Beauty Pageants

Did you know that between 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 girls participated in over 100,000 beauty pageants in U.S.A last year? What do beauty pageants consist of? Beauty Pageants mainly focus on a female’s physical beauty, but also her personality, talent and how she best answers questions. Judges tend to focus, on the dresses, hair and makeup.
Beauty Pageants began in the 1920’s, when women were solely valued on their appearances. The first Miss America winner was a 16 year old school girl, who happened to look like a 1920’s movie star. During the early years, the swimsuit competition was the main events in pageants. Women would parade in bathing suits and be judged on how good their bodies looked.
During this 1920’s till quite recently, many people found this type of activity acceptable; however in today’s society the subjection of women is completely unacceptable. In society today, to judge a women or girl completely on her looks and her stage persona is archaic and frowned upon.
What’s distressing is that the looks that are acceptable are not even realistic, these women and children are made to look like dolls, they advocate this fantasy image of what a beautiful woman and child should look like.
Therefore by discussing child beauty pageants, adult beauty pageants and the effect they have on women and child, it will become apparent that beauty pageants are completely unethical and have no place in today’s society. We will be using three different ethical theories, Kant’s Moral Law theory, Socrates and Plato’s healthy mind healthy soul, and John Mill’s utilitarianism theory.

Child Beauty Pageants

Children as young as a few months old compete and grow up in this judgmental and superficial culture. It has been brought to life in such shows at Painted Babies (1995) and most recently in the TLC hit TV shows Toddlers and Tiaras. Since, the children are children; it is not there decision to compete in these contests. It is their parents, who decide to sign up their children to compete for the chance of winning a bond, cash or some other type of prize.
There are many examples of this unethical behavior on the TLC show Toddler’s and Tiara’s. One mother Melissa repeatedly used the word “we” when talking about her daughter and even said that “I feel like we are the same person. Like when she’s up there, it’s like I’m there”. The mother is not taking into account what her daughter wants, at the end of the episode her 5 year old daughter Carly told the cameraman that she did not want to do anymore pageants. This shows that the mother is using her daughter to relive the days when she was a beauty pageant winner (Toddlers and Tiaras Season 4 episode 14).

Another ethical problem is the way in which the mothers prepare their children for these pageants. It teaches children as young as 3 or 4 years old, that they need to change physically in order to win. Not to the extreme of adult competitors, but changes that could cause a child to develop depression and a twisted view of what beauty is. Throughout the series of Toddlers and Tiaras mothers have taken their daughters to get fake nails, change their natural hair colour, and even change their skin tone with fake tans. Mothers have also gone to extremes as the wax or shave uni-brows, and bleach the child’s teeth. One mother was even considering shaving her daughters back because she had some peach fuzz on her back. Once the prep work is finished, next come the fake hair pieces, fake teeth, called flippers and fake eyelashes to complete the winning look. The lessons that these moms are teaching their daughters is that, what they have naturally is not going to win them the beauty pageant title (Toddlers & Tiaras TV episodes).

One of the most controversial and unethical practices of child beauty pageants are outfits and costumes. The most controversial costume was on 3 year old Paisley, she was dressed as Julia Roberts prostitute character from Pretty Woman (1990). Another costume on 4 year old Maddy Jackson was a Dolly Parton costume complete with fake breasts and butt pads Madonna has also been portrayed on the pageant circuit, by 2 year old Mia who wore a gold mini-dress with cone breasts. This dress was worn by Madonna for her blonde ambition tour which she wore, while simulating sex and masturbation. This type of sexualization of children is unethical because the children are unaware of the meaning and don’t understand the consequences, and yet they will be remembered and known for these portrayals. The parents must be aware that these costumes cause a stir within the media. Could they be choosing these costumes just for the thrill?

Another reason, that parents put so much pressure on their children, is because of the amount of money they put into them, it is almost like they want a return on their investment. The average annual cost of beauty pageants is $30,000-$40,000(Parents want to win the prize money, which can range from $500-$10,000.00 in cash or bond. It is wrong to use a child for financial gain because as Kant would say it is using another person for your own means.

Kantian Ethics

Kant’s Four Questions from the parent’s point of view

1. What is my motivation for doing this?

2. What is the general principle involved?

3. What is the universal principle?

4. Can the universal principle be made into moral law?

1. The parent’s motivations vary from wanting their child to win, to win the money/ bond or to live vicariously through that child.

2. To win money or feel better about myself I will dress my daughter up and make her compete in beauty pageants.

3. Any parent who wants to win a reward, or relive childhood memories should use their child in beauty pageants.

4. This can not be made into moral law because the parents are using their children for a means to an end. They want to win or gain something for themselves and they are using their children to do it. Kant would say that because the parents are using the children it is automatically unethical. Also, if every parent used their child, then there would be a complete break in all family dynamics.

Adult Beauty Pageants

Usually what happens is that because the child has grown up in the pageant life, they will continue to compete into adulthood. Which leads us into adult beauty pageants. According to the Miss America website, to be a contestant you must be between the ages of 17 and 24. This is interesting because according to law, you do not become an adult till you turn 18. So in fact, the “adult beauty pageants” could actually consist of children.

The Miss America website states, “Miss America program exists to provide personal and professional opportunities for young women and to promote their voices in culture, politics and the community. This is an excellent cause, however we take issue with the fact that to receive these opportunities women and teenage girls are subject to harsh judgment and criticism about their physical appearance and their “talents”.

The Healthy Soul
Rational Element:	To receive a scholarship and create opportunities
Irrational Element:	To become a celebrity, and win money, they have a hunger and thirst to win the title and become famous
Spirited:	Emotions such as Jealousy, anger, depression, feelings of inadequacy.

Women begin this process to receive a scholarship, however soon the greed and hunger starts to set in. They may really want to be in a pageant for the fame and the celebrity status, and so feelings of jealousy and anger start to set in against fellow competitors.

The women no longer have healthy souls, because they have been competing since they were children, and so they have begun to rationalize competing and changing their bodies to suit the ideal. They also feel the need to compete in order to feel valued or feel self-worth, because throughout their lives they have been judged on their appearance and talent. They must compete in order to feel good about themselves, and the more they compete the more damaged their soul becomes.

Also, some women may feel inadequate if they lose, which may lead them to some way change their appearance, in order to win. According to a recent article, “Plastic Beauty” is it not uncommon for beauty contestants to have plastic surgery done, in fact it is encouraged. For example, Debra Maffet had a nose enhancement and breast augmentation, she became Miss America 1983. Also, the Miss California Pageant was in the news for paying for the runner ups breast implants in 2008. The contestant was asked many questions about what she would change about herself so she would feel confident on stage. Miss World 2005 has had numerous surgeries including nose enhancement and breast augmentation. Clearly there is a pattern that, the judges believe that these enhancements are what beauty should be.
There is also a belief that being thin is beautiful, and therefore many beauty pageant contestants believe that to win, they need to be thin. In the 1990’s the average pageant contestant was 5 feet 7 inches, 121 pounds (BMI 19.0) (However, the National Center for Health Statistics states, “The average 20-29 year old American woman is 5 feet 4 inches, 142 pounds (BMI 24.4)” Therefore, beauty contestants are below what is deemed to be a healthy body mass index. Each time a woman competes and changes a part of one’s self to better fit the mold of beauty their soul becomes more and more unhealthy. How can one be happy, if all they want is to compete for the need to win? And they compete again, and again, forgetting the real reason. . How can such a contest and culture be deemed acceptable?

Consequences

Beauty pageants are not only unethical because of the treatment and value system, but also because of the consequences they have on the participants. Pageants can have very strong emotional consequences on its participants, particularly the young girls. For example former child beauty queen Brooke Breedwell suffered anxiety and stress at only 10 years old. Brooke stated in an ABC News interview, "I feel the need to be perfect at everything, and I know that's not realistic. You can't be perfect at everything” Due to the vast about of stress, she quit the pageant circuit at 10 years old.

There has also been a study conducted on whether there is a relationship on beauty pageant participants and eating disorders and mental health. The study was conducted by Anna L. Wonderlich, Diann M. Ackard and Judith B. Henderson, they gathered 11 women who had been in the beauty pageants circuit and 11 women who had not, and compared the two groups. The studies found that there was a relationship between the 11 beauty pageant participants and eating disorders. The study also showed that the former beauty queens had a higher body dissatisfaction, interpersonal distrust and impulse dysregulation than non-participants.

Utilitarianism

Using the utilitarian ethical theory, we will demonstrate the consequences of beauty pageants.
Using a scale of 1-10, one being least happy and 10 being most happy.

Child Beauty Pageants

Teen Beauty Pageants

Adulthood Beauty Pageants

Total

Child

4

3

3

10

Mom

10

8

8

26

No Beauty Pageants

Teenage Years

Adulthood

Child

10

9

28

Mom

10

8

8

26

This shows that children, who are in pageants, are only happy for a portion of the time, usually when they win.

By the time the child reaches teenage years and adult hood, they are unhappy, because of stress, and body dissatisfaction.

Meanwhile, the mothers who have beauty queens feel happy that their child is a winner, and continues to feel that way throughout their life.

The mothers are using their children to feel happiness, which is unethical.

On the other hand, children who grow up outside of the beauty pageant lifestyle, grow up to be happy, and well adjusted, and their mothers are happy because their child is happy, which is a healthy ethical relationship.

	Child Beauty Pageants	Teen Beauty Pageants	Adulthood Beauty Pageants	Total
Child	4	3	3	10
Mom	10	8	8	26
	No Beauty Pageants	Teenage Years	Adulthood
Child	10	9		28
Mom	10	8	8	26