I saw in the news that the mother of a high-glitz beauty pageant contestant was giving her eight year old daughter botox injections to rid her of “wrinkles”. She got the botox off the internet, and claimed she could do the injections herself because she was a part time aesthetician. She claims that she isn’t the only one who does it. You can watch the coverage by ABC below if you haven’t seen it yet.
[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=auzvSkIk7xg]
This eight year old girl thinks she has wrinkles. I have never met any normal eight year old that complains that they have wrinkles. Usually, they are more concerned with their toys and activities that their looks. Then what has happened? I don’t believe that any eight year old would make the choice to be put through what these girls are subjected to. Tanning, waxing, botox, make-up, hours of regimented practice, hair dye, curling, straightening, fake teeth…. What eight year old would choose that? When I was little, yes, I liked playing dress up, but when I asked my mom if I could try her make-up, she let me, and I hated it. At that age, it wasn’t about how I looked, it was about imitation. So, I have no doubt in my mind that it is the mothers, not the children, choosing this.
Now, I have less of a problem with so-called “natural” beauty pageants, that only allow minimal make-up and the natural hair, teeth, and features of a child. But when mothers make their children, sometimes as young as one or two, into this…
It’s not healthy, in any way. When I was young, and my mother told me I had to get braces, I was hurt. Can you imagine if your mother told you that your natural hair wasn’t good enough, that your teeth needed to be covered up, that everything about your natural appearance needed to be improved upon for you to be “good enough”. If the little girl in the video is worried about wrinkles now, how will she feel when she’s 35 and actually starts to get some? Her mom will have taught her that plastic surgery is the answer, and that she will be rewarded for treating her body like a renovation project on which her self-esteem and self-worth will hang. What about if she gains weight, or, god forbid, ends up with stretch marks. Will she feel like her mother, and the rest of the world, won’t love her, or won’t think she’s enough because she’s imperfect?
There’s a reason the smiles look so fake, and the children look so sad backstage. They’re not enjoying it. Yes, they enjoy having the attention and approval of their parents, but they’re not doing it for themselves.
These little girls (and sometimes little boys) are being deprived of the normal childhood they need. They cannot play (what if they scrape their knees), and they’re forced to worry about what they eat, what they wear, and how other people perceive them, long before they would naturally begin to do so. Not only that, but these girls are being made up to look like grown women, in short dresses, skimpy tops, and high heels. They’re being forced to emulate a style that is not child friendly, and being told that its right, and that it makes you beautiful. What about the woman who dressed her daughter up like Madonna? What is that teaching her little girl?
There are some who have tracked down winners that were caught on camera acting in beauty pageants as small children, who appear not to have been affected. However, I am less worried about those that winning. For the winning child, I’m sure the pageant boosts their self confidence to some extent. Its the losing girls, the girls that were constantly in third, fourth, or fifth place, that I want to see interviewed. Its the ones that are told they were somehow not as “worthy” as the winning girls, because their turns weren’t quite spot on, that my heart goes out to. I can’t imagine how much they must suffer under that.
In my mind, there are no two ways about it. High-glitz beauty pageants harm children, and mothers who subject their daughters to the rigors of adult self-beautification by telling them they’re not pretty enough to win if they don’t should be charged with emotional abuse. It should be a crime to give children botox injections for non-medical reasons, and to perform painful beauty procedures like leg waxing on children that are too young to need them, or to give informed consent.
I’m sure there are many people who disagree, as well as many who do agree, and I’m happy to hear any opinions in either direction. So, what do you think. Beauty pageants, are they child abuse?
Copyright 2011 Emily Strempler
I agree that there is something terribly wrong here, but I really would not like to invoke and expand the parent-bashing category of child abuse. I would locate the evil in society rather than in the parent and simply ban the contests. After all, it is truly evil for adults as well.
I like that idea as well, actually. My thoughts are mostly toward putting an end to it, not so much punish individuals.
I agree, it should be stopped. The best and easiest way is probably to simply ban it altogether.
this is true bann the pagents and there should be legal consequinces to thier actions
I don’t know I think some individuals need punishing. I don’t know that the pageants in themselves are abuse so much as that its unhealthy to spend ALL of your time at it, the same way that a kid in front of a tv 24 hours a day isn’t healthy. There needs to be some balance. You can’t at any age let one thing be the only interesting thing about you. When I was in school (high school though I do think this could be used before then) you had to keep a certain gpa to be allowed to do electives like sports and such. I do however think botoxing a child for non medical reasons is abuse and that if this one mother is being punished that they need to look into some of the other children in these situations. I don’t know about taking the children away but definetly some classes about the dangers involved, a fine, something. I don’t know that immediate removal and being put into foster care, an already heavily stressed system is a great idea. Of course I say this not really fully knowing how this kind of abuse works. If it can really be stopped with a firm “Knock it off” Maybe this drastic step is the right one.
I think its a little scary how often you hear these girls say things like they are going to be a model when they grow up. I’ve seen Americas Next Top Model, they always talk about how pageant girls almost never make it. The pageant walk is not the model walk and the creepy frozen smile additude never comes across genuine. So it happens, but not as often as the little girls seem to hope for.
We have a teeny pageant in my home town every year. Local girls based on, niceness and answers to questions which is I think the type you were talking about no big make up anyway and those don’t seem a big deal to me. And I loved that google let me know that some of these contests have writing portions. I like that theres something looking past the surface.
Its also baffling to me how many of the mothers are very very uncute. And since this is the internet where I can be all judgey anonomously I’ll just say maybe these women should be spending more time worried about their own faces and make up (since they seem to be super into that) and give their kids some toys instead of ball gowns and the whole family can be alot more content.
I’m not sure what the answer is. I just know that high glitz pageants cannot possibly be healthy for children.
Interesting, I hadn’t heard that. But then, I don’t watch television very often.
I have little issue with the small scale ones that aren’t high-glitz. It sounds like you’re local pageant isn’t a problem.
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I think that high glitz pageants are a little over the top and should be for the older girls like 12 or up.But natural pageants are better for younger kids,even though the only restrictions are no heavy make-up.
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There should be an age limit of putting children in beauty pagenants…none of the children’s pictures I saw were happy pictures – they looked sad…..that tells you something right there it’s totally wrong. If parents have to ask what the problem is – then they are the ones with the problem! Parents don’t have a clue when they ask what they are doing is wrong – let their kids be kids and give them the option of what they want to be when their kids grow up. The kids will grow up with a complex if something isn’t done about it right now! 90% of those kids grow up to be drug addicts, alcoholics, etc…..because they were pushed by their parents to do something the parents wanted them to do, not the kids!
I find these things absolutely pathetic. What is going to happen when these little girls grow up and are not pretty? I’ve seen gorgeous children who grow up to be very unattractive and vice versa. But, if it evolves into unattractive then just what happens to their esteem?
It’s so obvious it’s the parents ‘thing”, not the childs.
I’ve yet to see a single 1 who has natural talent. Every one of them are just going thru the motions.
It’s obviously people who live in such small small worlds and are just so ignorant and they truly do believe that they are doing a good thing.
Terrible, just terrible.
I agree. They look absolutely miserable.
hello, my name is mark… i dont think this is related to child abuse in generall… it might be possible that some people do something wrong…
for me i can say that i like the girls and i think they are great looking. why schould wen not to happy about it and have fun at looking at those nice girls..
and…
just imagine how much money they earn… i mean i will never get the chance to earn so much money.. i bet some of them are 12 and own allready a million dollar bank account