Child Beauty Pageants and the Sexualization of Girls
This paper examines child beauty pageants in the United States, tracing their origins from 19th-century spectacle through the rise of Miss America and into contemporary reality television. Drawing on historical evidence, feminist critique, and American Psychological Association research, the paper argues that children's pageants are part of a broader cultural trend of hyper-sexualizing young girls. It considers early baby contests, the controversy surrounding child entertainers like Shirley Temple, and empirical findings linking early sexualization to impaired cognitive performance, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and depression. The paper concludes that pageants, far from being harmless fun, reinforce damaging messages about female identity at a critical stage of development.
- Introduction: Beauty Pageants and Cultural Controversy: Pageants as metaphor for girl sexualization in media
- The History of Beauty Pageants in America: Origins from Barnum to Miss America tradition
- Feminist Critiques and the Objectification of Women: 1968 protests and feminist challenges to pageant culture
- Children in Entertainment and Early Baby Contests: Shirley Temple, baby pageants, and early criticism
- The Psychological Impact of Sexualizing Young Girls: APA research linking sexualization to cognitive and mental harm
- Conclusion: Pageants, Parenting, and the Broader Cultural Trend: Pageants within wider commercial sexualization of girls
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What makes this paper effective
- Grounds its argument in historical context before making normative claims, giving the critique scholarly depth rather than relying solely on contemporary outrage.
- Integrates empirical evidence from the APA alongside cultural and historical sources, balancing social criticism with scientific research.
- Acknowledges counterpoints — such as the fact that not all pageant criticism is feminist in origin, and that all girls face sexualized media regardless of pageant participation — before reinforcing its central argument.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of historical contextualization: rather than treating child beauty pageants as a purely modern phenomenon, it traces a continuous thread from 19th-century baby shows through the Miss America tradition to contemporary reality television. This approach shows that today's controversies are not new but are instead a recurring tension in American attitudes toward femininity, childhood, and spectacle.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with the media controversy surrounding children's pageants and immediately situates it within broader American history. It then moves chronologically through the origins of adult beauty pageants, feminist protests, and early child entertainers. The middle sections address historical baby contests and their critics before pivoting to contemporary psychological research. The paper closes by connecting the pageant subculture to a wider trend of commercialized sexualization and recommending reflection for parents involved in the activity.
Introduction: Beauty Pageants and Cultural Controversy
Children's beauty pageants have attracted a great deal of negative publicity in recent years, partly because of sensationalistic media coverage via shows like Toddlers and Tiaras. The program depicts the vicious, back-biting, behind-the-scenes drama of competition in which young children dress up as much older, highly sexualized women — often because they are pushed to do so by overly driven stage mothers. Criticisms of beauty pageants, however, stretch far back in history and are much older than reality television. What is particularly noteworthy today is the extent to which pageants have become a metaphor for the over-sexualization of children, particularly young girls. The message conveyed by pageants seems very different from the empowering message embraced by other areas of media regarding the ability of girls to demonstrate their worth outside the context of sexuality and domesticity.
The History of Beauty Pageants in America
To understand the complex attitudes toward pageants in America requires an understanding of their role in larger American history. Beauty pageants have an old and storied history in the United States. Although the attempt to determine who is the "fairest of them all" is even older than the nation itself, the history of the modern beauty pageant is said to have begun in the 19th century with Phineas T. Barnum. "Some of Barnum's most popular attractions were 'national contests' where dogs, chickens, flowers, and even children were displayed and judged for paying audiences. While 61,000 people swarmed to his baby show in 1855, a similar event the year before — designed to select and exhibit 'the handsomest ladies' in America — proved a disappointment," given that women were initially unwilling to display themselves in such an unrespectable manner ("People and Events"). However, the rise of the flapper, shorter skirts, and more permissive social attitudes gave rise to new interest in the beauty pageant.
In 1921, Atlantic City held the first Miss America Pageant. "Stressing that the contestants were both youthful and wholesome, the Miss America Pageant brought together issues of democracy and class, art and commerce, gender and sex — and started a tradition that would grow throughout the century to come" ("People and Events"). The pageant and others like it soon became profoundly symbolic of America's attitudes toward femininity and womanhood. A talent competition was added alongside the swimsuit and formalwear portions to lend the contest respectability. A scholarship was also offered as part of the prize package, signaling that talent as well as embodying wholesome American girlhood was valued. The crowning of the first Jewish, African-American, and differently-abled Miss Americas all became headline news as evidence of America's more diverse standards of beauty. "It has been about a dream of being beautiful. It's also been about a dream of being successful" ("Transcript"). Miss America and beauty pageants in general have sometimes been seen as symbolic of deeper cultural tensions being worked out through the discourse of beauty.
Feminist Critiques and the Objectification of Women
Beauty pageants became increasingly controversial with the rise of the feminist movement. "400 women showed up to protest the 1968 Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, N.J." and participated in "the mass dumping of aprons, dust mops, cosmetics and bras into a Freedom Trash Can, an act that reportedly inspired the urban legend that feminists in the '60s liked to burn bras for recreational sport" ("The Feminists vs. The Contestants"). Feminists saw the pageants not as a celebration of female talent and beauty but as a vehicle for objectifying women. This critique — that beauty competitions reduce women to their physical appearance — would later extend, with even greater urgency, to contests involving children.
Conclusion: Pageants, Parenting, and the Broader Cultural Trend
Pageants are not simply harmless fun: they can have long-lasting repercussions for a child's psychological development. "Research links sexualization with three of the most common mental health problems of girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression or depressed mood… Frequent exposure to media images that sexualize girls and women affects how girls conceptualize femininity and sexuality" ("Sexualization of Girls," 2010). Indeed, one of the interventions recommended by the APA to counter the negative influence of the media is to ensure girls participate in extracurricular activities — such as sports — that do not place their physical appearance first and foremost. The historical record and the scientific evidence together call into serious question the existence of beauty pageants for children and should give all parents whose children participate in them genuine pause.
Works Cited
Anderson, L.V. "What Was the Deal with Graham Greene Calling Shirley Temple a Fancy Little Piece?" Slate. 12 Feb. 2014. Web. 17 May 2017.
"The Feminists vs. The Contestants." Time. 2011. Web. 17 May 2017.
Levy, Hilary. "The Evolution of American-Style Child Beauty Pageants." The Huffington Post. 17 May 2011.
"People and Events: The Origin of the Beauty Pageant." Miss America. The American Experience. PBS. 2001. Web. 17 May 2017.
Pruitt, Sarah. "From Child Star to Diplomat: Remembering Shirley Temple Black." History.com. 11 Feb. 2014. Web. 17 May 2015.
"Sexualization of Girls." (2010). APA. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report.aspx
"Transcript." Miss America. The American Experience. PBS. 2001. Web. 17 May 2017.
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