Monday, January 23, 2012

the good side of beauty pageants


Since this post I've been talking about negative aspects, I am going to switch things up today and discuss the "pros" of beauty pageants. I found an article online outlining the good and the bad of a beauty pageant but I am going to select a few points from the good and present them to you. These points are not opinions of my own, they are points that I have found from others.

  1. Beauty pageants teach kids to be their very best. The promoters of Australia's first Universal Royalty Beauty Pageant defended the practice saying that it taught the lesson of "striving to be your very best."
  2. Beauty contests can boost a child's self-esteem. The most cited reason parents give for putting their children into beauty pageants is to boost their child’s self-esteem, as well as teach poise, public speaking skills, tact, and confidence.
  3. "She learns skills such as going out in a crowd, not to be shy, and to be herself while people are watching and focusing on her," one mother noted.
  4. Child beauty pageants judge whole person. Some of the criteria considered in judging a pageant are writing skills, interviews, personality, looks, confidence and talent, depending on the specific competition.

  5. Child beauty contests teaches there will always be somebody better. Another child beauty contest mother noted: "I want my child to be aware that there’s always going to be somebody better than her. It’s a hard thing to learn – it was for me – and I want her to start early."

As I was reading this article I was shocked to read point 3 & 4. "Child beauty pageants judge whole person." Oddly enough, most of the examples they enumerated was exterior aspects. Writing skills... Looks... Talent... all exterior aspects of a person! You could even included writing skills and confidence. With that said child beauty pageants are not "judg[ing] [the] whole person" just the exterior looks of the person. This point can actually be used in the negative aspects of beauty pageants. Of what I can think of right now there is no way to judge someone from what is "inside" in a beauty pageant... considering right in the name it says beauty and beauty is, usually, associated with exteriors looks in this society.

Now point 4... "I want my child to be aware that there’s always going to be somebody better than her." What is this?! No one is ever ever ever better than someone else! Okay, maybe person A is better in soccer than person B but person B can be better in volleyball than person A which as a result balances it out. Therefore, maybe some one is better than you in one thing but that does not mean that they are better than you in general. Seriously. Now one is better than another human. Period.

http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Debate:_Child_beauty_pageants

4 comments:

  1. This is really great, but unfortunately I only agree with one point, and that's point number two.
    The only pro that I agree with is that being in front of crowds, it can help boost your self-esteem. The negative part of this would be that because they are in front of crowds, and in front of judges, they are constantly being judged, and the audience is always looking at them, being and being compared to their kids.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just wanted to state my opinion on this whole child beauty pageant business. If I were to be a parent I would never want to put my girl in this business. I feel like it's way too much for kids to be wearing so much make up and wearing these tight short dresses. All it's gonna do in the end if encourage them in the future to be like that, and to wear these types of clothing that in my opinion feel that it's just way too much for a 9,10 or 11 year old to be wearing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Okay so maybe it helps boost their self esteem in the sense that they aren't shy in front of crowds, but if they learn that they are being judged on how they look and only on how they look so their self esteem can't be that great. I don't know, if my mom was always telling me to be beautiful, that makeup and hair and clothes were the only thing that made me beautiful, i would have a very low, very bruised ego. They are going to grow up thinking they are just something to look at, nothing more. That's really sad. Also I think the mother meant more there will always be someone else who is more ''talented'' in a beauty pageant? I don't know. You're blog gives an inside look on beauty pageants and it's very interesting. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
  4. After reading the 'pros' of beauty pageants I noticed that while reading I actually did agree with some of the points made. Yes beauty pageants present many negative effects on young children however I do believe it gives the child the chance to learn how to present themselves in front of a crowd. At a young age these girls learn how to speak and perform in front of a live audience and you never know if that could trigger the 'star' potentiel in them. If you look at the miss universe's, almost all of them claim to have been in beauty pageants since a young age and these are the girls representing their countries now. All in all my views on pageants are both negative and positive.

    ReplyDelete