Painted Babies: Childhood Beauty Pageants.

So, I was watching this thing on T.V. about childhood beauty pageants and I wondered what your thoughts were on the subject. IMO its unhealthy for little girls to be placed in situations of such enormous pressure, and things that only reward outward appearances. i don't agree with it.

i think its disturbing.

any children i have won't be subjected to that kind of stuff, we shouldn't have our kids competing for who's the most attractive, whilst overtly sexualising them.

the movie "Little Miss Sunshine" is a very funny take on that.

Children are the product of thier upbringing. If thier parents worship outward appearance so will the children. It is 100% healthy for the children to emulate thier parents.

Healthy is all based perspecive.

If you as a parent have a problem with something, don't participate. Poking your perverabal nose into the parenting of other cultures could prove "unhealthy".

It's not right at all!

What is wrong with these parents? They do it for their self, not their child; living their lost dreams for themselves through their poor child.

I saw one program where, the one little girl, age 4 I believe she was, wouldn't go out of the house anymore without her make-up, because she felt 'ugly' without it!!

They're destroying those poor kids self esteem, and robbing them of a normal childhood.

Those pageants should be banned in my opinion.

I think its all wrong! I saw a programme about a little girl her in the UK that was being PUSHED by her mother to win the Beauty Pageant. whe child was havind her hair bleeched and spray tans. They flew over to the states and the child had intensive lessons on how to walk, talk, smile and pout! and out of all the little girls! there is only 1 WINNER...what does that do to their self image!

Excellent point!

The adult pageant contestants can barely deal with the loss.

I totally agree, self esteem is important in any culture. Women have enough trouble keeping things right and teens have an even worse time. Let them be children. Culture? I recognize the differences, but how is any culture right when they put such high expectations on their children to be beautiful. Children should automaticly feel beautiful, that's what makes us smile, their innocence. Take that away, we're in trouble. Loveis is absolutely right.

i disagree. the notion that it's fine for kids to emulate their parents is bordering on the ridiculous. what if the parent is a thief? is it right for the parents to teach their kids their own values, no matter what they may be? i don't think so. it's totally unhealthy for kids to value only outward beauty. it's not about perspective. a child who is overly exposed to stressful situations that promote vanity is not a mentally healthy child. period.

In a society where paedophilia is unacceptable i dont understand why it is acceptable to make children look like hookers. Childhood is so short anyways. They should give the title to any little girl who looks exactly like a little girl and not some vegas bar girl.

*edit*

I think its ok to have childrens pageants but the emphasis should be not on beauty, that provides more than enough hang ups and eating disorders for later on.

Its ok to disagree me, thats what makes for good converstation

That being said, I will tell you that its nearly impossible for children to NOT emulate thier parents. Havn't you heard the phrase... "O my god,I'm turning into my mother"? Its true, the more we fight it, the more we are denying our true selfs. We hold the values and the teachings of our parents, like it or not.

Your example of a thief is a perfect one. A great many children who are brought up in homes with one or more crimials, do have a higher liklyhood of becoming a criminal themselfs.

About your point that its unhealthy value only outward beauty. I don't think these children are being taught that at all. Sure a large portion of the pagent does require outward beauty. Pagent judges dont just just outward beauty, they have an entire tallent section too.

Personaly I think its incredibly iresponsible to NOT teach your child that outward apperances aren't important.

No, its not ok to be obese. This is a lesson I will teach my daughter. Now before you jump all over me and call me shallow, or give me Neg-Kudos because you disagree. Hear me out.

It is equily imporant that you teach your children outward appearnces are important but not to obsess over them and foster a idea that you need to destroy your body to keep up with popular opinion. The two go hand in hand. That is where some parents seem to split, and problems like eating disorders happen, because of the parents neglagence.

About your point it is not just persepective. I disagree agian. Who are you to tell me what is unhealthy for MY child? In that same respect who am I to tell YOU about YOUR child?

A great many things I may teach child as being ok or acceptable or in this term "healthy" or "unhealthy", you might disagree with. I personaly feel Mcdonalds is the root of all evil and extremly "unhealthy" to go there, which studies have show IS. But you will see a great many parents who would happly march thier kids in there for a large fry. You may feel that some of the things other people do are "Unhealthy"... but keep in mind, its just a matter of perspecitve.

You may think you know what is right and wrong for other peoples children, and you just may. But I will tell you once you have your own and have someone else come up to you with notes on things you disagree with and tells you they are "unhealthy",well.... sister... your opinion on the subject will shift. This I know because I have been in both parties shoes.

I think it's freakin disturbing, who in their right mind dolls up a four year old until she looks like a hooker that belongs in a back alley?

It's sick

Not that I'm defending "paedophillia" here, but there are a large amount of people in this world who feel children are beautiful in a "non-sexual" way.

That being said...

They feel its ok to bring out that beauty with makeup.

Personaly I think its kinda creepy...but I'm just giving you thier side of the story.

What part of thier makeup makes them look like hookers?

Are you saying all people who wear make up look like hookers?

I know I'm making a generalisation... but you need to be spacific when you say making a child pritty with make up, has a connection with prostitiution. Because if you say that about a child, you are kinda saying it about a adult, in a way.

i think all this crap about how girls need to look good all the time is bulls***.
im not saying that wearing make up is wrong overall. i think that if you wear make up and stuff, then you should wear it for yourself, not for some guy or some stupid pagent.
and i think its even worse to make your kid wear make up so they can win an even stupider pagent.

It's child abuse. Enough said!