Argumentative Essay: The Value Of Child Beauty Pageants

The value in child beauty pageants is extremely difficult to find, partly because it doesn’t exist. The industry is responsible for confidence issues in millions of participants that can’t seem to win the ‘Grand Supreme Title’ or the “Prettiest Smile Award.’ As quoted by Andrews, “experts see a clear association between these types of events and the development of body image problems, eating disorders, and depression” (1). The young participants are resulting to harmful act to relieve the pain the pressure to be perfect has caused. Confidence levels are easily shot when scores from the judges are revealed, citing she was not ‘good enough’ to win it all. Young women will adapt to the feeling of constantly being judged on perfection, creating even more work for counselors teaching women to love themselves. As most parent’s claim that pageants can be a learning experience,
The specified “values” of these pageants are not likely to pass as the child grows, but will persist and make for an unhappy woman. Some individuals may still wonder about the educational experience involved with participating in competition. The events in child beauty pageants are usually form to a strict guideline, starting with the beauty competition with the talent, outfit of choice, or swimwear categories to follow. The beloved free response question is exempt from these pageants, where the ‘dolls’ are “judged on personality” but do not “speak a word” (Child Beauty Pageants 1). The intelligence, intellect, or imagination of the participant are not displayed for the judges, proving how glitz pageantry focuses on the shallowness of appearance and facial beauty. The lessons learned from pageantry are far from educational and lead to health issues in young girls once filled with life and