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*rubbing hands in an evil fashion....ready to embark on a caffine induced spiel*
Ok.....beauty pageants are fine if that's what a young adult/woman wants to do. However, I hold serious reservations when the "I'm 40, but trying to look 20 stage mother" coos, "But she waaaannnnttssss to do these pageants, she looovvveeesss them." Ok, and the "she" is a child of five. When kids are five, they also want to eat dirt, ride their bikes in the middle of the road, etc.... Kids want to do all kinds of things that aren't necessarily the most reasonable things.
When a parent enters a child in a beauty pageant does she realize that she's putting her child in a psychologically dangerous situation?
Judging anyone on their appearance objectifies them. You are your beauty. What happens when a child of 5 grows to be 13, hits the "ugly" stage, and doesn't win pageants anymore? She objectifies herself. She doesn't judge herself on how she feels about herself, she judges herself on how other people judge her. Life is hard enough......
I also watched that HBO special. It made me physically ill. Some of those mothers just seemed so....crazy!!! Why not develop your child's talents? You know, like academically, athletically, artistically? These are much more profitable ways to benefit your child than expecting that 50 buck savings bond won at the local Miss Crawdad pageant is going to pay for college. Hello....scholarships based on merit??
And no one in the world will convince me that they are not beauty pageants regardless of what the PC term is now. (Can there be a PC term?? hmmm....) No one can tell me that a 5'3", 150 pound, gorgeous woman who does a ton of philanthropy work, is pre-med, and sings like a bird is going to win over the size 3 6'0 mutant with big teeth/hair who wants to "stop world hunger." It doesn't happen.
Another thing that makes me upset is that I have heard people say that "Jon Benet's parents were 'setting her up' to be molested" by dressing her like a sex kitten. I mean, substitute Jon Benet with a 21 year old college student out for the night dressed in "bar clothes"....does she deserve to be sexually assulted?
Ehh...to each her own, I guess.
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