Exploitation of children is a significant challenge in the modern world we are living in. It takes the forms of slavery and trafficking. However, a recent issue of The Voguemagazine sparkled discussion on the use of child models in beauty pageants. In the issue, there were photos of a ten-year-old model lying in a sea animal print wearing a chest-revealing gold dress, stilettos and heavy make-up. Despite the money and prizes won in these pageants, the pageants have short term and long term physical and psychological effects on the children participating. The shows expose children to early sexualization which gives them a wrong impression of their sexuality and often results in mental problems as well as developing eating disorders.

The participants of child pageants undergo thorough training where they learn the value of thinness and body perfection. Winning is on the basis of their external beauty and poise. The method of measuring beauty makes believe that they are beautiful than their competitors. When one fails, the effects may be devastating such as stress and body dissatisfaction. Besides, some of the pageants are much sexualized involving provocative dressing and presentations. Given that the participants are between 3-17 years, they fall under children category. Therefore, it is exploitative to dress them in costumes which are very revealing. The Vogue magazine post had a ten-year-old girl revealing the whole of her chest.

The training for child models involved controlled eating habits which often leads to eating disorders and physical injuries. The managers are keen on the foods the children eat and the frequency of feeding to develop specific body shapes which result in eating disorders. According to ( ), many young women with eating disorders were trained at an early age to value physical perfection in beauty pageants. Similarly, poor eating habits deprive the body of nutrients, and the children grow up being physically weak. Some children collapse during beauty pageants due to exhaustion and poor dietary programs aimed at body shape management.

However, the beauty pageants are not always entirely exploitative of young since they have some positive effects. The young girls win various prizes in the contests such as money or sponsorships. Besides, the competitions are essential in building the self-esteem of young girls through reducing stage fear and self-confidence.Prizes are only offered to the winners in the pageants. Therefore, the young girls who do not make it to the top are discouraged and may get psychological problems. Also, the beauty pageants are very competitive. Thus, losing breaks the stage confidence and the children are prone to make poor self-evaluations since the results of the contests indicate the level of their physical beauty.

In summary, beauty pageants are exploitative on young girls especially through early sexualization and result in adverse physical and psychological effects.The high value put on external beauty affects the self-confidence of young models in instances where they fail to win. Similarly, poor dieting of the models to maintain proper body shape often leads to eating disorders and lack of body strength. However, the child models win numerous prizes in the competitions. It also builds confidence for the winners. Generally, using young girls in beauty pageants is highly exploitative and has many adverse health effects on them.

Works Cited

Giroux, Henry A. “Child beauty pageants in the second gilded age.” Childhood and Celebrity. Routledge, 2017. 31-39.https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317518952/chapters/10.4324%2F9781315720432-10

Prinsloo, Jeanne. “Sexualisation and Children’s Relationship with the Media.” G PEO: 71.http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.737.9770&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=73

Schultz, Elizabeth Gough. The Sexualization of Girls in Dance Competitions. Diss. UC Irvine, 2018. https://cloudfront.escholarship.org/dist/prd/content/qt1zk1g4wt/qt1zk1g4wt.pdf

Tafari-Ama, Imani M. “Historical sociology of beauty practices: Internalized racism, skin bleaching, and hair straightening.” Ideaz 14 (2016): 1.http://search.proquest.com/openview/3fb18cef66ba3a2a465495039592c36b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1636335

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