American child GLITZ beauty padeantry. For vs against... GO!

[Lightworker]

Perhaps Mum2B21 didn't intend to be rude. I know people can sometimes misinterpret posts.

 

[Blah11]

Again, not fair to say they don't get any childhood freedom. I imagine only a VERY small number of children who do pageants do them 24/7.


& I don't think her post can be interpretted as anything other than rude? I don't agree with you so clearly you're way too intellectual for me to understand. lol.

 

[aragornlover8]

I also think it's going a bit far to suggest it's a form of child labor.

On another note, regarding competition, there was an interesting piece I heard on NPR about a mother who was getting a little fed up of our "everybody is special" type of education system here in America. She talked about how both of her girls were on the same soccer league and that, by the number of trophies they received every season, you would think that they were amazing players. But she admits that her children are both pretty bad at soccer but have a great time playing it. She suggested that treating everyone like they were a winner all of the time was, in fact, celebrating mediocrity; she further suggested that this could be the reason the US lags behind other countries in education. Parents and school administrators are too afraid to hurt children's feelings/leave children out to actually celebrate real achievement in areas like math and science. In other words, there's no real strive for perfection if you know you're going to get an award for effort anyhow, just like all of your fellow classmates. It made me think of a line in the Incredibles -
Helen - Everyone is special, Dash.
Dash - Which is another way of saying no one is.

I'm not saying I agree 100% with the NPR piece, but it really made me think about how we view achievement. And I think there really are some positive things that can come from competition. That's not to say there aren't negative side effects from people who take competition too far.

 

[aragornlover8]

Again, not fair to say they don't get any childhood freedom. I imagine only a VERY small number of children who do pageants do them 24/7.


& I don't think her post can be interpretted as anything other than rude? I don't agree with you so clearly you're way too intellectual for me to understand. lol.

Well, we all know there's only one intellectual side in a debate, right?

 

[Lightworker]

Hmm - someone posted something similar in general section. I'm so not a fan of competition among children. Everyone gets compared, and people stop being valued as individuals. Surely the point of education is to learn. How does learning become a competition? Where I grew up, the schools did really well overall, it turned out the students were cramming info and just regurgitating it whereas other less-academically brilliant schools, the students had greater analytical skills and better at lateral thinking.

 

[Lightworker]

Child labour = any work that harms and/or exploits the child physically, mentally, morally etc. In the study of the Japanese children in high pressured academic institutions, alot of the children were found to have stress-related illnesses eg ulcers. It would not be too far fetched to speculate that the same could happen to those involved in pageantry - the competition is there, their parents approval is on the line, it would be very easy for stress to follow suit.

 

[aragornlover8]

Hmm - someone posted something similar in general section. I'm so not a fan of competition among children. Everyone gets compared, and people stop being valued as individuals. Surely the point of education is to learn. How does learning become a competition? Where I grew up, the schools did really well overall, it turned out the students were cramming info and just regurgitating it whereas other less-academically brilliant schools, the students had greater analytical skills and better at lateral thinking.

I can see why some are against childhood competition, but I think that it can promote individuality just as well. What's more individual than one's own strengths and weaknesses?

I'm not saying I don't see your point. Just arguing my own.

 

[aragornlover8]

Child labour = any work that harms and/or exploits the child physically, mentally, morally etc. In the study of the Japanese children in high pressured academic institutions, alot of the children were found to have stress-related illnesses eg ulcers. It would not be too far fetched to speculate that the same could happen to those involved in pageantry - the competition is there, their parents approval is on the line, it would be very easy for stress to follow suit.

I was arguing that it's far to say it's child labor in the US. I can see the argument for Japan. Like I said, competition can be a good thing, but it doesn't mean it always is. There has to be a happy medium.

 

[annawrigley]

I also think it's going a bit far to suggest it's a form of child labor.

On another note, regarding competition, there was an interesting piece I heard on NPR about a mother who was getting a little fed up of our "everybody is special" type of education system here in America. She talked about how both of her girls were on the same soccer league and that, by the number of trophies they received every season, you would think that they were amazing players. But she admits that her children are both pretty bad at soccer but have a great time playing it. She suggested that treating everyone like they were a winner all of the time was, in fact, celebrating mediocrity; she further suggested that this could be the reason the US lags behind other countries in education. Parents and school administrators are too afraid to hurt children's feelings/leave children out to actually celebrate real achievement in areas like math and science. In other words, there's no real strive for perfection if you know you're going to get an award for effort anyhow, just like all of your fellow classmates. It made me think of a line in the Incredibles -
Helen - Everyone is special, Dash.
Dash - Which is another way of saying no one is.

I'm not saying I agree 100% with the NPR piece, but it really made me think about how we view achievement. And I think there really are some positive things that can come from competition. That's not to say there aren't negative side effects from people who take competition too far.

I agree with this!

 

[ShanandBoc]

Against. This sums it up for me

All of the evidence says that this sort of early sexualisation of young people is associated with negative body image, disordered eating, depression, anxiety, low self esteem. It's simply toxic

-Psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg

 

[Tasha]

How old is she??? All of about 8/9/10??? Thats what most pageants are like..

Have not read all the posts yet, but she looks sad despite the fake smile

 

[KittyVentura]

Edited title to make it clear that it is GLITZ padgeants that I'm referring to in this debate

 

[Lightworker]

There's a documentary coming up next week on More4 about this issue. Hope to watch it.

 

[KittyVentura]

Oooh sounds fab LW. I;ve got proper hooked on Toddlers and Tiaras. It's like carcrash TV - makes me even more ANti child pageantry with every episode I watch xx

 

[Lightworker]

Oops, turns out the documentary is about Hollywood babes - child actors. Still I am sure it will be interesting.