Negative Effects of Beauty Pageants on Children

Negative Effects of Beauty Pageants
        Is it right to want to teach children that beauty is solely based on what is on the outside, or should they know that beauty comes from within?  Beauty pageants teach children at a young age that people will judge someone based on looks and not personality.  For years, beauty pageants have been based on children wearing hair pieces, makeup, spray tans, and flappers.  Beauty pageants diminish self-esteem and teach children bad morals.  Beauty pageants create mental and physical harm to a child throughout a pageant, not to mention the gruesome yet realistic possibility of death or rape of contestants.   Beauty pageants should be banned for children under the age of 18, their fragile minds are not ready for the criticism and diminution that comes with the idea of being “perfect” in the judges’ mind.
According to the Greek myth of Paris, beauty pageants first originated in the ancient times with the Judgment or Paris.  Around 1250 B.C, three goddesses were having an argument about which one was the most beautiful.  These goddesses were Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite.  They all agreed to pick a human to choose which one was the most beautiful.  The goddesses picked Paris, the youngest son of King Priam.  Each goddess presented Paris with a gift but Aphrodite was ultimately the winner.  In the year 1854, P. T. Barnum began the first modern beauty pageant.  However, shortly after they began, the public shut them down.   They thought beauty pageants were demeaning to women.  Beauty pageants were introduced into Americas’ society in the 1920’s.  In the year 1921, an Atlantic City hotel owner began beauty pageants as a marketing tool for his hotel.  The owner wanted his costumers to stay at his hotel for longer so he used beautiful women to attract them.  These pageants were known as “Inter-City beauty contest.”  During the great depression, beauty pageants were discontinued.  However, after the depression pageants boomed.  Eric...