“She’s a gorgeous girl isn’t she?”
“Give them a round of applause, aren’t they stunning?”
“What a lovely dress!”
“Wow, Sydney Australia, where did you get these beautiful girls?”
As with last year’s event, the feathers, false nails and fake tans were rolled out alongside the rhinestones and ruffles. I’m not talking about an adult cabaret routine, oh no – these were girls from 3 years old and up.
You guessed it – the pageants were back in town, with Mickie Wood and her daughter Eden (who has retired from competing to teach other girls about pageantry at the ripe old age of 6) along for the ride. And Mickie was one of the judges this year.
“We didn’t know they were here?” I hear you say. Well, it appears to have been kept a secret. Although, I’m told by some pageant organisers that it wasn’t…
Saturday saw Universal Royalty Beauty Pageants (and Eden) strutting their stuff at the Paddington RSL in Sydney. The day before, I was invited to attend the event by Today Tonight and provide comment on what I saw, since nothing had been publicly advertised. (Something to hide maybe?)
The room had a guard at the door and no signage anywhere inside or outside the RSL to indicate that the event was being held there. Contrary to what some thought, I sat openly amoung the crowd.
There was a similar line of costumes and categories as last year, but only about a third the number of people. How do I know numbers were lower? Because I attended last year’s pageant (by personal invite) as the only ‘outsider’ then too. (See my story here)
As with last year, the competition had entrants from various locations around Australia. However, this year there were only between 2 and 4 entrants per age group and some age groups were not even represented. In the words of a mum seated in front of me,
“B really wanted to enter but there weren’t enough entrants for her age group, due to all the secrecy and everything.”
So when the mothers tell me on my Facebook page “They like to keep numbers low” I don’t buy it. We don’t hold secret soccer matches now do we?
As before, the competition was ‘tough’, well according to Annette Hill anyway. “Oh my goodness judges, how are you going to choose who will win the $1000?”, she asked repeatedly.
How would they indeed – and why should they choose anyway? What gives these adults the right to nominate someone else’s child as a winner, by virtue of the skin they were born in?
The main category again saw the girls wearing evening gown style dresses. “Here we have S wearing an X colour dress accentuated with rhinestones and ruffles. She has X colour hair and X colour eyes, her favourite food is X, her hobbies are X and Y.”
Sounds more like a pet parade than actual children who should be celebrated for their unique gifts and skills.
To the credit of 3 of those amazing teens, they had ambitions of being a brain surgeon, a police woman and a teacher. My message to those girls, “Get out of that toxic culture before it steals your soul and makes you think that you are only worth the shade of lip gloss you wear.”
All this happens while parents cheer on with, “Sparkle baby!”
Sparkle baby? Are you kidding me? What is that? The only thing that ‘sparkles’ are the rhinestones on the ruffles because what do pageants teach young girls to ‘sparkle’ in? The answer – Beauty, outward appearances and ‘poise’ (thanks Annette for that one). Not skills, sporting ability, artistic ability or inner qualities.
My heart broke when I heard a tiny 4 year old come directly off the stage and ask, “Mum, did I do ok?”
“Do ok at what mum?” I wondered.
Do ok at looking pretty or wearing her lipstick correctly? And what if she doesn’t win her age group? Obviously she didn’t ‘do ok’ then? Well that’s the message she gets even if indirectly.
If she didn’t ‘do ok’ at looking pretty enough, what does she do now mum? She can’t go home and practice looking prettier? Sure, she can wear a new dress or buy a new shade of eyeliner but she can’t change who she is and what she was born with.
What if she’s never ‘ok’ enough to win? What does that do to her then mum? How will she see herself in comparison to other girls? Does she ‘throw up’ to look as skinny as contestant B? Ask for breast implants at 16 to look like contestant C?
But it’s all ok apparently, because Mickie Wood who was a judge this year, told us that we needed to cheer the girls on so that they all felt special (but obviously not special enough to win the $1000 for something they cannot ever get better at).
Mickie and Annette also assured us that each girl would ‘feel valued’ because they would get a free photo with Eden Wood, a Universal Royalty t-shirt and other goodies. Um… ok?
The fact that this event was kept a secret is a win in my mind. Except, when I dared say that on my Facebook page on Saturday, I was initially told that this was completely untrue and that I was a just a spy, a stalker and a grown up bully.
Not surprising really. Last time I heard from the pageant crowd I was told to go and F…myself, shoot myself and that I was obviously just jealous.
So, besides looking like there was something to hide, the secretive positioning possibly kept others from enrolling and also kept less young girls from being exposed to Universal Royalty’s toxic culture than last year. All good to me.
Last year saw The Darebin City Council ruled that their venues can no longer be used for an event where children aged 16 years or under compete on the basis of, or are judged upon, any aspect of their physical appearance. The policy states,
“Organisers will have to ensure that adjudication is based solely upon a child’s skills or talents; the routines, music and costumes are age appropriate and all competitions are carried out in a spirit of encouragement.”
Australia also saw hundreds of child development experts and child psychologists speaking out against the harmful effects of pageants on children.
“Direct participation and competition for a beauty prize where infants and girls are objectified and judged against sexualised ideals can have significant mental health and developmental consequences that impact detrimentally on identity, self esteem, and body perception.” (The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists)
So while this is a ‘free country’ and parents are free to ‘parent’ in whatever style works for their family, there are certain issues around which I will continue to be an advocate for children. These include; children being supplied with alcohol, tobacco or other harmful substances and children being physically or emotionally abused. I have to say that I stand by the voice of the RANZCP and believe that child pageants fall within the realm of developmental abuse.
The biggest irony of the day was watching a group of teen girls engaging in martial arts in a room next door. These girls were learning to use their bodies in a manner that builds strength and develops healthy self-confidence. My hope is that each Toddlers & Tiaras girl will one day get that opportunity.
Children as eye candy – 5 arguments against child pageants
Televised debate between Mickie Wood and Collett Smart
My week on Planet Pageant (2011)
As posted on Collective Shout
Miriam Nassif
Most people are lucky enough to have had a childhood. They were allowed to play in the mud, sometimes eat mud, run around and be as messy as they liked. But today, too many children around the world are being forced to dedicate themselves to a beauty pageant life.
Small children are forced to dress like adults, wax their eyebrows (even though there are hardly any eyebrows to wax) and pose for hundreds of people so that their parents can win some money.
Participating in these child beauty competitions means that the child is denied an authentic childhood. The ramifications of this are huge. These poor children, sometimes as young as three-years-old are taught their self worth is based solely on appearance. This mindset is further reinforced through the media which declares what women should look like.
By participating in these child beauty pageants, the children are denied an authentic childhood. The beauty pageants are very time consuming. The children need to choose outfits, jewellery, makeup, shoes and hairstyles. This leaves little time for the child to play and have fun with other children. The child is denied the opportunity to be carefree and simply to have fun because they will run the risk of ruining their beautiful features or get dirty! This has and could quite easily be interpreted as child abuse.
Another major issue with child beauty pageants is that they imply that self worth is based only on appearance. These poor children will grow up thinking that they are only worth something if they look good. These young girls need to be shown that their worth is based on their characteristics, talent and personality and not what they look like. By participating in beauty pageants and being judged only on what the judges see is just the beginning of a damaging way of thinking.
The way that women and girls are shown on television, the internet and in magazines is highly unrealistic. As these girls grow and mature thinking self worth is based only on appearance, they will begin compare themselves to the touched up images they see of other women in magazines or on the television and judge themselves according to the images they see.
This can ruin a girls self esteem dramatically. If a young girl believes that she is not worth anything if she does not look how the judges or the media says she should, she could suffer depression and anxiety.
Child beauty pageants offer no positive outcomes but instead result in the deprivation of a fun and playful childhood which all children have the right to enjoy.
No parent has the right to pressure their child to participate in these destructive competitions. No parent has the right to pressure their child to pose for a set of judges based only on what they are wearing or even not wearing. No parent has the right to maketheir child apply makeup to an already perfect face causing skin damage in later life. And no parent has the right to deny a child their childhood.
These pageants are not just about pretty clothing and fancy hair, but by looking deeper it is very clear that child beauty pageants are destructive. No child should ever have to experience such a hideous and soul destroying competition.
Miriam is a student and lives in the Blue Mountains, NSW
Also by Miriam Nassif: ‘Stop telling us our whole value is in how we look’, MTR blog.
2 Responses
Four year olds competing? for what? the attention of paedophiles? this is just plain creepy.
This is truly disturbing. More so the lengths that organisers will go to hold these events. Please Melinda (and fellow supporters of her and Collective Shout) keep fighting against events such as these.