How old were you when you got your first set of acrylic nails glued on?
What about hair extensions or a fake tan?
As a teen, I’ve never actually had any of these but this is quite different for a number of girls involved in beauty pageants.
Recently, I read a disturbing article on the Daily Mail news website, which unveiled the tale of Sasha Bennington, a then eleven year old girl from England who was starting to compete in American beauty pageants. Her mother; keen for her daughter to achieve and had Sasha’s first fake nails glued on at eight, now pays for more beauty treatments for Sasha, which amount to around £300 in a month and include fake tan, hair extensions and pedicures.
Her mother, Jayne, has wanted Sasha to be the next Jordan (porn star who has had various plastic surgeries) since they first started in the beauty pageants. She also says that her daughter always wanted to be a model.
But I can’t help but wonder if she aspired to be like her mother, who had a career in glamour modelling…
When asked how Sasha sees herself she said, ‘Blonde, pretty, dumb – I don’t need brains.’
At eleven, I liked to write stories and draw and I thought education was vital if I wanted to get the job I wished for. It seems that appearance holds the most importance to Sasha.
Shouldn’t we encourage girls that being smart is a good thing?
I think children should be allowed to be children; it seems so many are pushed into an overly sexualized world.
A 2005 study compared eleven women which hadn’t been in child beauty competitions to eleven which had. The study found that the women who had competed generally had more impulse deregulation, were less comfortable with their bodies and had more issues in trust than the women who hadn’t. Some thought that this study wasn’t conclusive due to the small numbers of women compared.
So much importance is placed on being ‘pretty’ today. Sasha was asked what it would be like if she wasn’t ‘pretty’, and she said, ‘My mum would just call me ugly. Everyone would call me ugly. I wouldn’t like it at all.’
Is Jayne just helping Sasha to achieve her dreams? Or is this just another case of forced fame?
What a great post and very well written too - I enjoyed reading it. I stumbled across your blog through your Mamamia post - good luck with your blogging!
ReplyDeleteI think we should let our children be children - you only get one childhood, and I sure as hell wouldn't want mine spent getting glue on nails, beauty treatments and fake eyelashes!
Take a look at my blog - www.the-budding-rose.blogspot.com I wrote a piece tonight about glamourising plastic surgery in magazines :)
Just a quickie - "Jordan" (Katie Price) was never a porn star, she was a glamour model. She's spoken often and openly about it not being a career choice for women, but explains eloquently why she did it (and she was also an adult - not 11).
ReplyDeleteKatie is also a great mum, and a smart, savvy businesswoman as well.
Just a note to double check what you write - to you these people may be just 'bimbo's in the UK. To some of us, they are our friends.
Hi Anonymous,
ReplyDeletePlease understand that I do not believe Jayne, Sasha or Katie Price to be bimbos. I'm unclear to how you thought I'd said that Jordan was eleven...
The difference between porn star and glamour model is that one engages in filmed sexual activity while the other poses for photographs in a sexual manner.
I view this difference as quite minor.
I respect that you are friends with people involved in this industry and do not doubt that many are smart women.
This reads just like MamaMia.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right in today's society there is way to much pressure on girls to look like perfect little glamor models.
ReplyDeleteAlso one of the big things that makes me sick is that parents are often the ones pressuring their kids.
I know for a fact that my parents would support me no matter what I did, as long it wasn't something completely stupid and I wasn't throwing away my life by doing it.
Parents who push their children into these pageants are plain cruel. It's really them seeking the attention. The poor child is just a means to an end.
ReplyDeleteHave to admit that as a family, we are kind of hooked on the "Toddlers and Tiaras" program. It's like watching a train wreck every week. You know what's going to happen but you just can't stop looking !
Well written Louise... I find pagenting abhorrent. This practice was highlighted to me (and the rest of the world) when JonBenet Ramsey was killed and I was horrified. I just can't imagine painting my daughters up to look like mini beauty queens... just awful.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you Sarah's Daddy and I also believe that shows that do show these pageants should be taken off the air because what they are doing is a form of supporting it and in my eyes that is just completely wrong.
ReplyDelete