Child beauty pageants - right or wrong?

[twirlaround]

I am interested to see whether most people think child beauty pageants are a good or a bad idea.

What is your opinion?

All beauty pageants are creepy and wrong! Making children look like adults is disgusting.

No no no to beauty pageants.

Dexter I asked my dance teacher sister why the little ones have make up on,as I don't like to see it either.

She told me it is because the stage lighting drains all the colour from the childrens faces & they look like a blurr ubless their eyes & mouths are defined in some way.Mind you,it isn't compulsory & none of them go on stage plastered in makeup.

I remember my friends who danced in the early 80's wearing eyeshadow & lipstick too-I was jealous!

expat- talking about the jonbenet ramsey thing-wasn't there a ransom not e? how weird is that?

and the difference between a beauty pageant and a baby competion - like hte calpol one for example is?

wrong. ...too much judgement placed on looks, might start out as fun for the child but may drag on and turn into a bore they have to endure. better things to compete in imo like sack races and egg-and-spoon. what is it about competitive beauty, lets all be beautiful in our own way, just as a child is the most beautiful one ever in the eyes of its parents. why do it to their self esteem, losing at a game is one thing but losing just for being judged upon being yourself is cruel for a little child. nah! if you want to parade something around, get a dog and stick it in a dog show

agree jinglybits, and anyway, shouldnt we be encouraging our girls to aspire to more things than beauty?

Absolutely wrong - pageants or beauty competitions in my opinion.

I have no problem with competition for children per se - i.e. learning that you sometimes lose and that some people are more talented/or have tried harder than others, but when it based on something so random and luck based as looks - I think it is positively repulsive.

Agree with sobernow and I don't like any of the baby ones either. Don't like child modelling either. OTOH - advertises have to get their images from somewhere!

I'm going to enter Morty into beauty pageants, she has such a talent and is so photogenic! I want everyone to admit to how beautiful she is so that I can feel real pity at other babies because they are clearly not as beautiful as her!

I think those pageants in America should be banned as child abuse. It's not just parading up and down in a pretty dress wearing a bit of make-up is it? I've seen those documentaries with the obsessive mothers. They spend hours rehearsing routines until the poor children are exhausted. One little girl was falling asleep while she was waiting for her 'turn' and her mother just kept shaking her and saying she'd be alright once she was on the stage. Her main concern wasn't her daughter, but the fact that she'd driven all the previous day to get there and spent a fortune on beauty treatments and clothes. she seemed to think the girl ought to be grateful, she must have only been about 3!

fake little adults scare me too

but what about baby modelling, is that wrong too, after all...it is another form of selection based on appearances/good looks?

To any mums out there who think it's a Good Thing...(not that there semm to be any reading this threadt at the mo

If you want to play at hairstyling, pretty make up etc, just buy yourself a Girl's World head and leave your daughter's psyche in tact. Seriously question the motives of any parent who wants to put their child through that sort of crap.