Friday, November 2, 2012
Toddler Beauty Pageants
Today in my comp and rhetoric class, i watched a presentation on how beauty pageants are sexualizing young girls. This conclusion was drawn from the TLC television show Toddlers & Tiaras, and the costumes that mothers choose to dress their daughters in. Young girls can compete starting from a few months of age, where they are judged on beauty, costumes, and performance. Some of the things that these little girls go through to get ready for a pageant, that they do every weekend, i didn't go through to go to prom. They get false teeth made, spray tans, their eye brows waxed, make up, and hair extensions. One mother dressed her daughter up as the main characters from Pretty Woman, who is a prostitute. After establishing what these mothers put their little girls through, we had to ask why. Why does a little girl need to strut on stage as a premature sex symbol? What motives do the mother's have for doing this? Just google Toddlers & Tiaras and go through the images, and ask yourself these questions and see what answers, if any, that you can come up with.
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There's so many disturbing aspects to toddler beauty pageants. I remember reading an article where women were having their young girls' body hair (legs, underarms, and bikini area) permanently removed. How could someone make a permanent decision for their daughters for a pageants sake? I also think its mentally traumatizing to learn from the time you're a toddler that your appearance is the most important quality of yourself. We should be encouraging young girls to be kind to one another and develop into intellectually strong women.
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