In a society where images of ‘beauty’ are depicted through the media on a daily basis, it is hardly surprising we are becoming a nation obsessed with our looks. Magazines inform us of the latest fashion trends, TV adverts which hair, make up and body products to use, and Giant Billboards dictate what type of body is considered ‘perfect’.
Following in the footsteps of America however with its TV series ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’, one can’t help but wonder if we have now gone a step too far? In June, the city of Leicester will host the first ever beauty pageant for little girls. Entitled ‘Miss Mini Princess UK’ the contest is specifically for girls aged up to 13 and will involve judgements on physical beauty, an eye catching outfit, a talent, and finally poise in evening wear.
Despite the contest already being slated as a ‘paedophiles paradise’ and organisers receiving hate mail, Robyn Sutherland, Mum of 23 month old Eleanor June Rees-Sutherland, plans on entering her daughter into the competition. Robyn has been quoted saying she doesn’t see what all the fuss is about, and can’t understand what’s wrong with making little girls look like a princess for the day. She says she enjoys dressing her daughter up and that Eleanor June loves make up too.
OnePoll asked a nationally representative sample of 1000 UK Adults what they thought about pageants, the associated risks, and whether it was appropriate for such young girls to be paraded and judged on their ‘beauty’.
The Results
The overall opinion of beauty pageants was negative with words such as ‘Pointless’ and ‘Tacky’ frequently being used to describe such events.
83% of adults said they didn’t think beauty pageants should be available for girls of this age and 86% of respondents said they wouldn’t let their daughter (aged 13 or under) in such a competition even if there was appropriate monitoring and security.
It would appear the majority of adults think the pageants are just too risky (78%) with the top 3 concerns being
- Sexualisation of Children 82%
- Obsessive/Pushy parents 81%
- Paedophile interest 72%
Furthermore, when asked what age they thought was appropriate for girls to start wearing makeup and fan tanning etc (procedures that are a ‘necessity’ for beauty pageants) the majority of respondents not only stated answers years ahead of Eleanor June, but also ages above 13 (the upper age threshold for the competition). Such findings suggest that adults think that the girls entering this pageant are simply too young to be ‘beautified’.
Indeed, these stats appeared to be echoed in respondent’s opinions on mum Robyn Sutherland - 81% of adults thought it was inappropriate for her to enter her daughter into the pageant. When asked why top answers included that Eleanor June was too young, and it wasn’t her choice to enter. Respondents thought Eleanor should be left to be a child and not judged on her looks from such a young age. Such pageants were described to promote the sexualisation of children.
A key point to remember here is that it is not ‘children’ in these pageants - it is in fact just girls. Boys will not be part of this competition and do not typically feature in ‘beauty pageants’. We asked respondents whether they thought beauty pageants should be available for boys/men?
12% said ‘Both boys and men’
11% said ‘No’, they were only appropriate for girls/women’.
The majority of adults (68%) however said No – because they simply didn’t agree with them altogether.
It would seem therefore the general consensus on such competitions is that they are exploitative, pushing children to adopt semi-sexualised adult mannerisms that they do not fully understand and enforcing the message that appearance is everything. Those in the pageant industry however still seem to insist that it is all just harmless fun and that they believe the competitions instil girls with confidence and self-esteem.
We would like to know your views on this subject – do you agree with beauty pageants? – let us know by commenting below…
i agrree with comments – pointless and rubbish
The children will grow up believing that beauty is everything and life is just about being vain and crave for attention and just want the wholeworld to adore them. Why would you want to punish your babies in this way. Keep their beauty to real people that matter and help to protect them, not flaunt them to the outside world.
Puts out the wrong message that girls are only good for dolling up in make up and scantly dressed i wouldnt let my 17 year old daughter wear some of the things they do in these pageants
Theses so called, Beauty Pageants, will never be to the benefit of young children and, in my opinion, are tantamount to child abuse. Strong words, I know, but the children themselves are not mentally mature enough to choose whether they want to take part, or not, so, the choice is made for them by their vain, ambitious and ignorant parents who ought to know better than to exploit their children in this way.
There is a long list of reasons to why these pageants are wrong for these young children and I dare say they are obvious to any right thinking adult.
The emphasis on superficial looks is wrong because no child should be indoctrinated with such views. The amount of preening and use of make up on young girls, even babies in some instances, is hideous and decadent, to say the least.
There is the issue of paedophile danger and putting the child at risk, certainly something that has to be considered.
Deprivation of a normal childhood which allows a child to develop and enjoy playing and learning appropriately, according to their maturity is taken away from them. Instead their time is wasted on achieving a particular look and learning routines which often are over sexualised which, when I have seen examples of these, makes me profoundly sad and despairing of their parent’s stupidity.
To claim that this is only harmless fun, begs the question, for whom ? and, harmless it will never be.
I find the whole idea of these so called “beauty pageants” scarily worrying. Not just because of the exploitation of children, who should be protected from sexualisation until 18, but also the image it portrays to not only the entrants, but the public in general. “let’s primp and preen our 7 year old children and make them look like 18 year old girls, and this will instill confidence and high self esteem” This not only puts the children at significant risk, but gives the public a perception that this is ok! Children should be left to be children for as long as possible, there is more than enough sexualisation in the media already! Let them have a childhood, and deal with “beauty” when they become adolescents and are ready to.
Girls should be allowed to develop naturally and not be drawn into the glamour, beauty world before they have had an innocent childhood, there is enough time to experience this at an age when they can handle the peer pressure that it entails, sweet sixteen will not exist if this trend continues.
It seems to be the parents that enjoy the limelight more than the young girls!
I disagree!! I do! but what I do think they should do before entering is to only enter a beauty pageant by the age of 17, because they should get a good education. but that doesn’t mean that girls can’t enter at all
Yip, I too think that the children should be left to be children for as long as they possibly can…… to enjoy life……. before they ‘have to’ grow up. It’s a parent thing!
I agree with most of the comments on here. Beauty Pagents for young girls is wrong. They should not be sexualised and paraded by pushy parents. I feel that far from helping their confidence and self esteem being forced to believe that they cannot even be pretty as they are but have to have all the fakery to have looks is bad for self confidence as they will from a very young age not be confident in themselves but just the image they present. Also, with all the hype and pressure from some of these parents (I have watched one programme about such a pageant and was horrified) their self esteem is severely knocked when they do not win. This has to be detrimental to them and their development at such a young age. Added to which I agreed with one Mum’s assessment from the programme that I watched that the room of ‘young beauties’ had more make-up, fake eye-lashes, tans and skanty outfits than a room full of drag queens. Harsh I know but they did not look beautiful and certainly did not look like children. Instilling this image from an early age is bound to result in problems later on with the stereotypes for that type of image in older girls. One Mum was also proud of the idea that her daughter was the youngest ever to have cosmetic surgery having been a ‘much uglier baby than her beautiful son’ and she hated the idea of having an ugly baby. She was keen for the girl to have more surgery and claimed the girl enjoyed all the ‘glaming up’ and chose to wear contacts, for example, to look grown up rather than childish glasses. When the girl was interviewed she found the contacts uncomfortable and only didn’t wear her glasses because she would be “told off”. I think that says it all. The abuse of children and their fear of not meeting expectations has to stop. Let children be children. There’s enough pressure for them to grow up earlier and earlier as it is. Let them enjoy childhood whilst they can. They’ll never get it back.
I disagree! I think its a great idea that mum’s are putting their children into pageants because then their child can express the way they look and how they feel. Lots of girls like glitz and glam so what’s the problem with beauty pageants?
I totally agree! x It is pointless to enter these competitions because the judges are judging them on their LOOKS! Its not about what you look like so I think its completely wrong! And some parents put their kids into this when their only less than 1 YEAR OLD!!
I really want to do pagents