Usa, Beautiful Child, 2020
While child beauty pageants have existed for over fifty years, pageants in the United States have seen a recent explosion in popularity. TV shows like ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’ have brought child-beauty competitions into the national spotlight in the US and is now inspiring the start of child beauty pageantry in Europe.
The pageants encourage the girls to live up to ideals that many would regard as belonging to the adult world. This has led to much debate about whether these competitions sexualize children, commercialize childhood, and whether they interfere with the mental health and self-image of the young girls involved. With these arguments, in September 2013, the French Senate adopted a legislative proposal to make child beauty pageants illegal, while child protection charities in the UK is protesting in order to make their country follow suit. The parents on the other hand argue that the pageants help building up personality and self-confidence of their girls.
In “USA, Beautiful Child”, Laerke Posselt portrays the reality of different child beauty pageants in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. And she focuses on the daily life of Sophia and Evie, two two-year-old contestants.
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