What’s the difference b/w children in a beauty pageant and children playing sports?
I’m not a parent but I’m always hearing people talk negatively about parents who enter their children into beauty pageants. But I don’t understand the difference b/w that and making a child play sports. In both incidents parents are almost always pushing their children to win and be the best. So why is it such a negative to push your child into a beauty pageant and a positive to push your child to be the best at a sport?
I wouldn’t "push" my children into anything! The only thing I encourage is getting a good education and being productive members of society.
There is nothing wrong with good competition but being in a beauty pageant is very different. Your making young girls think they have to have fake spray tans, fake teeth, fake eyelashes, fake hair, and airbrushing to be beautiful. And spending thousands of dollars on dresses, dance instructors, and salons could be served better else where.
Forcing a child to do anything they don’t want to do is a negative thing.
However with pageants, the children learn that they need to look perfect in order to win. They are judged based off of their appearance.
With sports, the children actually practice and they earn their wins. They can take the skills they learn there and possibly make a future career out of it that doesn’t involve focusing all of their attention on their physical appearance.
No child should be forced to participate in either one!! If the child wants to play sports or shows an intrest in pagents or dancing or so on let them try it. i stand firm with "you sign up you finish the season". but by no means do they have to do it again. parents are just too hard on their little ones. they need to concentrate more on their tender hearts verses being the best at everything. Children need to learn how to loose just as well as win
I don’t push my children into things. If my boys were to decide to play sports great, that is a great physical activity to do and helps keep them healthy. Pagents however are moms parade their children around in expensive outfits and makeup on, sometimes fake hair and whiten their teeth. That is nothing like allowing your children to be active in a sport.
Cultural bias in favor of something most people regard as good for physical fitness and wholesome social interaction.
And cultural bias against something a lot of people think of as sexually demeaning, tending to reinforce antiquated values, and, according to the stereotype anyway, requiring no intelligence or skill of any kind.
i would never force or push my child into sports or pagents. But the difference between the two is a sport is natural, you dont alter your child to compete in a sport, they practice and get better or they try their best. There are two kinds of beauty pageants, natural and glitz. I have no problem with natural pageants though i think it can be hard on a child to be judged by their looks. With sports you are judged on your skills, and you can make those better through honest practice, with looks its not the same. My problem with glitz pageants is you have these toddlers and young girls being spray tanned, getting hair extensions and wigs, makeup on every inch of their face, fake teeth…its making them into something they arent and with all the pressure on young girls these day to look thin or pretty i think these glitz pageants up the hype when really we should be showing these young girls that they are each beautiful in their own way the way they are.
Doing sports is a good thing as it keeps children fit and healthy, and theres nothing wrong with a little healthy competitveness.
Beauty Pageants give children a very warped sense of self and ego, you’re more or less sending the message to your child that you have to have looks to get anywhere in the world.
Sports have to do with accomplishment and talent. Pageants only reward superficial beauty, much of which is enhanced by fake tans, fake eyelashes, lots of makeup, etc – basically, it sexualizes children.
However, overly pushy parents – the ones who yell at their kids for letting in a goal and fight with the ref – are obnoxious everywhere, whether it’s at a baseball game, a beauty pageant, a spelling bee, a piano recital, or anything else.
one is being active
the other is plastering your child full of makeup and promoting FAKE beauty
Well for one, sports is good exercise and leads to a healthy physical childhood and hopefully a good adult lifestyle.
Children beauty pageants are emotional rollarcoasters. I live in a *pageant area* and I’ve been invited to pageants and I’ve been encouraged to put my own children in pageants. Needless to say, I have not ever entered them and I would only enter my child in a talent show pageant if she truly wanted to do it. (My kids haven’t expressed the desire and talent show pageants are far and few between).
Here is my beef with 95% of children’s pageants. Keep in mind please that I have witnessed it first hand- I’m not just talking about things I’ve just seen on tv.
The parents are living through their daughters. You can see their self worth is clinging to whether or not their kid gets a trophy. I have been backstage when a little girl found her dress mangled/cut and drew on with lipstick. It was found out that a mother did it. The parents are nasty backstage. Making comments about the little girls teeth/hair/nails/weight while they walk by (snickering and eye rolling as well). The judges are bought. They are normally friends of the child that takes the prize, a distant relative or they were paid off with gifts. It all ends up coming out in the end.
When the girls complete a round- only that childs family members and friends applaud. I have seen grown women AND men stand up and thumb down and boooooo! children while they walk off the stage.
There are always random unknown men in the audience. The pageants aren’t screened and ticket sales are open to the public and you don’t even have to put your name on the stubs.
Oh.. the best part? when the kids don’t win they go backstage and cry their whole heart out. They are devastated and tear themselves down. The moms rally around tearing down the contestents that did win and scream and fight (judges/other parents/whoever) and demand to see score sheets. basically make completes aszes out of themselves. It’s so lovely.
The whole thing is quite disgusting. I’m very aware that 5% of children’s pageants can be fun. Kids get to show a talent and not bother with makeup etc. Many times every child gets a trophy in those kind. However- like I said- those are rare.
I agree that the push in both situations is negative.
However, sports teach team work and good sportsmanship and promote exercise.
Beauty pagents promote judging people based on their physical looks and appearance, and a lot of back stabbing and selfish snottiness.
A child in a pageant is taught to view themselves based primarily on appearance. Everyone around them is in competition with them. Their self worth is in the number of pageants they win, the price of their clothes, the time it takes to do their hair, and who does their dental work. My SIL competed in pageants through her teens and early twenties. She’s still a beauty queen, expecting the world to come to a stop and begin revolving around her.
A child who plays sports is taught to be part of a team. A win is not based on a single individual, but on the team’s performance as a whole. Maintaining a healthy body and staying active is the goal. While you may compete against a child on one team this season, that child may be your team member next season. Sports tend to be as much social as they are competitive.
i wouldnt force my kids into either, but you cant even compare sports and beauty pageants, they are no where even close to being alike, beauty pageants objectify these kids, and dress them up in make up and fake nails and skimpy little clothes,they are all about vanity and they are every pervs dream..sports are competition, they teach sportsmanship, they teach organization and discipline,among other things.i would NEVER have one of my kids in a beauty pageant, but if they want to play sports they are more then welcome.
A lot of people just think of "beauty pageants" as the typical Toddlers & Tiaras type. What a lot of people don’t realize is that those aren’t the only ones out there. As an experienced pageant contestant and dedicated dancer, these stereotypes really bug me.
So of course the creepy kind of beauty pageants that you see on Toddlers & Tiaras are definitely a bad thing. As previously stated, they make little girls believe that you have to have fake teeth, a fake tan, and so on to be beautiful. And then, of course, there are the parents who pretty much force these children to take part in such activities.
These are very different than most of the pageants out there. Pageants like National American Miss, American Co-Ed, and Miss America’s Outstanding Teen are all organizations that promote scholastic achievement, intelligence, and good communication skills, all of which come in handy in life later. A lot of people, including myself, LOVE these kinds of pageants. I cannot tell you how nice these people are and how many friends I have made through these programs. There are so many misconceptions about these girls that it’s almost funny how wrong they are. Sure, a lot of the pageants for women have swimsuit competitions and whatnot, but what is wrong with promoting physical fitness and being proud of that? I like to think of pageants as a sport. You win some and you don’t win some, but either way, you can easily come out of them with a sense of accomplishment, confidence, and even scholarship money. Judges are not bought out by contestants as so many of you above me have said. They might recieve some compensation by the pageant organization themself for their work but that’s it. In most pageants no one even knows who the judges are until the actual event. A lot of pageants even encourage community service by having a "platform" requirement, in which girls promote an issue that is important to them. Pageants can obviously can be a little pricy for parents, but what is the problem with investing some money in something your daughter really loves, and she’s even getting some scholarship money out of in the longrun.
I encourage you people above me who are blinded by stereotypes to go to a pageant in person and see what these girls are really like.