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Jaclyn Neuman
Professor Wilson
Lit 100-036
5 December 2013
Crowning Youth Beauty Pageantry, a Win or a Loss?
In a modern society largely focused on being crowned a winner, child beauty
pageants have become a problematic recreational activity due to the ways in which they
sexualize and eroticize the youth who participate in them. Many sociologists and
psychologists have made the argument that child beauty pageants are negatively affecting
the social development of the children who are often forced to participate in them. Most
parents of participants enter their children into pageants with the initial hope that
pageantry will provide opportunities and skills that will help them succeed later in life.
Pageant parents claim that pageants offer their children the opportunity to build self-
esteem, confidence, and poise, allowing for greater and brighter futures. At the same time,
psychologists argue that these parents fail to recognize how they are sexually exploiting
their children and creating long-term negative effects that are instilled by the pageants
The Evolution of Pageantry
Beauty contests began in the late 1850s and can be attributed to Phineas T.
Barnum. Barnum owned a museum in New York City that held national contests to try and
attract citizens to come visit. These contests put children, dogs, chickens, and flowers on
display to be judged and crowned a winner. However, these contests did not attract visitors
like Mr. Barnum had intended, so he decided to create a new type of beauty contest where
entrants would submit photos to be judged and displayed in his museum. Photo beauty
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contests became extremely popular and were considered a respectable way for girls and
women to have their beauty judged (PBS par. 6).
In 1880, the first resort beauty pageant was held in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Attitudes towards pageants began to change, and it became acceptable to display women
provocatively in public (PBS par. 7). The first Miss America pageant was held in 1920 and
began the transformation into the beauty pageants we recognize today (Banet-Weiser 20).
Todays child beauty pageant consists of mostly female contestants competing in categories
such as gowns, swimsuit, talent, personal interviews, and sportswear. Contestants are
judged on their overall appearance, as well as specifically on their hair, makeup, and
costumes, in order to win titles, crowns, sashes, savings bonds, and occasionally cash
prizes. Families spend a substantial amount of time and money preparing for pageants and
as contestants get older and become more immersed in beauty pageant culture, many will
hire coaches to help them prepare and ensure they are working to the best of their ability
(Banet-Weiser 21). As the competition becomes more and more intense, the ways that
children conduct themselves in these pageants becomes more and more subversive.
Pageant Culture
Watching a four-year-old strut down a runway forces one to question, is exploiting
the youth worth a sterling silver plated crown? It is a question we ask ourselves as we
watch beauty pageant reality television shows such as TLCs Toddlers & Tiaras. Where do
we draw the line for what is acceptable and what is not in a world where spray tans, body
waxing, false nails, and teeth whitening are common and casual necessities for the young
teenager? In the eyes of many pageant mothers, beauty pageants hold a fundamental
purpose in their childrens lives. A pageant mom tends to look beyond the negative ways
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pageantry is classified, and sees pageantry as a way for their child to develop a sense of
who they are. These moms view pageantry as an activity that can offer heightened senses
of self-esteem, communications skills, poise, and morale for their children. When asked
what they expect to receive from having their children participate in pageants, most
pageant parents are striving for their childs success so they can one day be independently
successful and make money (Levey 122). With their aspirations high, it is not uncommon
for a pageant parent to be relying on these competitions to help put their child through
college (Levey 122). So if pageantry to these parents is perceived as most parents perceive
any other sport or a hobby, what is the harm done?
Sexualizing the Innocent
Over three million children are, what some may consider, harmed by beauty
pageants yearly (Oneil 1). Those who view pageantry as a form of child sexualization often
perceive it as harmful. According to the American Psychology Association, sexualization
can occur when a child is expected or encouraged to dress or act in a sexual manner
(Wilcox par. 2). An example of this type of sexualization can be found in pageantry when a
parent instills the idea in their child that maintaining an attractive physical appearance is a
fundamental importance in life. It is evident that child beauty pageants in the twenty first
century strongly focus on maintaining an appealing body. Pageant parents can be seen in
dressing rooms spray tanning, inserting false hair, applying full makeup, and dressing their
children in ornate costumes prior to their entrance on stage. On an episode of Toddlers &
Tiaras aired February 15, 2013, six-year-old contestant Katlyn, dressed in her bright pink
gown, diamonds, spray tan, and full stage makeup, was given a critique by a judge saying,
The only thing that I would suggest is a little smoother hair. She kind of had some
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frizziness going on (TLC Hypocrite Pageant Judge). As seen by this example, beauty
pageants claim that examining both outer and inner beauty composes the adjudication
process, however this outer beauty tends to be the focus of adjudicators in crowning a
champion. Pageants today make an effort to advocate for a womans voice by often
questioning contestants on their opinions of domestic and foreign issues that reside in our
world, however they create their own issues by allowing contestants to be sexually
exploited.
The trend of pageantry shifting from a more conservative to extremely provocative
and sexually exploited competition is a result of many factors that expose our youth to
eroticism. Corrine Connolly addresses the issue of American girls becoming increasingly
concerned with beauty and appearance in an article she wrote to investigate cultural
disregard for girls through promotion of sexualized femininity. In her article, Connolly
discussed how young girls are becoming increasingly concerned with beauty and
appearance as a result of controversial reality TV shows that explore the journey of girls in
beauty pageants (9). She stated that, Shifting trends in girlhood and the emphasis on
beauty, appearance, and sexuality in girl culture are the root of the problem (Connolly 8).
When stores such as Abercrombie only sell shorts that barely reach mid thigh and halter
shirts that expose more skin than they cover, how could pageants possibly surpass these
new norms of girlhood and create a world where femininity is even more profound
(Connolly 9)? It is evident through the emergence of high-glitz pageants that pageantry
places an enormous emphasis on altering the image of a young child into a representation
of adulthood and sexuality. Sociologist Hilary Levey, a research associate at the Malcolm
Wiener Center for Social Policy, argues that although pageantry has been around since the
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1800s, it has reformed into an attention craving activity due to the ways in which our
culture has become heavily dependent on the media entertainment industry (196). In an
article published in USA TODAY, which discusses the debate of banning child beauty
pageantry, author Michelle Healy states:
Back then, the world of kid pageants was still very much a subculture limited
to geographic pockets... in today's wired world, however, anyone anywhere
can find out where to buy the best dress and accessories, get coaching on
Skype, and find a competition (par. 24).
In a society where it is now easily accessible to partake in viewing pageantry on television,
there has there been a heightened desire for celebrity status and fame along with an
increase in pageantry participation.
The Hype of Toddlers & Tiaras
Our current generation of youth is growing up in a world where it is not hard to find
pageantry as we flip through the channels on our cable televisions. To some viewers,
Toddlers & Tiaras, the TLC show that offers an inside look at child beauty pageants, may
seem obscure, but to others its humor and absurdity make it quite entertaining to watch.
The show itself pokes fun of child pageantry, as it tends to focus on the many aspects of
these competitions that the common person would find humorous, such as parents feeding
their children pixie sticks for energy boosts before they walk on stage (TLC Pageant Energy
Sticks). Christine Tamers journal article, Toddlers, Tiaras, and Pedophilia? The Borderline
Child Pornography Embraced By the American Public, explores beauty pageants that are
featured on television and addresses how the pageants featured on these shows do harm to
children. Toddlers & Tiaras, one of TLCs most popular reality shows, which follows pageant
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families as they prepare to compete in high-glitz pageants, achieved an average of 1.3
million viewers each week in its second season alone (Tamer 86). The show takes you back
stage to observe pageant parents prepare their children by choreographing dance routines,
dressing them in $1000 dresses, spray tanning their bodies, adorning their fingers with
fake nails, and gluing fake eyelashes on their eyelids in order to make entrants appear
much older than they actually are (Tamer 86). Not only is the sexual exploitation of pageant
contestants blatantly obvious by viewing an episode of Toddlers & Tiaras, but this
presentation of pageants to mass audiences has also resulted in a new problem involving
child pedophilia. With so many people now accepting and observing the sexual exploitation
of children in overly mature ways, pedophiles are obtaining feelings of reinforcement that
what they are doing is considered okay (Tamer 89). Because so many others are engaging
in activities similar to their own, they feel their actions must not be as wrong, as society
had previously deemed them. As a result of the publics exposure to pageantry in every day
life, Tamer explains:
Many Americans are split regarding the desirability of such pageants. On the
one hand, Facebook groups and petitions have been created to ban such
television shows for dangerously exploiting and sexualizing children. On the
other hand, some parents argue that pageants allow their children to build
positive qualities such as poise, individuality, and confidence (86).
Pull The Pin, a Facebook movement that advocates for an age restriction on pageants to be
sixteen and older, campaigns in both the United States and New Zealand and rallies
throughout both countries to promote their cause. Advocators strongly feel that children
who participate in pageants at an age younger than sixteen are sexually exploited and
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deprived of the ability to give their consent on participating. They also believe that children
below this age do not have the emotional development that enables them to fully
comprehend the potential negative impacts that pageantry causes (Pull the Pin).
Denying Responsibility
If a large portion of pageant participants are at an age which many consider too
young to make their own decisions, who is making these decisions for them? Most young
beauty pageant stars have been forced into participating at these competitions at the
discretion of their parents. Psychologists Martha Heltsley and Thomas Calhoun studied
forty-three pageant mothers whose children participated in six national beauty pageants to
help understand the neutralization techniques that pageant mothers use to justify their
actions. They came to the conclusion that a mothers most widely used method in
defending pageants as harmless is condemning the condemners (Heltsley and Colhoun
89). This method is a strategy that redirects the negative attention from the deviant [the
mothers] and focuses on parties standing in judgment (Helsley and Colhoun 89). By
utilizing this strategy, pageant mothers are claiming that those who point fingers and
accuse them of making their daughters appear too sexy for their age, must be pedophiles
or people suffering from mental disorders. In their eyes, these accusers are sick people if
they can see anything sexy about a little girl (qtd in Helsely and Colhoun 89). As shown by
this example, these mothers tend to deflect the actions of the accused on the accuser. The
second most widely used neutralization method in the study was denial of injury... where
mothers eliminate the guilt or blame when no victimization occurs(Helsely and Colhoun
90). In other words, if the pageant child in no way suffers or is injured, the mother cannot
be accused of causing her any harm. Pageant mothers tend to attribute their childrens
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accomplishments to their involvement in beauty pageants. For example, one mother
claimed, My daughter loves pageants. Her teacher tells us she is far ahead of other children
her age. She has better concentration than most her age. I think pageants brought that
about (qtd in Helsely and Colhoun 91). This mother neglects or denies any of the
negative effects that pageantry may be instilling in her daughter, and instead only focuses
on how pageantry has made her a better student. The majority of mothers studied by
Colhoun and Helsely focused on the positive and practical dimensions of beauty pageants
by using neutralization techniques that blinded them of the harms pageantry can cause.
However psychologists, along with a large majority of the public who view pageantry on
television, see it as a deviant activity that departs from usual and widely accepted
childhood standards.
Self-Esteem in the Making
Mothers who utilize these neutralization techniques often feel that in the long run,
their child will benefit from a heightened sense of self-esteem. High self-esteem is
considered an indication of ones perception of self-respect and self worth, whereas low
self-esteem is considered self rejection and being unsatisfied with ones self (Karakus
755). Andrea Smith, a frequent pageant participant, would argue that her participation in
beauty pageants helped her build her self-esteem (Rigard 1). Prior to Andreas involvement
in pageants, she was depressed, anorexic, and cutting her wrists with razor blades.
However, after Andreas mother forced her to participate in beauty pageants, she became
immersed in beauty pageant culture, and put an end to all her harmful activities. Andrea
herself stated, It has helped build my self-esteem so much...If I start falling again, being in a
pageant brings me right back (qtd in Rigard 1). Yet, it can be argued that pageantry is
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acting as Andreas distractor from her larger psychological problem that exists, and that
she is not building self-esteem, but rather learning how to hide her issues in order to
appear confident on the runway. In a study conducted by zlem Karakus, which examined
the connection between childhood abuse and self-esteem in adults, it was proven that the
family environment where children are brought up, along with their parent-child
relationships, directly develop a childs self-esteem and personality (753). In many ways,
pageant parents such as Andreas mother are held responsible for sexually exploiting their
children by forcing their involvement in these activities. This is eventually proven to
negatively affect a childs social development and maturation into a healthy individual
(Karakus 754).
A Lifetime of Repercussion
Not only is sexual exploitation through participation in beauty pageantry harmful to
a childs morale, but it can also lead to major long-term bodily ailments such as adult eating
disorders. In a study performed by three doctors who evaluated the correlation between
adult eating disorders and childhood beauty pageants, it was found and argued by the
doctors that participation in childhood beauty pageants has a definitive influence on adult
body dissatisfaction, interpersonal distrust, and impulse dysregulation (Wonderlich,
Ackard, and Henderson 291). The doctors, whose study was published in Eating Disorders:
The Journal of Treatment & Prevention, concluded that females who participated in beauty
pageants perceived their current figure as larger, and preferred their figure to be smaller
than females who had not participated in beauty pageants (Wonderlich, Ackard, and
Henderson 296). Dissatisfaction with their bodies in their later years was strongly
correlated to participating in pageants as a child. Beauty pageantry generally represents
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the thin ideal, which is the ideal slim female body, consisting of a slender physique with a
small waistline and little body fat (Wonderlich, Ackard, and Henderson 297). Often winners
of beauty pageants will represent this idyllic woman, which will lead to interpersonal
distrust amongst the many pageant participants who consistently compare their bodies to
their competitors. These participants are generally insecure if they feel they do not
represent the thin ideal, which may also result in them having a difficult time trusting
themselves (Wonderlich, Ackard, and Henderson 297).
Crowning Pageantry
Participating in beauty pageants can cause a wide range of both physical and mental
ailments such as eating disorders, however some see these competitions as activities that
positively affect a childs development. Pageantry has evolved from a simple photo
contestant, where adult participants were judged on the appearance of their pictures, into
an activity that sexually exploits children as young as a couple months old. These pageant
babies are forced into participating without their consent, which is an issue that has
sparked public opinion towards both beauty pageants in general, and reality beauty
pageant television shows such as Toddlers & Tiaras. These shows have become so popular
and mainstream that American society now rarely takes gasp when watching young
contestants shake their butts on a stage in order to be crowned a Pageant Queen. At the
same time, pageant parents defend youth pageantry by claiming that their children are
mainly participating to help them afford a higher education one day. Beauty pageants
sexually exploit young participants and have become highly controversial activities,
causing a large dispute as to whether or not they are worth the detriments they cause. As
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they remain legal in the United States today, we must question ourselves as to whether or
not partaking in pageants is worth a silver plated crown.
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Works Cited

Banet-Weiser, Sarah. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World: Beauty Pageants and National
Identity. Vol. 3. Berkeley: University of California, 1999. Print.

Connolly, Corrinne N., ""Baby, I Wish We Could Get You Some Lips For Christmas":
Investigating Cultural Disregard For Girls Through The Promotion Of Hegemonic
And Sexualized Femininity, And Celebrity In Toddlers & Tiaras." Thesis.
Northeastern University, 2011. Communication Studies Master's Theses. 3-85. Web.
21 Nov. 2013.

Healy, Michelle. "Could Child Beauty Pageants Be Banned in the USA?" USA TODAY. USA
TODAY, 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

Heltsley, Martha, and Thomas C. Calhoun. "The Good Mother: Neutralization Techniques
Used by Pageant Mothers." Deviant Behavior 24.2 (2003): 81-100. Web. 30 Nov.
2013.

Karaku, zlem. "Relation Between Childhood Abuse and Self Esteem in
Adolescence." International Journal of Human Sciences [Online], 9.2 (2012): 753-763.
Web. 30 Nov. 2013.

Levey, Hilary. "Pageant Princesses And Math Whizzes Understanding Children's Activities
As A Form Of Children's Work." Childhood 16.2 (2009): 195-212. Web. 3 Nov. 2013.

O'Neill, Justin. "Should 4-Year-Olds be Beauty Queens?." Scholastic Scope (2011): 20-21.
Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

"People & Events: Origins of the Beauty Pageant ." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2013.

Pull the Pin. Pull The Pin on Beauty Pageants for Children. Facebook.com. 29 March 2011.
Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

Rigard, Amy. "Beauty Pageants Boost Self-Esteem: For Beaufort High School Student
Andrea Smith, They Have Changed Her Life." McClatchy - Tribune Business News: 1.
Jul 17 2007. ProQuest. Web. 30 Nov. 2013 .

Tamer, Christine. Toddlers, Tiaras, And Pedophilia? The Borderline Child Pornography
Embraced By the American Public. Texas Review of Entertainment & Sports Law
13.1 (2011): 85-101. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 3 Nov. 2013.

TLC. Hypocrite Pageant Judge, Toddlers & Tiaras. Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 15
Feb. 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

TLC. Pageant Energy Sticks, Toddlers & Tiaras. Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 26
April 2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
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Wilcox, Brian L., et al. "Report of the APA Task Force on Advertising and
Children." Washington, DC: American Psychological Association (2004).

Wonderlich, Anna L., Diann M. Ackard, and Judith B. Henderson. "Childhood Beauty Pageant
Contestants: Associations with Adult Disordered Eating and Mental Health." Eating
Disorders 13.3 (2005): 291-301. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.