9 Chief Pros and Cons of Beauty Pageants
Women, young girls, and even men, gather all around the world to compete in beauty pageants. A beauty pageant are competitions that focus on the appearance, skills, and techniques of the people competing. These types of competitions have come under quite a bit of fire with the growing emergence of children beauty pageants. Many people have been raising an eyebrow at what kind of psychological damage these types of competitions can cause.
The Pros of Beauty Pageants
1. Confidence Builder
One of the best things that the competitors of a beauty pageant can gain from the experience is self confidence. They have to develop this confidence in order to be able to portray it in front of the judges. This confidence that they build will stay with them through most of and maybe even all of their life.
2. Stronger Discipline
A great deal of discipline is needed in order to be successful in a beauty pageant. You have to practice tirelessly, stay in great shape, and doing all of the other things that are necessary to be the best prepared for the competition. These values of discipline that are instilled help the competitors to succeed in other facets of their life.
3. Great Benefits For The Winners
The majority of high caliber beauty pageants offer some pretty great prizes to the winners. Often times they are cash, scholarships, or even cars. This is beneficial because many of the competitors are young, and having money to go to college is a great advantage for them.
4. Character Building
Beauty pageants are a competition, just like sports. Even though the players have on a full face of makeup and some high heels, the competition is still just as fierce. The ups and downs of winning and losing that all competitors go through at some point. This helps to build character and develop a strong sense of being.
The Cons of Beauty Pageants
1. Self Image Is Impacted
Being put on a stage and meticulously judged for the way your body, hair, face, and clothes look can take a huge toll on a young girl, and even on grown women. This damage to their ego hurts their self image. The damage done can lead to depression, eating disorders, and many other issues.
2. Too Extreme, Too Young
There are very few lines that are not crossed when it comes to beauty pageants. The true extent that they are being taken to are getting quite a bit out of hand. Young girls are wearing very inappropriate and revealing clothing, caking on makeup, and even putting in fake teeth just to impress the judges.
3. Money Money Money!
Every single corner you look in a beauty pageant there is money being thrown into it. Everything is extremely expensive when you are competing in a beauty pageant. You have to purchase flashy dresses, sports wear, makeup, hair extensions, jewelry, and the list goes on and on. It can easily costs thousands of dollars just to compete in a beauty pageant.
4. Children Have It The Worst
Out of all the different types of beauty pageants that occur around the world, by far the most controversial and the most talked about are children beauty pageants. This is because the children begin to compete from babies. Many people believe that the damage that can be done to the mind and confidence of a young, developing, child who is being subjected to the harsh judging of a beauty pageant.
5. Unhealthy Ideals
Body image is the biggest struggle that girls involved in beauty pageants deal with. Stick thin, but still sexy is a hard ideal to accomplish. Many of these girls feel so much pressure that they end up with eating disorders, substance abuse issues, and major depression problems.