SHOULD FEMALES BE ENCOUAGRED TO PERFORM IN BEAUTY PAGEANTS?

Should Females be Encouraged to Perform in Beauty Pageants?

Emma N. Anderson

James Madison University

SHOULD FEMALES BE ENCOUAGRED TO PERFORM IN BEAUTY PAGEANTS?

Abstract

I chose to research the harm that comes with encouraging females of all ages to participate in

beauty pageants. It is an interesting topic to me, and as I have done more research, I have learned

more reasons people should not praise women for being in pageants. Physical, emotional, and

mental harm is brought on to girls in beauty pageants. This topic is important to raise awareness

on because women and girls who compete in these pageants have low self-esteem and are more

likely to develop eating disorders. By drawing attention to the problem, females suffering from

eating disorders can seek help from doctors.

SHOULD FEMALES BE ENCOUAGRED TO PERFORM IN BEAUTY PAGEANTS?

Beauty pageants gained popularity in the early 20th century when they were used as

casino attractions in Atlantic City. Soon after, pageants such as Miss America and Miss Universe

were created and are still popular among young adult women all over the world. Child pageants

saw a rise in the 1960s, and became more detrimental year after year. Women and girls of all

ages should not be encouraged to perform in beauty pageants because they are harmful to

physical, emotional, and mental health. Women feel the pressure to be as skinny as possible, and

will develop eating disorders so the judges will vote for them to win. Children who compete in

pageants are forced to wear inappropriate clothing and pose in seductive, mature ways. Adults

sexualize these little girls, and they grow up thinking its okay for men to view them that way.

Promoting awareness to beauty pageants and the harm they bring is important as it can hopefully

stop the encouragement of females participating. Child pageant stars grow up with lower self-

esteem and a higher likelihood of developing an eating disorder. Women who compete generally

have a stronger dislike for their bodies and are more likely to view themselves as heavier than

they are.

The article Protecting Pageant Princesses: A Call for Statutory Regulation of Child

Beauty Pageants by Lindsay Lieberman discusses the harm beauty pageants bring to young

girls. It brings in facts about how child actors have strict laws prohibiting them from working

long, strenuous hours, but pageant stars have no such laws. Because they arent working under a

contract and arent earning a paycheck, they dont fit under the broad description of child

performers. Pageant stars only earn money through their success in each pageant; first, second,

and third place usually win cash prizes, but they arent necessarily earned. The article discusses
SHOULD FEMALES BE ENCOUAGRED TO PERFORM IN BEAUTY PAGEANTS?

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how states with lots of child pageant performers should consider including these young stars in

the regulations.

The article Childhood Beauty Pageant Contestants: Associations with Adult Disordered

Eating and Mental Health by Anna L. Wonderlich, et. al. is a case study that looks at childhood

pageant contestants in their college years to determine if they are more prone to lower self-

esteem. Eleven childhood pageant stars are matched with eleven other girls who did not compete

in pageants as children. They were matched based on age, BMI, and weight to avoid

discrepancies in the results. They took several tests about eating disorders, self-esteem levels,

and ideal body images to see how likely they are to develop an eating disorder or have low body

image standards. The results show that childhood pageant stars were more likely to have low

self-esteem and to view themselves as bigger than they are. Although the results werent

significant, the difference in image was there. Had the study been done with a larger sample size,

the results may have been more significant.

The article Perceptions of Child Beauty Pageants and Their Impacts: What Really Lies

Behind the Tiara? by Jessica M. Kelly and Lance C. Garmon, is another case study involving

beauty pageants as the main focus. This study, however, looks at the perceptions people have of

TV shows showing pageants. Kelly and Garmon wanted to see if people with positive

perceptions of pageants were more likely to watch shows such as Toddler and Tiaras. They

studied if personality traits had an impact on the perception of beauty pageants. They

hypothesized that certain personality traits would lead people to watch pageants shows more

often than traits other people have. They thought that individuals would watch televised pageants

because of the entertainment factors above anything else. The results showed former pageant
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stars to be more likely to watch pageants on TV and to have positive perceptions of them. Past

pageant contestants were less likely to agree that children should have laws regulating their

performance in beauty pageants.

All three articles information was gathered from hold the viewpoint that beauty pageants

are harmful to females of all ages, but specifically to children. They provide information to show

what girls are forced to go through. Women and girls feel immense pressure to look perfect for

the judges and, so they do not disappoint their parents. The pressure girls feel is shown through

this quote in an article by Lindsey Lieberman (2010), As a result, little girls who participate are

prone to persistent lifetime challenges, including body shame, perfectionism, depression and

eating disorders (p. 740-41). Not only do they feel pressure in the moment, but chronic

disorders can come about as a result of prolonged beauty pageant involvement. An article by

Jessica M. Kelly and Lance C. Garmon (2016) also supports the view that children are treated

poorly so they can win the contests. A quote from their case study explains, Children were

denied naps, reprimanded for poor performance or flaws, threatened with punishment, and given

many Pixy Stix (also known as pageant crack) throughout the day to maintain their energy (p.

203). Parents are so eager to win pageants that they provide their children with unhealthy eating

habits to keep their energy up temporarily. Most children, especially the very young ones, are not

too eager to perform in pageants, yet their parents force them to. Lastly, the third article supports

the claims the first two make about the unhealthy factors pageants bring upon children.

Wonderlich, Ackard, and Henderson concluded in 2005 that, Results from the current study

indicate that women who participated in childhood beauty pageants scored significantly higher

on measures of body dissatisfaction, interpersonal distrust, and impulse dysregulation than

women who did not participate in childhood beauty pageants (p. 297). This study focused on
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adult women who competed in pageants as children. The quote shows the lasting effects

childhood pageants bring upon women, even into early adulthood.

The articles by Kelly and Garmon and Wonderlich et al. are both case studies looking at how

beauty pageants impact the lives of everyday people. The study by Kelly and Garmon focuses on

how televised pageants affect peoples views of pageants. They made sure to control for females

who watch pageants on TV who also competed as a child. Kelly and Garmon stated in 2016,

Having experience with pageants, whether personally or through family and friends, was related

to perceptions of the pageants as well For NCBPs, these individuals reported even more

favorable perceptions, being more likely to agree that these pageants teach important values and

should also not be banned (p. 213). By NCPB, they are referring to natural child beauty

pageants; those that are harmful to children but not necessarily as much as glitz child beauty

pageants (GCPB). By not being as focused on perfecting a physically immature childs looks as

much as GCPBs, these pageants have a better perception than others. In the study by Wonderlich

et al. their main focus is on past child pageant stars. Of the eleven girls in the study who

competed as children, they found that they were more likely to be dissatisfied with their bodies.

Wonderlich et al. mentioned, Despite being matched on BMI, females who had 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 (p. 296). Women who had not

competed in pageants for years still viewed their bodies as larger than they were. The effects

childhood pageants bring upon women are long lasting and serious.

The main difference between the three articles is that two are case studies and the other is

a journal based work. The article by Lieberman discusses how child pageant stars are not

protected by the laws child actors are. Lieberman (2010) states in her article, Although pageant
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contestants practice and perform for many hours a day and collect large sums of prize money,

they are not considered "employed" (p. 758). Child actors are not allowed to work for more than

a certain number of hours at once, but pageant stars are protected by that law. They are forced to

practice for hours on end, leading to intense stress and pressure. The other two sources do not

focus on the pressures children feel as much, but more on the sample, procedure, and results of

their study. They provide information found through research they did themselves, and the other

source uses information from other articles and the laws and regulations of some states.

Although all three articles maintain that pageants are harmful, they all focus on different

topics within tat subject. The first article focuses on the child labor laws in states such as

California, New York, and New Mexico. The first case study involves past childhood pageant

stars, and the second one focuses on the effects television has on the perception of beauty

pageants. The case study by Kelly and Garmon (2016) hypothesized, H1: Individuals who

watch televised beauty pageants or shows about beauty pageants will do so because of the

sensation seeking and entertainment motivational factors more than any other factors (p. 204).

The other study had a completely different subject of focus, but both found correlations between

past pageant stars and the perceptions they have of either themselves or televised pageants. The

source by Lieberman provided excellent facts and relationships in her information one may not

have considered.

Before, I thought pageants were harmful to young girls and after reading these sources, I

still maintain that viewpoint, but I have lot more knowledge on the subject. I found the topic

much more interesting than I would have though it to be. The articles I used were all very

informational and provided me with different angles on the subject. The case studies are helpful

because it is upfront research that the authors did themselves. The three sources I used have only
SHOULD FEMALES BE ENCOUAGRED TO PERFORM IN BEAUTY PAGEANTS?

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strengthened my stance on beauty pageants. I am much more educated on the topic and I have

realized how prevalent the issue is.

Works Cited

Kelly, J. M. & Garmon, C. L. (2016) Perceptions of child beauty pageants and their

impacts: What really lies behind the tiara?, Atlantic Journal of Communication, 24:4,

201-215.

Lieberman, L. (2010). Protecting Pageant Princesses: A Call for the Statutory Regulation of

Child Beauty Pageants. Journal of Law and Policy, 1, 739-774.

Wonderlich, A. L., Ackard, D. M., & Henderson, J. B. (2005). Childhood Beauty Pageant

Contestants: Associations with Adult Disordered Eating and Mental Health. Eating

Disorders, 8, 291-301.
SHOULD FEMALES BE ENCOUAGRED TO PERFORM IN BEAUTY PAGEANTS?