Hello fellow beauty lovers.
It’s been more than four weeks since I’ve posted my very first article and started the Mini-Series on Child Beauty Pageants. Those of you, who have been with me since the beginning, know how bizarre this world of little misses can be.
What we do know for sure is that children are ought to endure a hell of a procedure in preparation for the big competition. As a woman I know first-hand how it is like to get a set of fake nails, fake lashes, a waxing session or even hair extensions. For a little child, these procedures can be very distressing and even painful. But it’s probably the psychological aspect and stress which especially shocks child psychologists. The constant pressure and strain, which forces the little children to always present themselves perfectly in public, the disappointment of the often overly ambitious and almost manic parents in the case of a loss simply destroy the self esteem of the little girls. This can lead to personality disorders, alcohol and drug abuse when they grow up.
Unfortunately, this trend seems to be widespread in the USA. But what do other countries think about this practice?
Russia and France seem to have acknowledged child beauty pageants as a threat to children already, abolishing them once and for all.
In Germany however, there seem to be no regulations concerning this topic. Indeed, beauty pageants in Germany still require a minimum age of 18 years, especially because the German Kinderschutzbund, which translates to child protection association and can be considered a lobby fighting for children’s rights, argues against this practice. It seems as if child beauty pageants still represent a taboo in Germany which is why German politicians still haven’t referred to this topic in any way. In the end, child beauty pageants appear to be another issue reflecting a severe flaw in the German justice system which often seems to have never heard of the term “prevention”. Child beauty pageants will only be forbidden after the taboo is broken, after young children have suffered from this gruesome trend.
When will we finally stop all this?
But let’s not forget the worldwide beauty and model business which prefers young girls of only 16 or even 15 years! And when does a child stop being a child? We should take this into consideration as well.
What do you guys think? Do beauty pageants for children count as a form of abuse or are we merely overreacting?
Yours truly,
Lana Hoang
Copyright and Source: http://www.examiner.com/article/child-beauty-pageants-a-form-of-child-abuse
http://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article120491068/Die-Miss-Wirtschaft-der-Schoenheitswettbewerbe.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-cruz/the-french-government-ban_b_3958301.html
http://www.rappler.com/world/regions/europe/53978-russian-lawmakers-ban-beauty-pageants
