Stereotypes In Pageants

“And the winner is….” This is the moment they have all been waiting for, to find out who will be crowned ‘Grand Supreme’. Some girls among the contestants are filled with nervousness when the moment is nearing. Who will take this prestigious title? “Ryan Lee, from Houston Texas!”. As the one girl runs up to get her crown the twelve remaining girls look into the crowd only to meet the eyes of their unhappy mothers. A weary look of shame appears on their make-up caked face. They all know that once they get off this stage their mothers will not be pleased. So they plaster a plastic smile on their face and hide under their fake tan. This is the classic reaction of most glitz and even some small child pageants.

Firstly, the fact these young women
Pageants expect their contestants to look perfect. Most pageants require the girls to fit the Barbie stereo-type, which includes a spray tan, make up and scandalous outfits. This stereo-type the affects them later in their life with self-esteem issues. The Barbie stereo-type in pageants have created an outrage. This outrage created many articles that I was able to use in my research.That research led me in the direction that discussed the movements girls make on stage and how they are sexual, like shaking their hips. From these findings I looked up videos that show what these children go through when they are preparing for a pageant. As well as how the children perform on stage and how controlling their parents truly
Scientific research based on future outcomes of child beauty pageants in the novel “Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry”, Psychologists Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalysis theory says ‘Beauty pageants lead to the desire of being perfect”. Psychologist Phil McGraw told pageant mothers that they need to explain their children that pageants are not realities but fantasies. Possible emotional problems and negative psychological effects are a huge factor and are going to drastically affect the contestants future. Forty percent of children that participated in the beauty pageants have problems psychologically and the other sixty percent of children are unhappy during the pageant itself. Women who have competed in beauty pageants in the past were more unhappy with their bodies unlike women who had not participated. A person's development is determined by the events that have occurred in their early childhood. Because of the strong desire to be perfect some resort to extremes to gain that approval. Perfectionism for example, spray tanning, hair extensions, and sometimes starving