by Steven Gomez

Created on: March 03, 2009

One byproduct of the murder of JonBenet Ramsey was that her death exposed the seedy world of child beauty pageants. Kids as young as 4-5 years of age are made to don makeup and dress in flashy wardrobes to perform on stage in competitive pageants.

I don't remember much of my age 4-5 accomplishments, which in itself says a lot. I only remember being a kid and lacking a real understanding of the world. Likewise, these pageant kids lack the savvy, knowledge and understanding of an adult. To dress them up in a sexual way, like adults, and make them perform for judges is an act of exploitation.

It's challenging enough for a 4-5 year old to play little league baseball, or even to play with other children. Teaching them to pose and perform for adults sends them a twisted message about life, especially when you consider that their parents are only forcing their daughters into these events as a form of self-gratification.

The adults who frequent these pageants are typically well-to-do upper class couples with plenty of disposable income. Never minding the sort of fundamental disconnect with reality people tend to form once they get rich... by entering their children into pageants, they mutate their roles as parents into a role as agents and promoters. It's much like the relationship the abusive Joseph Jackson had with his performing kids in the Jackson Five: the parent isn't looking out for the best interests of their children, but uses their children to act out and fulfill their own interests.

Whether or not the Ramseys were responsible for JonBenet's death, the murder case illustrated their own sick misperception of parenthood. In wanting to mold JonBenet as their daughter, the Ramseys also wanted her to represent them as an instrument of self-actualized success. When she put on makeup and sequins, then sang and danced on stage to win pageants, in their minds she illustrated to the judges and audience that they were successful parents and people. Meanwhile, JonBenet was living a life that in no way reflected how adulthood, or life in general, worked. Had she lived, the experience may have twisted her life in an ill direction beyond repair before she reached adulthood.

Successful parenting, as has been shown billions of times over in the last 8000 years, has nothing to do with children dressing sexy and winning contests. Childhood is a path of constant learning, and preschool pageants are a completely inaccurate lesson of how life works.

Life is hard enough for a 5 year old without having to dress up like a hooker and sing Madonna songs. The preschool pageants need to go.

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