Your thoughts on beauty pageants...

[Kerry]

When I was about 15 my sister and I went to a teen fashion show at a nearby shopping mall right before the new school year was to start.  I was struck by the beauty of one of the young men in the show, and I watched him closely.  Later I saw this same boy in a store, and I couldn't keep my eyes off of him.  As luck would have it, he showed up at my school that fall, and he remembered me looking at him, and he spread word all over school that I was a fag.

What did I do wrong?  He put himself on display, and I found him to be attractive, so I looked at him.    

You did nothing wrong, Gary. Creeps like him are a dime a dozen!

[Lumière]

Pageants for children?  Let's not mince words, they are pageants for little girls. 

Pageants for little girls are more common for sure but there are those for little boys as well.

Have you seen one, Del? They teach the girls to go out and shake like hookers and take articles of clothing off...(practicing for the 'pole' I am assuming) The mothers say it is for the girls..."They love it!!" then you see the girls crying and the mothers screaming at them...

[source = http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/06.08/beauty.html]

From her researcher’s view, Levey got a good idea of why people do and don’t participate [in child pageants]. When some of the children lost baby teeth that had not been replaced by pageant time, their parents fit them with false teeth. When a girl’s hair was too short to curl like Barbie’s, fake additions were fitted. "Things like this showed me that these are not just contests to judge natural beauty," she comments.

It’s not cheap to show off your child’s beauty. Parents typically spend between $100-$200 on pageant clothing, although some pay as much as $1,000 for a gown. Pageant fees cost another $100-$200 per contest, and the 41 mothers who Levey interviewed competed in an average of five pageants during the past year. In addition, those with higher incomes may hire someone to do the child’s hair, or a pageant coach to give their child an extra advantage.

One mother told Levey: "I know people who have spent so much on pageants, they lost their trailers."

Of about 120 "beauties" Levey saw, five or six were boys. One mother said she puts her son in pageants because he likes being on stage and to have people clap for him. "It gives him confidence," she said.

Gaining poise and confidence is cited most often by parents as the reason for putting their child into these contests. "She learns skills such as going out in a crowd, not to be shy, and to be herself while people are watching and focusing on her," one mother noted.

"You see this a lot among people on the lower-income and education scales," Levey comments. "They want their kids to learn skills that are needed to move up the social scale."

One mother put it this way: "I want my child to be aware that there’s always going to be somebody better than her. It’s a hard thing to learn – it was for me – and I want her to start early."



 

[delalluvia]

Pageants for little girls are more common for sure but there are those for little boys as well.

[source = http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/06.08/beauty.html]

Strange.

From her researcher’s view, Levey got a good idea of why people do and don’t participate [in child pageants]. When some of the children lost baby teeth that had not been replaced by pageant time, their parents fit them with false teeth. When a girl’s hair was too short to curl like Barbie’s, fake additions were fitted. "Things like this showed me that these are not just contests to judge natural beauty," she comments.

This kinda takes away from the mother's comment later in your text where she says she enters her child in beauty contests so that she will learn how to "be herself".  How can she be herself when she's possibly wearing pageant gowns, hairpieces, adult makeup, false teeth and 'costumes'?!?!

Utterly bizarre.

It’s not cheap to show off your child’s beauty. Parents typically spend between $100-$200 on pageant clothing, although some pay as much as $1,000 for a gown. Pageant fees cost another $100-$200 per contest, and the 41 mothers who Levey interviewed competed in an average of five pageants during the past year. In addition, those with higher incomes may hire someone to do the child’s hair, or a pageant coach to give their child an extra advantage.  "You see this a lot among people on the lower-income and education scales," Levey comments. "They want their kids to learn skills that are needed to move up the social scale."

Wonder how this explains JonBenet Ramsey?  Child from an extremely wealthy family.

Gaining poise and confidence is cited most often by parents as the reason for putting their child into these contests. "She learns skills such as going out in a crowd, not to be shy, and to be herself while people are watching and focusing on her," one mother noted.

One mother put it this way: "I want my child to be aware that there’s always going to be somebody better than her. It’s a hard thing to learn – it was for me – and I want her to start early."

Let's just say enrolling your child in Debate classes will accomplish the same thing, but instead of having one's child obsessed with costumes and glamour makeup, hairpieces and talent shows, they actually learn analytical thinking, the art of rhetoric, poise, coolness under pressure, competiveness and it could help them get into Ivy League schools if they excel.
 

[Wishes]

I say it's just entertainment. I remember watching them as a kid. I have not watched them in years.

The Miss California pageant used to be held in my home town and I remember there were active protests at the Civic Auditorium when the pageant was going on.

I'm not pretty and have never got anything based on my looks. I say if someone can, more power to them. I don't envy beauty. Not that that all these persons are what I would consider beautiful. I actually feel sorry for some who find the whole of their being based on what they look like.

[HerrKaiser]

I say it's just entertainment. I remember watching them as a kid. I have not watched them in years.

The Miss California pageant used to be held in my home town and I remember there were active protests at the Civic Auditorium when the pageant was going on.

I'm not pretty and have never got anything based on my looks. I say if someone can, more power to them. I don't envy beauty. Not that that all these persons are what I would consider beautiful. I actually feel sorry for some who find the whole of their being based on what they look like.

Well put and to the point. Up until the mid 80s, the Miss America pageant was one of the highest rated TV events each year. Americans love their own versions of royalty--beauty queens, muscle men, movie stars, sports stars--it's all the same. What's the difference between a guy who happens to be able to dunk a leather ball into a metal hoop and a gal who can walk down a runway to the cheers of the crowd? Not much in my opinion.

I knew a Miss America in former times and she was a grounded and healthy and together as anyone on this forum would claim to be. She got a huge scholarship and has had many opportunities afforded to her by virtue of winning that title. More power to her and the others.