logansoldcigar said:
Hello Miss Pretty
Its interesting to read comments from someone that's participated in these things. I'll be honest, and say that generally im not sure that they are a good idea. It strikes me as somewhat odd, however, in a world where some morons on a housing estate beat up a peadiatrician (because they thought the "pead" meant she was a kiddie fiddler), where parents want to be told the location of every sex offender, no matter what they did, where we are always being told "cant show that, cant do that" in case the mythical 4 yr old child is watching, and all in the name protecting children..... that they allow things like these pageants to go ahead (and other things..thongs for 3 yr old girls with sexy beast printed on them, that kinda crap). do you thing its cos there is too much money in that there game?
what would , out of interest,your stance be if they decided to ban them, again, in the name of protecting children.
I think a whole bunch of things get mixed up together here.
Thongs for tots that say "sexy beast"... very wrong.
As I pointed out to Morg earlier there's been a lot of attention paid to the 'dark side' of pageants in the last 10 years due to the Jonbenet thing. That is the minority of it.
Dolling up kids - little girls in particular - as 'little adults' and parading them around is absolutely nothing new. Look at pictures from the 40s onward of little girls in tiny short summer dresses with frilly ruffled panties.
Also, a lot of the dancing you see the little girls doing is not 'unnatural' to them. Lots of wiggling and shimmying is what you see little girls do if they 'dance' by without any prompting. The
majority aren't doing stripper routines and feeling themselves up or grabbing their crotches like their Britney Spears or Michael Jackson. In a lot of cases, its the adults - particularly adult men (particularly those without children of their own), I might add - who make the sexual association - others just look at it as 'cute kid' behavior, not 'sexy'. The pageant world, is however, mostly made up of women. It's not dad's who are doing this with their daughters (and sons sometimes), it's moms, and when you look at the audience, it's made-up of mostly women as well.
Does it attract some sickos... of course... but so do schools, amusement parks, daycare centers, malls... anyplace there are kids. I think the media coverage in its quest for ratings has in this instance, like in many others, highly overplayed the risk here. It's been sensationalized to the Nth degree.
Is part of it money? Some, but overall, not as much as you might think. For most of the participants, it's not really that lucrative (there's not TV contracts and such involved like with Ms. Universe or Miss America). It's a very small group of people who actually make money (mostly vendors... at pageants of any size - like most of the 'Little Miss' circut - there are vendor booths where you can buy and order child-sized batons, sparkly shoes, costumes, etc.). When it comes right down to it, however, pageants in general - and by that I mean pageant organizers (even for grown women), because participants mostly tend to spend money, not make it - are losing money these days.
If they banned them "for the sake of the children", I'd shake my head and say it was very misguided because there are so many other things that would go so much further toward protecting children. As I said above, the risks (in terms of child predators and such) have been greatly overblown.
As for it being 'abuse'... as I said in an earlier comment. There are going to be bad parents involved in any children's activity. Is forcing a child to participate in a pageant any worse than forcing a child to play t-ball when they don't want to? Can you really determine which is worse for a child in the long run... Berating a kid because they're 'not attractive enough' and/or doesn't have the drive to really do what it takes to beat the competition or berating a kid because they're 'weak, clumsy, uncoordinated and incompetent' and/or doesn't have the drive to really do what it takes to beat the cometition?
Either way it sets a child up as feeling worthless, like they've somehow 'let down' their parent and can lead to a whole host of psycological problems later in life (or not, in some cases). And you can create the same scenario with all kinds of activities parents get their kids into when they are young... academics, music, sports, pageants... heck, it doesn't even have to be an organized activity. Some parents will put their kids down simply for being the kid they are.
Many more than my dad would like, I can tell you that. 
