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23 April, 2010
pageant bashing
Since the media frenzy after the 1996 death of JonBenet Ramsey I am pretty sure there have been several opinions from beauty pageant participants that those activates probably had little, if anything, to do with the murder. Based on the close knit, family oriented generally very small group settings it would be challenging for some creep to be stalking any one of the girls without being noticed by one of the attentive pageant moms. Not saying that didn't happen; the unknown Caucasian male that deposited his DNA in multiple locations on the body has yet to be identified. But only associating JonBenet's killer to pageants is just not any more likely than any other of the many activities the Ramsey's enjoyed as a family - -
Posted at Quit Using Pageant Kids To Make A Steal! By Eileen O'Neill
"Hello Hello,
In my last post I started to talk about how child pageant bashing began. I personally feel that this part of the topic needs to be handled with great care since I will be talking about the death of a child...people in the media started speculating on a motive for her murder and they found out she was a beauty queen.
People just assume that some random guy was following her around from a pageant and killed her. Worst of all, since our outfits are different from ballet, tap or whatever the public started to think that her mother focussed her into pageants and started to assume that her parents killed her.
I really don’t understand how people could have come to that conclusion. First of all, the outfits in ballet, cheerleading, gymnastics are just as reliving and we were just as much make-up as they do. Heck, in cheerleading you have little girls jumping around in short skirts wearing very heavy make-up.
...Do I think that her death was a result for her involvement in pageants? No...[read more]
It is rather surprising how large the world of child beauty pageants is, in spite of the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, when such a large portion of 'group think' suspects pageantry was the attraction for her murder - -
"According to bankrate.com, $5 billion is consumed yearly on children ages 2 to 9 in beauty pageants...On December 26, 1996, 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was sexually assaulted and murdered in the basement of her home.
“The strange world of kids’ pageantry is not a sub culture- it is our culture. But as long as we call it a subculture, it can remain a problem for somebody else,” colonist, Richard Goldstein said in The New York Times."[....read more]
Yes, I have spent a good amount of time casually observing how many in the general public seem to be convinced JonBenet Ramsey was murdered because she participated in child beauty pageants. There may be a connection revealed someday, but today there is not one shred of evidence to directly link pageants to the crime. Along with observations comes awareness of the general public's pageant repulsion. I don't get pageants myself, in the same way I don't get anything extreme. Like eyes on a future gold medal for figure skating or gymnastics when a child is 5 or 6. But I do get that many parents, not unlike the Ramseys, make these choices because they want the best for their offspring, described in a blog and article by sociology researcher Hilary Levey--
"Every Wednesday night at 9 pm I sit down in front of the TV, put on TLC, pull out my notebook, and do research for two hours. Yes, that’s right—watching the pageant shows Toddlers & Tiaras and the new show, King of the Crown, is part of my research. Back in 1999, when I was a sophomore in college, I did a research paper on child beauty pageants for a required sociology class. Little did I know that a decade later I would still be writing about pageants, but now as a professional sociologist! Ever since the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, Americans have been simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by child beauty pageants. Many people didn’t know about these events until the death of JonBenét, in late 1996, but I have found that child beauty pageants have existed in the United States in one form or another since the 1800s. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw the growth and development of a variety of events that are precursors to the child beauty pageants of today, including May Day festivals, baby parades, and beautiful and healthy baby contests.
All of these festivals, parades, and contests started at about the same historical moment. Such child-centered contests were part of a larger movement that began to socially value children in new ways. It was during this time period, from roughly the 1870s to the 1930s, that child labor was eradicated, compulsory education began, and children came to be valued as “economically ‘worthless’ but emotionally ‘priceless,’” according to sociologist Viviana A. Zelizer.. This re-evaluation of childhood helped contribute to the development of distinct children’s spheres, like clothing designed especially for children (see Daniel Thomas Cook’s work on kids’ clothes). [...read more]
Additional reading: Ms. Levey's May 2009 article in Childhood
Organized children's activities qualify as children's work, in much the same way that school work does. Both produce transferable use value and create capital that contributes to the future production of goods and services. To illustrate this argument, this article draws on qualitative research primarily based on interviews with the parents of participants in two activities: child beauty pageants and academic enrichment classes. Despite considerable differences in the backgrounds of children who participate in these two types of activities, their parents converge in the reasons they give for enrolling their young children in these activities, and in their focus on their children's future careers and achievements.
There is, to date, no known association between JonBenet Ramsey's brutal murder and the child beauty pageants she participated in. Never the less, once footage from pageant videos was altered and unleashed en masse daily on cable news in 1997, JonBenet's role was established as the poster child for all things bad that happen to children that participate in pageants. All underpinned by allegations made toward her parents as abusers that supported it. Wild speculation yes, absolutely. There is not a shred of evidence or even a lukewarm lead pointing to JonBenet attracting a molesting murdering stalker at a beauty pageant. Ditto findings her parents nor pageants were abusive.
There are plenty of studies about high accident risk activities for children such as horseback riding, gymnastics and any of the team sports. In the same spirit, there are numerous studies about where pedophiles seek their prey with national laws enacted that are intended to help reduce risk to children. Yet not one of these reports mention child beauty pageants as being a a high risk, pedophile attracting activity for kids like oh, the Internet has proven to be.
That is not to say that perverts don't think of a 6 year old as a sex object, leering at purloined pictures of JonBenet online.
Frankly, I am not at all sure how much pageants damage a child more than any other highly demanding activity, but the public is sometimes freaked out, offended or outraged. Pageantry to me personally seems a boring, somewhat shallow and a rather distasteful avocation, but I can't sum up my personal opinion to an allegation of child abuse. It is rather ironic, too, how some folks condemn exploitation of children in the very same breath they exploitJonBenet's name in the process.
I've spent a good amount of time trying to find a reputable report on exactly how beauty pageants are so much more harmful to children than other mainstream activities. I haven't found one. If you can please let me know, if you would be so kind. While I see no quantified formal studies, there are stories now and then of the much speculated horrible things that can happen to children in pageants.
This story, published today is interesting as it is generational; the young child. a college student and a mom...all child beauty pageant participants--
"Nearly 15 years ago Brooke Breedwell was a 5-year-old beauty queen and the star of the documentary "Painted Babies." Now the 19-year-old is speaking out about how the need to win took a toll on her childhood and her relationship with her mother...
Breedwell, now a sophomore at the University of Tennessee, said her mother was very involved in her pageant career. While pageants gave Breedwell confidence and poise, she says her mother pushed her too hard.
Mickie Wood, a former beauty queen herself, admits she too lives vicariously through her 4- year-old daughter, Eden, who has been competing since she was a year old.
"If that was all we did and we were constantly in the mirror primping, if she was overzealous about her appearance, but I don't see that and if I ever did see that I would put a stop to it," she said. "I want her to be well rounded and balanced. It's just not all about beauty."
But Brooke Breedwell did feel like she was missing out. She quit pageants when she was 7 because of the pressure..."
In what has become the daily routine of cruising for how JonBenet Ramsey is mentioned in the media for this blog, this morning CNN buzzing in the background covering heated debates over health care reform. Kiran Chetry was interviewing a mom regarding the cost of emergency room visits and the health insurance supplied as an employee benefit. Seems this mom broke her foot the same week her daughter had a concussion in a sports related head injury. The out of pocket expenses for the family for these two injuries was $1800 after insurance. Good insurance too, she felt, covering the thousands of dollars it cost for an MRI and treatment for her daughter's concussion. So proudly, this nice looking mom making a plug for her daughter the avid sports enthusiast. You see, she explained, her daughter is so dedicated to sports that earlier this year she had an injury the good insurance company also covered. Turns out the recent concussion was not the first but the second head trauma her daughter has suffered this year as a result of participation in sports...
A little distracted by the head injury story I found an article out of Alabama where writer John Archibald mentions JonBenet with equal disdain for those perhaps of a dated or politically incorrect mindset. Adjusting to the affects of the civil issues aside, seems his wife as a child was, heaven forbid, a pageant contestant. After all these years, now looking back his wife understands she was a victim in a form child abuse incident. In turn John seems to betrayed by such news, justifies his apparently wonderful in-laws had, as any human is prone, momentarily acted out of character. The caption for the picture to the left reads "What? Is that Little Miss Holocaust waiting in the wings?"
At the moment I would not know who to feel more sorry for.
Yes, I am still looking for reported pageant molestation cases or any formalized quantified studies that demonstrate the long term detrimental affect to children that participate in pageants. There's nothing yet I've discovered to support level of public outrage. Of course in doing that I am still trying to figure out how it has become a fact in the general public opinion that JonBenet's murder is directly related to pageants.
I still don't get pageants in the exact same way I don't understand parents that think it is a testament to dedication and a badge of honor their child has suffered multiple head injuries from voluntary participation in sports. Sure, where there are kids at play there will always be accidents that need immediate and the best of medical attention. However in view of this report on excess wasteful health care spending as it relates to health care reform, these subjects are giving me a royal headache--
It's easy to feel misled, let down and even shocked by those you think you know.
Like Manny Ramirez or David Ortiz, for example. Like my wife -- not to put too personal a point on it -- when she came home this week with an aging photograph of herself.
She handed it sheepishly to me, and my heart fell. Suddenly our life, after all these years together, seemed a lie.
Alecia was about seven in the photo, wearing a crown and an uncomfortable smile -- and a sequined sash emblazoned with these words: Miss Alabama Confederacy.
Great Jefferson Davis' Ghost! Can my otherwise egalitarian wife really have been part JonBenet Ramsey and part standard-bearer for the not-so-good-old-days? I can't really decide which is worse.
"I didn't know," she said, embarrassed. "I was just a little girl. It was like ... a form of abuse."
Whatever you say, Miss Confederacy!
Yeah, I was shocked and surprised. But sometimes people -- good, wholesome people -- do things that are completely out of character...
John Archibald is the metro columnist for The Birmingham News. His column appears three times a week on the Local News front. In it he tries to break news, to tell stories about politics, corruption or the quirks of daily life in the seven-county metro area. He has been called many things, but his favorite description came in a letter to the editor: "Public nag." Archibald is married with three children. He graduated from the University of Alabama and has worked at The Birmingham News for 20 years. Prior to beginning his column in 2004 he worked as a government reporter, investigative reporter and database editor.
Somewhere in boxes of family memorabilia are rolls of old and grainy Shirley Temple movies. Based on recent articles in the blogshpere about sexualizing children, where few are able to resist mentioning JonBenet Ramsey's name to supercharge shock and awe, these oldies starring Shirley Temple should be banned. Illegalized. Looks like I may be in possession of contraband and my grandparents should have been stoned and burned at the stake right along side the Ramseys. Summertime brought for us gatherings where us kids watched goofy old movies while the folks entertained; served us drinks too. I'll have a Shirley Temple cocktail with 2 maraschino cherries, please and thank you. Uh, well, maybe not.
This issue of provocative everyday children's wear as it pertains to influence and values is a hot topic. For the most part I agree. I don't agree that JonBenet needs to be the poster child for this issue, too. Parent's outfitting children in revealing adult attire, playboy bunny logo T-shirts or biker leathers isn't sending the right message. But how strong and realistic is a 'danger' message if it is based on trying to tie JonBenet, costumed in Shirley Temple style for a performance, to the fashion forward family that dresses their child like an MTV star for school?
Kids sense when they are being manipulated. As adults while we need to guide we also need to foster honesty and trust. Frightening and fear mongering in further sensationalizing the horrors that happened to JonBenet may be lost on deaf ears. Today kids have the Internet for research and and networking. Their discoveries may turn the best of intentions for promoting age appropriate attire into weak yes but debates.....'Yes but JonBenet wasn't dressed 'like that' when was killed'...'Yes but this outfit doesn't look anything JonBenet wore at those pageants'...'Yes but there isn't any evidence that shows JonBenet was killed because she was in pageants....
For those advocating attention to foster change, on target real life messaging will certainly be more meaningful.
I still don't understand or embrace the world of child pageants. But I do understand that sexual attraction is personal, resides within the eye of the beholder. There is a very transparent problem with those shrieking that 6 JonBenet Ramsey was some kind a sex object. Comparatively and not overlooking all the known issues child actors may face, I haven't heard many express similar sexualization concerns over the way an adorable child star was wardrobed and acted in those olden days of family values when every little girl wanted to be Shirley Temple. And in 1996, so did JonBenet--
"THE boss of a centre for rape victims has blamed clothing and music videos for the `increasing sexualisation of children'.
Dr Catherine White said the number of young victims seen at The Sexual Assault Referral Centre at St Mary's Hospital had been rising over the last few years.
And Dr White says how society portrays children needs to be re-examined.
...Controversy
The issue of sexualising children has hit the headlines in recent years in a number of high-profile cases.
Murdered American six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, who was entered into scores of American child beauty pagants by her parents, was found dead in the basement of her home in Colorado in 1996.
Pictures of her wearing adult clothes and make-up as she took part in the competitons sparked a huge public debate...
Dr White, who is the centre's clinical director, added: "When we opened the children's examination suite we estimated we would see about 250 every year. We saw 400 in the first and it's continued to grow.
"I don't believe we are having more abuse. But I think as a service we have got better and so more people will come forward..."
The number of children participating beauty pageants during JonBenet's era is not easy to pin down. But today, as many as 100,000 children under the age of 12 participate in this billion-dollar industry in the US. For those inclined to oggle, er, pay attention, the sight of little girls mimicking their Miss America counterparts often disgusts and frightens to such an extreme it promotes suggestions for child pageant illegalization with severe sentences, including death, for parents.
Death for committing pageantry. Sure, you bet. Wasting Internet space even in a tongue in cheek suggestion is non-reality hype driving innuendo that the vulnerable, or less literate, can and will buy into.
Like that birther group, this is right in line with an irrational mind set that justified unnecessary use of $2m+ tax payer dollars to pursue a purely fantasized theory of guilt, having no basis in fact or evidence, about the Ramseys--
"Even before JonBenet Ramsey's sad plight, I felt that those faded beauty queen mothers who pushed their daughters into kiddie pageants in order to live out their twisted Mama Rose-like dreams belonged on Death Row along with molesters and serial killers..."
From the reader comment gallery:
wings says: "...Let's pass a law against them for the safety of the kids."
zizi says: "...You're right, they should be executed."
Sarah Palin's sweet 7 year old daughter interviewed on national TV wearing high-heels yet JonBenet Ramsey is still the poster child for 'elevated' parental value comparisons. Frankly, I am just as nonplused by Palin as I am the whole pageant scene, but I digress. JonBenet costumed in short stacked mary-janes for performance was for some reason not quite as troubling as seeing the First Dude hand off his infant son to a 7 year-old teetering around in (hopefully her mother's?) stilettos --
"Ok, now. Twice in the past week I've encountered girls under the age of ten wearing high heeled sandals...Yet dress-up is different from daily wear...And these kids weren't wearing their tutus and tiaras. No, they were sporting heels like they were a part of daily life.
I felt, somewhere deep, deep in my soul, that there was something vastly wrong with this. Not only does it seem to sexualize little girls (JonBenét Ramsey and that whole heinous pageant circle comes to mind), it asks them to stop running free..."
