Katherine Vasquez English 1101 Sec 03 Professor Robert Arnold November 19, 2013 Ethnography Paper The group

or subculture that I decided to observe and research for my Ethnography paper was Child Beauty Pageants, and researched specifically Toddlers and Tiaras which is a group of toddlers ranging from the ages of 3-9 competing against each other in pageants of all kinds showing their skill and their attires with the only purpose of winning a cash prize and a crown. For my observation part of this research, I watched several complete episodes of this show (since I could not find anything of this nature in town). The first team that I saw was composed by a girl named Ashley and her six year old daughter Cherish. One of the things I noticed was that sometimes their behavior could get too ambitious, and superficial. Another interesting thing I noticed was that the mother herself participated on pageants when she was a teenager, and her six year old daughter has participated in over 100 pageants at the age of six! In cases like this, where the mothers have been in pageants themselves, seems like those mothers tend to persuade their kids into it and try to make them look like a little mini me version- the me referring to the mother. Some parents are vicariously living their dream through the children, making them do what they could not when they were their age. Sometimes it can just be that the parents, or specifically the mother, wants to achieve some sort of social status and wants to use the child to do so. From my perspective, it all seems like it is not the kids decision to get involved in pageants, to me it seems like the motherly figure gets them involved in it. For instance, I think that at the toddler stage, kids do

not decide what hobbies the want to go for; I think the parent is the one making that decision for them, I see soccer moms enrolling their kids in a soccer school because they want to see their kids play soccer not necessarily because they asked to be put in that situation. That is the case with pageants, little girls do not ask their mothers to do all of those things. After doing some research I still do not know if society considers the child pageants a sport or if it is just part of the entertainment business. My personal point of view is that pageants should not be considered a sport in any way, the question is why? I think that being good at a certain sport requires skill, skill that you improve with the pass of time. When people compete in sports is about how good they are, being considered good at it is not based on their looks and other factors involved. As for pageants, I think that the kids come to a point where they can see that their ability to compete in pageants becomes poorer and poorer; when do the little toddlers stop being cute in the judges eyes? That is when their ability to compete may decay. I think that beauty at that age is not determined by their looks, or the clothes they wear, at their age they should not be worrying about how their hair looks or if their lipstick is smeared. Being in those pageants pushes the kids to grow faster than they should, they are experimenting things that are in no way appropriate for their age, and the kids are having to act prematurely as adults. For example, why does a little girl have to worry about one of her fake eyelashes to fall while she is on stage, or having to put extensions while her natural hair is being dyed and messed with? Kids are being sexualized, having to wear tight and short clothing, spray tan, eye shadows, hairdos, not to mention the amount of makeup used on their faces is in average more than what a grown woman would use on a regular day. Seeing behind the scenes of all the pageants shows how the kids go through pain while getting all her hair and clothes fixed.

I found an article regarding this topic in specific, it talks about how a mother is about to lose her six year old daughters custody because the girls dad is accusing her of sexually exploiting their daughter for allowing her to dress so provocatively after seeing her impersonation of Dolly Parton, wearing fake breasts and butt. The father is fighting for sole custody of the little girl, the psychologists that are studying this case say that the mother went a little over the edge and argue that the father should have her custody. To make matters worse, the girls father is in probation for DUI, so in reality who seems to be the responsible one? (Adams). I found another case of the same nature when a mother dressed her daughter as a prostitute, when impersonating Julia Roberts character in the movie Pretty Woman these are not the only cases where the public has been infuriated because of the parents behavior, their words are it is absolute emotional child abuse and they are sexualizing little girls before they have the psychological ability to understand what they are doing as the public states, the abuse can be present even if the child is not aware of it, although some people argue that the punishment may be too severe because one incident does not demonstrate clear physical harm to the child, people think that it is a really hard line to draw. I also noticed they tend to get too competitive and have this mentality that they are the best at what they do. The kids seemed spoiled and had no limits, they disrespect their parents. Also, temper tantrums and tears seem to be common, showing a different behavior when they have to go on stage. To most people Toddlers and Tiaras is just a robbery of the childrens innocence, which may be considered child abuse, it is just moms competing against each other but using their daughters to do so, but to a member of the Toddlers and Tiaras community it is an opportunity for little girls to dress-up or for their mothers to show how beautiful their kids are, and also argue that the kids ask for it because they enjoy it so much (Henson).

It all appears to be a competition for the crown and the cash prize the families get. Everything is based on how the children look, their self-esteem is based on what the judges say about them after their performance on stage and their self-esteem may be affected for the best or the worst by the feedback received from the judges, for instance a girl may think she is beautiful only because a panel of people told her she was pretty and talented, I think that parents need to be careful because at that stage in their lives, kids may be tremendously affected by some comments or losing a competition, to them, losing a competition may be the worst thing ever because that is all they have been concentrated in and may affect the way the think in the future, those little things can actually make a difference in the childrens lives and their way of seeing the world. The kids are required to show their talents, a theme wear required for a certain pageant, interview, and swim wear. People that are against child pageants say that the parents are only sexualizing their children, which in turn leads to child pornography. Concerned parents also say that pageants are teaching the opposite sex to appreciate women only based on their looks and how provocatively they dress, and that the childrens behavior seems affected because the parents deny the kids their nap time just because they do not want to mess their make-up and their hair. Psychologists have said that the pageants may lead to eating disorders, low selfesteem, depression and the drive for pursuing a college career diminishes (Healy). The mothers of the participants argue that letting their kids participate in pageants helps them overcome their shyness, boosts their confidence, self-worth, and they have an opportunity to make friends at an early age. I noticed how some mothers complain about the money being spent on their kids attire, make-up, shoes, among other things necessary at the time of the

competition, the average amount of money spent ranges from $3000 to $ 5,000 per single competition. The mothers can see their money going away because sometimes they are spending it on lesson for the kids such as dancing, singing, speech training, and maybe they even have an instructor that teaches them how to have a good posture, smile, and wave properly (Graff). On the economic aspect of the whole pageant world, I noticed the two opposite sides of the spectrum: there is mothers who raise money to participate by baking cookies, selling lemonade with their kids, and other things like that, and there is the opposite side also, I watched a video of a mom being interview and asked about her economic condition after putting her daughters on the competitions and it was very shocking the response she gave to the reporter stating I was upset when I found out my last kid was going to be a boy, I wanted all girls because I actually have the kids so we can do the pageants it is horrifying what people can do for money, I personally think those people should not deserve to be parents because they are just going after the profit the kids could bring them, it is just a matter of economic interest and not because they actually want the parenting experience and what entitles. They also complain about how the father is absent most of time. The people that have protested against the child pageants have mentioned the importance of the male figure and criticize them for not stepping up and not doing anything to stop the mothers from manipulating the children. I think that both parental figures should come together and make the decisions, not just the mother, nowadays governmental institutions need to be careful with such things because sometimes it is hard to tell what the parents intentions are. Personally, I would not put a child of mine trough such hassle and unnecessary pain. I would let them reach a certain age where they can be the ones who decide what activities they want to get involved with.

Works Cited

Adams , Rebecca . " Maddy Verst's Padded Bra On 'Toddlers & Tiaras' Might Cause Her Mother To Lose Custody (POLL) ." Huffington Post. (2012): n. page. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. Graff , Amy . " The Mommy Files A local mom's take on raising kids by the Bay. Toddlers & Tiaras scandal: 4-year-old Destiny smokes cigarette on stage." Mommy Files. (2012): n. page. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. Healy , Michelle . "Could child beauty pageants be banned in the USA?." (2013): n. page. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Henson , Melissa. "'Toddlers and Tiaras' and sexualizing 3-year-olds." (2011): n. page. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.