Class-Action Lawsuit against University Royal Beauty Pageants Term Paper

Class-Action Lawsuit against University Royal Beauty Pageants - Term Paper Example These competitions have always been the source of great attention and rarely without controversy, leading one to question whether these competitions are ethical, and whether it is fair on the children who participate in them. Our firm believes that while they may be carried out with the best of motivation, their execution is one that is terribly flawed, and could be greatly detrimental to the well being of these children in the future, accompanied by the severe lack of laws governing the state and regulation of beauty pageants (Nussbaum, 2008) thus feel that legal action must be taken against the child beauty pageant industry. While it may be true that some of those contestants are there of their own accord and are indeed old enough to make that decisions, for example those that compete in the category for eight to ten year old children, it leads one to question what the sense is in having a competition that has contestants under the age of two. Surely they have no desire to be made up and dressed up, put into costumes and props, and taken out before a room full of cheering and shouting people. Babies at that age hardly appreciate getting dressed after a bath, it is unreasonable to expect one to believe that they would appreciate being adorned in ruffles and sequins and enduring extensive hours of make up, when they are at an age where they hardly have developed eyelashes or eyebrows. Furthermore, even if those girls who are in the 'older' category of the competition, eight to ten year old’s, which is still young by any stretch of the imagination, are there of their own accord as many representatives of this industry remark, it leads one to question whether firstly, they are conditioned into wanting that, and secondly, whether it is fair to allow them to do it in any case. When a child has been raised with the idea that they are beautiful and they will not only be appreciated for that beauty, but rewarded for it, as long as they allow someone to sit them on a pedestal and extensively observe them, how is a child expected to work out for themselves that it is wrong to be judged and rewarded on the basis of outward appearance? Those that argue over the fact that there are talent rounds and other judging criteria, what they don't realize is that even dancing and singing is a talent based on showcasing oneself, and ultimately makes the competition one that is b ased on outward superficial criteria of appearances. When a child learns that how they look is an easy ticket to getting recognition, they do not develop the understanding of how it is what is inside, intellect and compassion that is what should be focused on and developed. Every little girl wants make up and clothes, but it is the job of the parents to teach children that they do not need to rely on make up or glitter to appear beautiful, and that being the center of attention does not necessarily warrant one to be the best, nor should that be the criteria that they judge, or allow themselves to be judged on. In addition to these fundamental problems with the concept of a beauty pageant, our firms finds there to be many contradictions with the statements the child pageant industry puts out. Standards have risen so high in recent years, with the advent of greater stakes and higher levels of competition, that girls are having to rely more on more on fake beauty enhancers, rather than their own natural beauty. Fake spray tans, fake eyelashes, fake hair extension, even fake teeth, and all this on children who are at most nine or ten, and at their youngest, one or two, what sort of a message does that send to these children. Not only does