Children's Beauty Pageants and the Sexualization of Girls
This paper examines children's beauty pageants as a microcosm of a broader cultural problem: the hyper-sexualization of young girls in American society. Drawing on research from the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls and studies on the effects of gendered toys and appearance-focused activities, the paper explores how pageant culture encourages self-objectification and damages girls' self-esteem and career aspirations. The paper then evaluates potential solutions, including public attitude shifts, parental responsibility, and state-level regulatory reforms modeled on existing child labor and entertainment laws. It argues that meaningful change requires both cultural and legislative action.
- Introduction: Pageants and the Hyper-Sexualization of Girls: Pageants as symptom of broader girl sexualization
- Effects on Self-Esteem and Career Aspirations: Research linking appearance focus to lowered self-esteem
- Proposed Solutions: Limits of bans and case for regulation
- Agents of Change: Public attitudes, parents, and cultural reform
- State-Level Regulation of Child Entertainment: State law variation and need for legislative reform
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What makes this paper effective
- The opening scene-setting paragraph uses a vivid, concrete example to immediately establish the ethical stakes, drawing the reader in before presenting the argument.
- The paper grounds its claims in credible external sources — including APA research and a study from Oregon State — lending academic authority to what could otherwise read as purely opinion-based advocacy.
- The structure moves logically from problem identification, to evidence of harm, to practical solutions, giving the argument a clear and persuasive arc.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of authority-based evidence, directly quoting the APA Task Force and DOL resources to support both its social critique and its policy recommendations. This technique strengthens credibility by aligning the writer's position with established institutional research rather than relying solely on personal argument.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a descriptive hook before framing the central thesis around the sexualization of girls. It then presents empirical evidence of harm, pivots to a solution section that acknowledges the limits of outright bans, and closes with a dual-track recommendation — cultural change led by parents and the public, alongside state-level legislative reform. The references section follows standard citation conventions.
Introduction: Pageants and the Hyper-Sexualization of Girls
A girl, heavily made up, smiles at the camera. She is wearing a low-cut gown, false eyelashes, and high heels. She is three years old. In most other contexts, we would find this shockingly inappropriate. Yet the girl's mother is waving, smiling, and encouraging the child on. Worse still, others are judging the child based on her ability to convincingly mimic adult sexuality. The girl may have been kept up for long hours the night before so that her appearance could be perfected. She will be given a prize or deemed to have failed almost solely on her ability to demonstrate that she is beautiful in a highly conventional, Barbie-doll fashion.
Children's beauty pageants are a subculture of American life, but they exemplify a wider social problem: the sexualizing of children, particularly girls, at increasingly young ages. As in the media more broadly, the hyper-sexualization of girls is also reinforced by peers and parents, according to the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls: "If girls also sexualize themselves when they think of themselves in objectified terms. Psychological researchers have identified self-objectification as a key process whereby girls learn to think of and treat their own bodies as objects of others' desires." The culture of pageants encourages such self-objectification at a young age, beginning with the child's parents but then, as the girl grows older, translating into the girl's own behavior as she becomes complicit with it.
References
APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. APA. 2007. Web. 2 May 2015.
Orenstein, Peggy. "Career Barbie and the sexualization of little girls." Pacific Standard. 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 2 May 2015.
Table of child entertainment provisions. DOL. Web. 2 May 2015.
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