Krista Hurst
English 102
Michael Benton
October 1, 2011
Life Size Barbie
Everyone knows what a Barbie is, those little dolls that you dress up in skimpy bathing suits or dresses that queens would wear. You know those figurines where you do their hair anyway you want and the locks must be perfect, their built in nails are polished to perfection and their skin an olive color most girls aspire for. We have these dolls that children play with, but what do adults use when they want to play dress up? They resort to using their own children as their personal Barbie’s, this alternative causes a rise of controversy. The question is what is right?
In my paper I will go to the lengths of describing what a child endures to become a “Barbie”, the cost and what they could be spending this fortune on, the endangerment families put their children through not only in the present but also the future and a real life story from a pageant expert. Hopefully I will be able to educate you enough on this subject that you will be able to answer the question mentioned above, what is right?
Barbie’s do not need a lot of money; the average price for an outfit is about fewer than ten dollars. This is definitely not the case for real life Barbie’s, the preparation takes hours for just a few minutes on the stage. The first thing that must be tackled is what kind of outfits they should wear. Most of the time contestants only have two types of garments, a “glitz” dress and a bathing suit. These can average to about 1,800 each. Most families have the garments custom made so that they are able to enable laces and other tactics that will allow the child to wear the clothing for a while as they grow. (Magazine)
The dress is definitely not the only part of the outfit, everything must be detailed all the way down to the socks that the child is wearing. Socks are not that much, but I know whenever I put my socks on they sometimes do not even match. This would count multiple points taken off the final score if a contestant did this. Socks with eye popping features usually amount to around ten dollars, and then you have the shoes. The shoes do not have to be as fancy as the socks however so they are pretty cheap around the cost of thirty dollars. Yeah, that is right, cheap. (Magazine)
Now that the outfit is all picked out and down to exact perfection you must move on to the body, a spray tan is necessary without question. In the pageant industry paleness is not very “attractive” to the human eye, so even children who are of the age of four are getting fake tans just so that they can gain a few extra points on their final score. This accommodation to the pageant life costs around twenty five dollars. (Magazine)
So you have the skin down but what about the tresses of a young child? They are definitely not fully developed and long so they must buy wigs in order to look pageant perfect. This addition to warping a child into a proud winning pageant contestant costs around 100 dollars. Like outfits, the family usually has two sets of wigs so that the child’s appearance will look older than her own age. (Time, Time)
What would a wig be without the assistance of earrings right underneath it? Nothing, you must add a little “bling” to your child’s appearance and this is the precise way to do it. These averages around ten to twenty dollars and sometimes you cannot even tell that the child has earrings on. Continuing on with adding to the looks a contestant must have a professional do their make-up and hair or else they will most likely count points off. This costs around 250 for a professional to clown a four year old up with make up a teenager would regularly wear. (Magazine)
Appearance may be all that I have talked about so far, but that is not the case for a first prize Barbie. You must also pay for a coach to teach your toddler the ropes to being older than they really are. In these sessions the coach usually teaches the child how to walk correctly, with back straight and head held forward, how to pose whenever needed and how to smile the right way. For just all this the simple amount is 130. Then you actually still have to pay the amount to be able to compete, which the run-of-the-mill amount is 1,000 for every pageant. (Magazine)
This all comes to the grand total of 3,703, is this amount worth dressing your child up and crossing yours fingers, hoping that you win the grand title. Even though the prizes are not nearly as much as the price the families paid to enter their life sized Barbie into the pageant. It has been reported that if you won the grand prize every weekend you would still not get all your money back. This seems outrageous to me, but families, mainly mothers argue that “this is what their child wants” at the adolescent age. (Magazine)
3,703 is a whole lot of money for just a few hours of getting ready and some time to shine on the stage. For this much money you could be saving the amount for your child to have a good future in education. Be able to go to college and get a noble degree without going in to debt. You could also spend some money on buying them a nice safe car that is reliable.
A child’s future is a very important road, the road all the way up until they get out of High School and into college is a very stressful path that most people have experienced. Yet, could we ever take on the stressful journey as a Barbie? A child who was groomed since they were a new born to fit the idea of perfection that a judge would tally as grand prize worthy. This definitely has to add pressure to someone along with the stresses of school and friends.
According to infantile behavioral health psychologist and managerial administrator of Wellspring Camps Dr. Mike Bishop, partaking in this monarchy from such a young age can trigger a bundle of developmental problems. He says, “"Toddler beauty pageants set a superficial expectation about what makes someone beautiful – that beauty is primarily about your pose, your smile, your hair, and the clothes you wear. Self-worth should not be tied to competitions," Bishop told us. "Toddlers are not old enough to make an informed decision as to whether they should compete. Nor are they able to separate the competition from reality, which can make participation even more damaging to their self-esteem." (M.Carole)
The damage in their self-esteem leads to many things such as disorders with eating habits, suicidal behaviors like cutting themselves and the constant thought of always wanting to be pretty. This damages a child’s self-esteem when they are older in many ways. These children have been taught that someone will always be judging you on your looks and the perfection of the activities that you do. When the child becomes older and older they do not see themselves as the young adolescent anymore and the stress of continuing to be the “perfect” image weighs down on them. (M.Carole)
Even though a lot of people think that entering your children in pageants is a bad move, some people see the benefits of the contest. They argue that competitions give your children a sense of self confidence and pride. The child can be sure of their selves because they have been told that they are beautiful for their looks. They also argue that the child will walk with pride and not be shy because they were groomed to be around people. Many people suggest that this is what the child wants to do so they are merely forced to enter their adolescent into the pageants to make them happy. However, this could not be the case because children are entered as early as newborns. How could these babies possibly know that they want to enter in to a pageant that young?
Even though a child is affected by the out comings of pageants that is not where it stops; these toddlers are bred to obtain the title of Miss USA. They are expected to be poised and manicured to perfection after having all their pageant years under their belt this should be a piece of cake, they are expected to have all the right answers and be the person everyone aspires to be. Miss California was one of these women that were nominated to run as Miss USA. She was one of thousands of the gorgeous ladies that had high hopes to become Miss USA, but when America found that she had racy pictures shown on the internet they threatened to make her lose her crown. (Fox News/ Entertainment)
The question here is did doing beauty pageants make Miss California rely on just her looks? Taking racy photos are common for people; however in this case are her actions caused by beauty pageants? When you are raised in this type of condition you are taught that looks is your best feature and most of the time your only feature that will get you anywhere. You are also brought up to believe that you must look perfect and do anything to have people like you. In my opinion, this is most of the reason why Miss California took these racy pictures. She was always told that her looks were her best feature, she got many awards and compliments plus praise from her family all for just doing these pageants. (Magazine)
These pageants may be a good way to put your name in the news or to people’s attention, however sometimes it is not in the best way. A lot of people consider these pageants as a mall for pedophiles, eventually the pageants were opened only to family and close friends. This seemed to be the perfect solution for many people who had a problem with the pageants, but not every problem goes away with one solution.
TLC a worldwide television show decided to portray the “real lives” of these Barbie’s by capturing the stories on camera. If you go to the website and look at the information on the show the description says that the preparation is intense as it gets down to the final week before the pageant. From hair and nail appointments, to finishing touches on gowns and suits, to numerous coaching sessions or rehearsals, each child preps for their performance. But once at the pageant, it's all up to the judges and drama ensues when every parent wants to prove that their child is beautiful. (TLC)
Is this the case though? Why do you have to prove that your child is beautiful on national television? A lot of people consider the parents to be malicious and greedy, trying to live their own dream through the child’s life. Portraying this competition on air is such a dangerous thing to do; there are so many predators in the world today that could be watching this show. (Magazine)
On December 12, 1996 Ramsey, a wealthy software executive, found his 6-year-old daughter JonBenet dead in the basement of their Boulder, Colo. home. Eight hours prior, his wife Patsy had found a ransom note demanding $118,000 for their daughter's safe return. No call ever came from a kidnapper. So, unraveled the saga of the young beauty queen whose murder has put a cloud over her entire family, would this have happened to the innocent child if she had not entered beauty pageants? These so called pageants are supposed to be fun, for the whole family and this is what the child wants to do, however, these pageants are not very safe because not only is the security not well, but when a contestant walks on stage their personal information is released; such as things like their full name and hometown. (Magazine)
So hopefully you have now learned the pros and cons on this subject. A Barbie’s life is not just the end product of what you see on that stage; there are many factors that go in to manufacturing such. Unlike the actual Barbie dolls they are scarred to always remember the pageant life; whether this is good or bad I will now hope that you can answer the question for yourself, what is right?
People Magazine, September 14 Issue
Advertising to Children: Concepts & Controversies by M. Carole, Macklin and Les Carlson
