Need advice-Beauty pageant

[Beth76]

"Pimping" is a as big an exaggeration as you can get. Believe it or not, there are some people who can see these pageants as innocent and fun, and not have sexual ideas come into mind, as pimping implies.

Dressing little girls up and parading them around for money isn't a form of pimping?

 

[disneyaggie]

While I am absolutely NO fan of a beauty pageant at all at any age (sends the wrong message, in my opinion), I do have an idea.

I would suppose that the pageant is held at the local school. Is there a way that after the school is let out, bring her to that school and let her walk around on the stage to start getting more comfortable with the setting. If you can get an adult she does not know to join you, have her "practice" answering questions. Anything to get her more familiar with the setting and the pace.

However, with that being said, is there anyway that you can discourage her from participating in this "event"? Maybe have a "Princess Day" and take her and other girls to do something special.

Or even help her bake cookies for a neighbor and let her know that doing things for others is much more special than basing the outcome of a pageant on looks.

Just a few ideas.

 

[dogluva]

Good one, OP.

This can't possibly be a serious post. It sounds way to reminiscent of last week's baby pageant with mom stressing over the dress post.

Only here we have the same wording used, but stressing over the fact that their daughter is beautiful, but might lose points when asked to use their brain. I can't imagine a parent indignant that a school puts brains over beauty and then going on and on about the beautiful curls and beauty of their 8 year old daughter.

Too much of a stereotype of the little southern belle, all beauty and no brains.

thanks for the chuckle of the day.

I, too, can't imagine this being a serious post either. No way would parents around her allow the PTO to put on a beauty contest. THis is way over the top. And her 8 year old looks like a grown up actress. My eight year olds always look liked themselves.

This board is changing. No longer are the posters kids gifted and talented. They are all so beautiful that they get stopped and told that they should be child models.

 

[mytwotinks]

This would not work at our school. Last week one of the mom's boycotted the recorder concert because she thought it wasn't fair. The kids had to pass each level to perform those songs so as the concert went on the kiddos sat down as they got to the next level that they had not passed. This mom thought that was going to be too competitive for her dd so she kept her home from school that day.

I can't even begin to imagine this mom dealing with her dd being judged on her looks. She changed teachers after her dd lost recess minutes for not getting her homework done. Mom didn't agree with that either.

The mom's in my kids school spend about 50% of their time up at the school making sure everything is fair for their kid, about 40% of their time complaining to their friends about how unfair the teachers are, and maybe the remaining 10% talking to their husbands (usually about how mad they are about the unfairness at school). I'm getting to the point where I don't even get out of my car when I pick my kids up.

Anyway, the beauty pageant thing would not fly here. The moms of the losers would be up at school demanding "fairness".

 

[Aisling]

Dressing little girls up and parading them around for money isn't a form of pimping?

I guess we can agree to disagree about the meaning of "pimping". A pimp is someone who brokers people to other people for sexual purposes. The little girls in the pageants aren't prostitutes, and shouldn't be disrespected by calling their pageant "pimping".


I would rather see these girls do a fashion show instead of the pageant, but only because of the judging. But I'd never think of it as pimping.

 

[moon]

.

Last time, she cried all the way home because all she wanted was a crown. Her Daddy went to Claire's and bought her a crown the very next morning and told her she would always be his princess and that she was the most beautiful little girl in the world.

No advice here, and I don't care for beauty pageants for kids, but this melted my heart.

What a lucky little girl! I wouldn't have needed any other crown after getting THAT one!

 

[EMom]

I see these pageants as a lose/lose proposition. If my child lost, I'm afraid she might start to feel negatively about herself and wonder if she was pretty after all. But if she won, would she start to become full of herself and place too much importance on her looks?

Then there's always the concern that there's some pervy guy in the audience, hanging around to anonymously check out the little girls, conveniently gathered in one place for his viewing pleasure. And yes, it does happen. I know I don't want my child's name on a program list which will make her an easy target for someone. No one will ever know what happened to JonBenet Ramsey, but this is one theory that was floated around. Personally, I don't want to advertise my DD this way. I don't hide her, but anytime she is in a public performance, I make certain her name is not published in a manner in which she could be identified. With a pageant, this is just not possible.

 

[Buckalew11]

I would be at every single PTO meeting, and organizing other parents against this. Schools should not be sponsoring beauty pageants.

I'd be right next to you. I can't even imagine that any school would have a beauty pageant.

Yep.

Get this-in the Fall they have a "Harvest King and Queen" contest. Whoever raises the most money wins.

So, I'd love to know how much $$$ they bring in with that one. Probably all the parents trying to outgive the cuase. Geez...

Maybe they can do a fashion show for a fund raiser. This way, the girls get to dress up and do the princess prance, but there's no judging involved.

Sounds better.

I think in the south beauty pageants are very common, sort of like a southern cultural thing. I kow when I was looking into them from curiousity, the bigs ones were Texas, Alabama, and Georgia. "Pimping" is a as big an exaggeration as you can get. Believe it or not, there are some people who can see these pageants as innocent and fun, and not have sexual ideas come into mind, as pimping implies.

I have never heard of school beauty pageants around here. Hope it doesn't catch on.

 

[Aisling]

I have never heard of school beauty pageants around here. Hope it doesn't catch on.

I meant beauty pageants in general are more of a southern thing that elsewhere. School pageants I never heard of.

 

[Buckalew11]

I meant beauty pageants in general are more of a southern thing that elsewhere. School pageants I never heard of.

Gotcha. And yes, you are probably right. As a little girl in NJ, I do remember going to the Miss magic (of LBI) beautuy contest every year watching the older girls compete. And of course, Miss America was 1 hour away but we all know that Miss Texas almost = Miss America title!
I think it is because they start'em so young!

 

[EMom]

Can't resist sharing this one....

In East Texas, there is a town that celebrates the yam and all things yam. Every year they have the Yamboree. Not a Jamboree, but the Yamboree. It's like a country fair, with a parade and a beauty pageant and everything else all rolled into one. Anyway, the biggest deal in town is to be named Queen Yam. But you don't win Queen Yam on looks, really. Nope, you win it by selling tickets to the Yamboree. Needless to say, only rich girls win Queen Yam. One daddy probably went broke one year when his twin girls ran and he had to buy twice the number of tickets so they could tie and BOTH win as co-queens. I believe they were Queen Yam Nan and Ann, or something like that.


Every once in a while, some poor deluded girl from a neighboring town will attempt to win the title, but no one outside the town will ever win. A girl from my HS tried to win one year. We were eating lunch in the cafeteria, and a male friend of ours asked her why she was even trying and didn't she know she didn't stand a chance. Of course, he was dead on the money, but we were a bit surprised that he was so blunt. (Keep in mind, it was a small HS, so we were more like brothers and sisters.) Someone said, "Well, what he means is, it is all rigged and you basically have to buy the title, so that's why you can't win." My male friend said, "No, that's not it. It's because your yams aren't big enough!" We all tried not to laugh for about 2 seconds, but it was a lost cause. She tried to be indignant, but even she was laughing. The yam jokes never ended where that town was concerned.

 

[Aisling]

Gotcha. And yes, you are probably right. As a little girl in NJ, I do remember going to the Miss magic (of LBI) beautuy contest every year watching the older girls compete. And of course, Miss America was 1 hour away but we all know that Miss Texas almost = Miss America title!
I think it is because they start'em so young!

Wow, you've just brought back memories of watching Little Miss America held at Palisades Amusement Park in NJ!

 

[LotsOfQuestions]

OP - if you are serious about makeup, here are some pictures of the winners from the Southern Beauties and Beaux's Pageant. Perhaps it will give you some ideas of what is expected of a good, southern beauty pageant.

http://www.southernbeautiesandbeaus.com/nphoto.htm

(Pretty scary pictures. Full names of the kids and enough makeup to rival a hooker.)

 

[Aisling]

OP - if you are serious about makeup, here are some pictures of the winners from the Southern Beauties and Beaux's Pageant. Perhaps it will give you some ideas of what is expected of a good, southern beauty pageant.

http://www.southernbeautiesandbeaus.com/nphoto.htm

(Pretty scary pictures. Full names of the kids and enough makeup to rival a hooker.)

There's one photo where the baby has a MEAN unhappy look on her face! I tried to post it, but the site won't allow me to lift the photo.

 

[akhenaten]

OP - if you are serious about makeup, here are some pictures of the winners from the Southern Beauties and Beaux's Pageant. Perhaps it will give you some ideas of what is expected of a good, southern beauty pageant.

http://www.southernbeautiesandbeaus.com/nphoto.htm

(Pretty scary pictures. Full names of the kids and enough makeup to rival a hooker.)

it is quite scary...they all begin to look exactly alike

 

[NMAmy]

OP - if you are serious about makeup, here are some pictures of the winners from the Southern Beauties and Beaux's Pageant. Perhaps it will give you some ideas of what is expected of a good, southern beauty pageant.

http://www.southernbeautiesandbeaus.com/nphoto.htm

(Pretty scary pictures. Full names of the kids and enough makeup to rival a hooker.)

Holy cow! What is up with the ENORMOUS crowns? The "tiaras" are bigger than they are!

 

[sk8ingmom]

"Well, what he means is, it is all rigged and you basically have to buy the title, so that's why you can't win." My male friend said, "No, that's not it. It's because your yams aren't big enough!" We all tried not to laugh for about 2 seconds, but it was a lost cause. She tried to be indignant, but even she was laughing. The yam jokes never ended where that town was concerned.

I had a friend in college who had been the Mellon Queen in her hometown.
We loved to introduce her to people as the Mellon Queen...usually sometime after the 4th beer or so.

I'm attempting to not pass judgement on the whole pagent thing...but I have to say I'm shocked. All kids things seem to be so focused on fairness and de-emphasizing competition nowadays. I have boys. They play sports. I swear eventually the leagues won't start keeping score until high school!

 

[WeCantWait]

OP - if you are serious about makeup, here are some pictures of the winners from the Southern Beauties and Beaux's Pageant. Perhaps it will give you some ideas of what is expected of a good, southern beauty pageant.

http://www.southernbeautiesandbeaus.com/nphoto.htm

(Pretty scary pictures. Full names of the kids and enough makeup to rival a hooker.)

Wow, that is just creepy.

 

[SandraVB79]

Those pictures are plain scary!
Those 8-9 yos look like older teenagers, never mind the 10-12 yos.

No wonder people never guess MY age right, I look younger than them (and I'm almost 29!)

 

[LotsOfQuestions]

Those pictures are plain scary!
Those 8-9 yos look like older teenagers, never mind the 10-12 yos.

No wonder people never guess MY age right, I look younger than them (and I'm almost 29!)

What is scary is that is only one of many sites that came up when I googled Alabama+school+beauty pageant, as I still couldn't believe that an elementary school would actually host a beauty pageant as a fund raiser. I guess other posters are correct, beauty pageants are big business in the south.

Such a gorgeous part of the country, but beauty pageants for little kids?