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Criticism of sexualization in child pageants
There is a wide scope of criticisms regarding the particpation of children in beauty pageants. A writer for the New York Times criticized child beauty pageants because participants and viewers impose adulthood on children while still expecting them to radiate innocence. The apppeal of child beauty pageants in this context is the simoultaneous existence of adult sexuality and childhood innocence in the contestants.

In 1996, footage of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was broadcast on television across the U.S. of her performing onstage wearing a skimpy outfit with full makeup and hair during a child beauty pageant—viewers felt as if they were watching "child pornography". However, the coverage of her murder investigation became a public spectacle due to the surrounding scandal regarding her hypersexuality in her pageant performances. The scandal marked one of the first instances of the public questioning the practices that take place in child beauty pageants, as the discourse around her adult and sexualized image played a key role in her trials.

Children develop a sense of sexual identity during the ages of adolescence and sexualization makes this task more difficult during their youth. When parents enter their child into beauty competitions they are encouraging their children to engage in behaviors and practices that are socially associated with sexiness. . With popularity of similar child beauty pageant television shows like Toddlers & Tiaras, the public is concerned that young contestants are being displayed as objects of sexual desire to their audience. Reality shows such as Toddlers & Tiaras reinforce the dominent perception of women's worth being inherently and directly linked to their sexual desirability. The reality shows that document the journey of young children through pageant competitions are centred around the physical transformation of the contestants from a typical childish aesthetic to a mature woman's aesthetic. Through observing and learning from the way their environment praises these physical transformations, child contestants in these pageants come to learn that their gender identity is a performed concept and the more sexual, mature, and feminine this performance is, the more they are succeeding in performing womanhood.

Children are in “Child Beauty Pageants” only because of their age. These children are judged along with the same criteria as an adult pageant woman would be judged on. Since the children are aware that their performance is expected to be the portrayal of adult womanhood, it indirectly teaches them that womanhood cannot exist without sexuality. The indirect lessons impact the mindset of young girls in the long term due to its implications regarding gender performance.

There is controversy around the Glitz Child Beauty Pageants due to contestants dramatically enhancing their appearances and provocative performances. Performances and image alterations like the ones displayed in glitz pageants encourage young contestants to believe that having glitz beauty is the only way to gain success in both their pageant and non-pageant lives. Due to the way these pageants are set up so children are directly competing agains other children, children come to understand that it is obligatory for them to perform adult "sexiness" in order to receive positive attention and praise from their own parents.

Training for beauty pageants
The training for child beauty pageant competitors include a strict of every aspect of their everyday routine and long hours. They are often times pushed beyond their limit during training periods by being denied rest when necessary. Parents seek training for pageants in various ways such as private coaching, teaching the children themselves, and pageant schools. Although these children are working long hours throughout the week for the financial gain of their parents, child labour laws in the United States do not apply to them and the practice remains mostly unregulated. During their unregulated and unofficial work hours, these children were strongly discouraged from taking the time to attend to their bodies needs such as sleeping or eating, in fear of disheveling their polished and hyperfeminized looks.

Consequences of child sexualization
In reports of children being sexually abused research shows that the sexualization of children is a contributing factor to their abuse. Also, if the child is winning constantly in a competition that is based primarily on her looks, she is more likely to develop psychological issues later on in life, such as depression, low self-esteem, and eating disorders. There is also a link to lowered sexual efficacy and contraceptive use later in life.

"'Some critics contend that the child beauty pageant culture fails to acknowledge that "sexualized images of little girls may have dangerous implications in a world where 450,000 American children were reported as victims of sexual abuse in 1993."

The hyper attention and judgement towards children's physical appearance in child beauty pageants increases the risk of the child developing various forms of eating disorders. Some of these eating disorders that have long lasting physiological and psychological impacts include Anorexia and Bulimia. The psychological problems related to perceptions of the self are long lasting and carry onto adolecense and adulthood due to the hyper fixation on the children's physical appearance at an early age. Mothers are usually involved in their child's participation in pageants, so there's a lot of information regarding their outlook on the contests. Some of the immense preassure that is put on child beauty pageant contestants are attributed to the overcompensation of pageant moms due to their own insecurities. on As a result of these mother's constant pushing, many of these young girls feel as if they let their mothers down by failing to achieve the unaittanable standards of beauty that is set for them.

In France, after a 10-year-old girl was featured on the cover of Vogue Paris in an inappropriate outfit- not fit for a child, lawmakers banned child beauty pageants all together. The ban took the form of an amandment to the already established women's rights law and condemned all these pageants for violating children's equal rights due to their objectification in child beauty pageant competitions.