautiful which is girl’s focusing more on their appearances than in their internal selves. Every girl deserves to feel beautiful, but how can girls think that they are stunning if there is always that constant reminder of what being considered enough is. Modern beauty contests started in the United States in 1880 with the first Miss United States bathing beauty contest held in Delaware. Since then, Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International were founded. It is often seen on various TV shows where little girls are being judged by the way they walk, turn, how their makeup and hair is done and what they are wearing, and obviously their beauty. Society has set such high standards of what is considered alluring and girls are being the victims of those standards. Girls now feel that they are not beautiful enough because they do not meet the standard. With an emphasis placed on appearance in beauty contests, contestants become devastatingly concerned with the way they look. Although the main purpose of these pageants are to empower women, the crowned winners are also traveling around the world in order to support causes like HIV/AIDS and children's charity organizations. Due to the success of these internationally produced pageants, various beauty contests for different classes of age, sex and sexuality stemmed up. However, even with the huge diversity, the content of each pageants have almost always been the same: all of them are comprised of the mainstream categories like swimwear portion and evening gown portion. With these contents, beauty pageants gives out strong messages regarding what the ideal type of woman is, hence undermining the purpose of a beauty pageant: to empower women. Thus, although beauty pageants contribute to the entertainment of the masses, it promotes an ideal of female beauty that only a minority of women can realistically aspire, objectifies women, further advances cultural insensitivity among its candidates and uses up too much resources. All this tremendous effort for what? Hundreds participate in a pageant, with only one going home with the title. What effects could this possibly have on the young children and teen’s mental state? Does it strengthen them, or consequently cause them to feel inadequate about themselves? (Fact 1)-Women in beauty pageants are criticized on their physical appearance rather than on any other qualities, to achieve this some commit to bad habits. (Evidence 1)-According Debate wise beauty pageants encourage extreme dieting. Beauty contests promote an idea of female beauty to which only a minority of women can realistically implement. Those that are unable to achieve these standards end up taking dieting as a habit. A negative effect that sprouts from dieting are eating disorders. (Evidence 2)-Based on the facts that Beauty Pageants has stated, in our society more than 50% of women are dealing with eating disorders (26% kids). The most common age group, adolescents have been following strict eating habits, nearly staving them to death. (Fact 2)-The sexualization of girls is happening at a younger and younger age as children, even toddlers, are bombarded with adult influences and perceptions. (Evidence 1)-Beauty pageants (for kids) are requiring extreme, provocative costumes. According to Desertnews French clothing companies are starting a new line of children’s “lingerie” - thin, revealing undergarments, which are marketed for girls as young as 3 months old. Study done on self-sexualization

of girl 6 to 9 at Knox College showed that 68% of the girls chose sexy dolls looked most like how they would like to look, and 72% argued that the sexy doll was more popular than the non-sexy doll, when given a variation on dolls to choose from. Aside from this, girls are encouraged to wear false eyelashes, fake teeth, wear extreme amounts of makeup, lipstick, and elaborate hairstyles with hair extensions. (Evidence 2)-Next, younger members of pageants are growing up learning inappropriate acts and an inappropriate lifestyle. Little girls wanting to be sexy, which can interrupt the natural flow of age and social development. “When we sexualize girls, it has a real detrimental effect, it hurries them along and asks them to grow up and adhere to a standard that isn’t natural to them-that what’s natural and beautiful is being older than they are,” said Dr. Robyn Silverman. The effects of sexualizing young girls can damage self-esteem and are often long lasting. Also effecting later stages of child and adulthood. Pageants impact their lifestyles in multiple ways. Contests set them up with futures where they believe success, prizes and positive attention will only come if they are the prettiest and act in unmannerly ways. At is core its teaching girls that the best thing they can achieve, and the most attention they can get is to view themselves as an assemblage of body parts. Focusing on drawing attention to those body parts sets them up for all manner of problems in their lives-self-esteem, eating disorders, relationships they enter. (Evidence 3)-Pageants contestants enjoy the fact they are appeasing their audience rather than the activity themselves. Audience or older viewers implicit suggestive ideas from the child’s appearance and postures more appropriate for adult models. Beauty pageants blur the line between cute and being sensual. ” Some critics contend that the child beauty pageant culture fails to acknowledge that "sexualized images of little girls may have dangerous implications in a world where 450,000 American children were reported as victims of sexual abuse in 1993." (Fact 3)-Lastly, Beauty Pageants are degrading and objectifying contestants. (Evidence 1)- Audience judge contestants on their appearance to an extent, which were taught is wrong, and that were supposed to appreciate personality, and intelligence, gifts that are obtained by effort and good will. Beauty Pageants focus society on displaying a narrow slice of what constitutes human beauty, and fail to affirm, the fundamental dignity that every contestant has. They are also demeaning by giving the impression that those that aren’t attractive have less value. And pageants objectify members by their looks. Pageants are demeaning to members as a whole and reinforce an outdated idea of female beauty and success. It not only reinforces the negative thought that your personal worth is tied to your looks and the narrow definition of what is attractive, but it also teaches contestants that the only way to succeed is to compete against others for the benefit of those judging you. This type of confining behavior limits members potential to be viewed. (Evidence 2)- FutureofWorking stated that beauty pageants treat women as objects despite numerous calls for it to not be the case. (Conclusion)- Beauty Pageants are competitions based solely off beauty and an outer appearance. Throughout the beauty pageant process, woman transform themselves into what looks like a porcelain doll. These competitions have a harmful toll on woman worldwide. These pageants do more harm than good. In other words, striving to be a beauty queen is a danger to the physical and mental health of viewers and contestants. Beauty pageants distract society from noticing the fundamental

dignity and value that contestants have beside their looks. It's important for girls to be able to speak about themselves in a strength-based manner and discover where their strengths sprout. Your value decrease based on someone's inability to see your worth. If a woman does not meet the criteria of beauty, then she is seen as less important than others. Beauty pageants encourage people to rate women based on superficial standards. All over the world, people begin to acquire faulty ideas of what women should strive to be like. Pageants in general highlight appearances as an important factor of character, while lowering the self-esteem of girls and forcing them to try and put a mask over their flaws....