Exploitation in Child Beauty Pageants :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Exploitation in Child Beauty Pageants It is 600 a.m. on Friday morning, and Sharon is about to awaken her eighteen month old baby, Jessica, to discipline her for a long weekend of make-up, hairspray, and gowns. Jessica is one of the thousands of babies forced into the many childrens beauty pageants each division. Sharon is among the many over-demanding p atomic number 18nts who pressure their young and innocent children into beauty pageants each year and this is wrong.Beauty pageants were started many years ago but became more prominent in the society in 1921, when a hotel owner started a contest to conserve tourists in town past Labor Day. The winner of this contest would be called Miss America. Miss America pageants have been a yearly event incessantly since then, except during the Great Depression. Then, in 1960, pageants were getting so popular that a Little Miss America was started for parents who wanted their children in beauty pageants (Nussbaum).Childrens beauty pageants are judged by the following modeling sportswear and evening wear, how well they dance, and how much talent they have. The children themselves are judged by their looks, how well they perform, and how confident they appear. Approximately 250, 000 children participate in pageants each year. Mothers who have their children in beauty pageants say that their children gain confidence through performing. They also say that they are more prepared for life and result be more socially comfortable. They argue that their children mature at a younger age than normal children do. Why would any parent want their children to age up any faster than they already do? Beauty pageants are not the only way that a child at such a young age can gain confidence.The only confidence that a child at eighteen months needs to gain is eating on her own, stand up up on her own and the confidence that her family loves her. If these children have and learn these three things, they will most likely have great self -confidence. On the other hand, concord the child who loses the pageant, for example. There are visible effects that the child shows if she loses she then thinks less of herself and thinks she has let her parents down because she did not place first (Christman).Parents also cogitate that children who participate in beauty pageants may receive scholarships (Gleick). Beauty pageant scholarships are not the only scholarships available.