CHILD BEAUTY PAGEANTS

Remember when you were little and people asked you what you wanted to be when you grow up? I guess, at least once, your answer was "I'm going to be a star" or "I'm going to be rich and famous". Of course you want to be famous as a child since the bright and shiny world of television leads you to believe that once you're a star, everyone will love and accept you. Now, how does your loving and caring mother help you to make your wish come true? - She signs you up for a beauty pageant!

How can a mother say she loves her daughter and at the same time force her to compete with other girls in a beauty pageant? How can she sincerely tell her that she's the most beautiful girl in the world and at the same time change everything about her? Fake tan, fake hair, fake lashes, fake teeth, fake smile plus flamboyant outfit and high heels if possible. Don't forget about the nose or ear correction! I'm sorry, but it's disturbing and insane. To me, these girls were transformed into their mothers' little Barbie Dolls who represent everything they could not accomplish themselves. Nevertheless, such pageants are still not banned, in fact they boom. Those parents teach their kids that (fake) outward beauty and winning at all costs is everything. Even at the cost of their kids' childhood. Since how are those girls supposed to be children if life is a perpetual competition for attention and appreciation? Will mommy still be pleased if a better clone version of her daughter wins the pageant? What about those who lose? Self-consciousness, lack of self-assessment, self-doubts? Frustration, depression, burnout? Probably an eating disorder? What about the danger of sexualization of those little girls?

I dare say that the girl's overall burden is her mommy's unbounded ambition to shape her own flesh and blood according to her idealized conception of beauty. That's what it's all about and unfortunately mommy can't let go.

I was wondering about a tangible definition of childhood. But, as there is no such thing as a perfect, ideal childhood, here is my notion of what it should be like:

• as a child you're childish
• as a child you love to play
• as a child you're curious
• as a child you lack maturity
• as a child you're not making life-changing decisions
• as a child you don't have a job
• as a child you lack the worries of the world

In the case of child beauty pageants, the participants hardly meet my expectations of being real kids. Somehow, they're somewhere in between. No longer child, not yet a teen nor an adult. Mere puppets whose masters are mad and infected with an bizarre ideology of beauty that leads to their own self-hatred, which can only be overcome by fully controlling the child's body to finally conform to this nasty, deceitful society. This is no act of devotion. At least this is what I think.

But what about real beauty? Isn't it a construct as well? Why do we smile for pictures? Why do we consider smiling pleasant anyway?

Would these cuties ever win a beauty pageant?

Sometimes the outside really can reflect our inner self and reveal the inner beauty. To me, beauty means variety and is, first and foremost, an individual perception. Due to culture, beauty is subject to change, but even if it changes, culture's stereotypical concept of beauty affects us all in everyday life. We can't help it - it's simply because it is deeply embedded in our minds.