Are Beauty Pageants For Children Problematic?

Mindy and Mikaela talk about a 5-year-old who won Miss Ohio Elementary Kindergarten. Are little girls being badly influenced by pageants. 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
All right, time to have alittle serious conversation, and I think that
this was all meant to be,not so the way it's turned. But
before we start, I went tohear, yeah, yeah, before we
start that, I do want tosay a huge congratulations to the women's basketball
team for the buck Eyes. Youknow, they had such an outstanding senior
season, great seniors. Unfortunately,they got beat today by Duke. Final

(00:24):
score was seventy five to sixty three. And the worst thing about it is
the final four for the women's collegebasketball players is in Cleveland, of all
places in Ohio. They could havehad the home state advantage summer, but
seventy five sixty three. Darn it. But Buckeyes, you had an outstanding
season. I love watching J.C. Sheldon play and the rest of
the buck Eyes, and I feellike there's this really and I know some

(00:47):
of this has to do with CaitlinClark and Iowa, but there's this,
there's this excitement around women's sports thatI think is so fantastic to see,
especially during this kind of sweet youknow, March madness, sweet sixteen basketball
moment. Girls can do anything theywant to do, and there's a lot
that they can do out there,and I love seeing that for all the

(01:08):
women out there. So speaking ofI first got I guess I got told
of this or learned. I guessI learned of this situation because Jlana Harris
and I are friends, and Iwas looking on her Facebook page and she
had posted a nice, innocent littlepicture wishing this little five year old girl
from ge Hannah good luck because she'sin this elementary school pageant. You know

(01:30):
the exact name of it. Yeah, she is miss Ohio Elementary Kindergarten,
which I've never heard of, theOhio Elementary Kindergarten before, miss o'hio Elementary.
And now she's going for the MissNational Elementary Kindergarten Award or beauty pageant.
And so she posted it just basically, you know, good luck to

(01:53):
her. They're both from geh Hannah. Of course, Yolanda grew up in
Gehanda. This little girls from Ghannah. And as she posted it, man,
the comments just exploded. You know, one person saying this is so
sad. Kids and pageants should looklike kids and not little adult women.
Someone else put, as a fatherof two daughters, this is a problem.
Little girls should look like little girlsand not dress them up like grown

(02:15):
women. And another person said thisis disgusting stuff like this is what leads
to self esteem issues, it's unhealthyvalues, eating disorders, et cetera.
Where other people say this can helpbuild confidence for young women. We want
your opinion, listeners. Yeah,so let's let's talk a little bit about

(02:35):
this article and this lovely young girl. She is lovely, but I think
there's a spectrum. Baby she's cutie, she really is. But I think
there's a spectrum of opinions and thoughts, and we're getting some of those on
our What Matters Midye michaela Facebook groupif you go there six to one four
eight two one WTVN six one foureight two one nine eight eighty six.
So the article that Yolanda posted atuallyand she wrote it was about how this

(03:04):
is building confidence. And this girl, Brielle Harkness is her name, got
interviewed and her mom did as well. And Brielle really talks about community service
being something that she loves, thatit comes with a job, and her
pageant platform is anti bullying, andBrielle takes her bully Free Zone message to

(03:24):
events throughout Central Ohio. I mean, we can all agree that that is
an awesome thing to do for afive year old to get that or to
be able to start to get that. But if you look at the picture,
is there a place and I thinkthis is my question, mindy,
is there a place where we coulddo if we're going to do a pageant

(03:46):
like this, where we could havethe five year old look like a five
year old, like she is acutie patuity doll baby. But the picture
that everybody was talking about on Yolanda'spage, she looks like she's twenty a
five year old who looks more likeshe's twenty, right, And does that
have to be what happens in apageant situation for a five year old?

(04:09):
Do we have to make them lookthat way? Or could we adjust standards
at the pageant level if these littlegirls really do want to do this for
confidence boosting reasons, I don't know. In my humble opinion, I think
it's too much too soon. Ishoot, I didn't wear makeup till when
I was maybe mid high school,and I get it's for a pageant,

(04:29):
but I don't want to see abunch of makeup on little five year old
girls and dressing them up. Youknow you think of that, John Benet
Ramsay, Oh, for that case, I wrote a research paper in college
because she had been murdered not longbefore, and about what the media did
in that case to this little girland what her parents, I mean her
her parents, and I think themom died. I don't know if it's

(04:51):
been about twenty years ago or not. And you think to yourself, there
was conversation then though about whoa thisis a lot for a lit girl to
look like this. This is alot. Mary, I see you're on
the line. I take it yourcall in to discuss some of this.
Would love love to hear what youhave to think about all of it.
We're just an open conversation about itthis afternoon, right. So I'm grandma

(05:14):
age, and so I think there'sso much perversion out there that it concerned
me that our children are being introducedto perversion way too young. And I
don't fault people for doing you know, ballet or dance, who are pageants

(05:40):
or anything, because that's the passionthat when the parents take over and drive
it, that's when it gets alittle bit ugly in my opinion. And
so I'm thinking, just from mygoodness, I would love kids to stay
so young, so long, morelonger than they do. It seems like

(06:08):
they're growing up way too fast andexposed to way too much. I agree
with you, Yes, I agree. There's something about the innocence of a
child. Let it live as longas you can, right, And we're
trying to shove adulthood down their facesand they're not ready for it. Their

(06:29):
hearts aren't ready for it. Youknow, even eighteen is young. So
I just I kind of have alike a soft spot in my heart where
I think, oh, my gosh, this is you know, congratulations to
the little girl. In the samerespect, My goodness, What are we
doing as a society that is pushingthese kids to grow up way too fast?

(06:57):
Do you do you think it's possible, Mary, before you go,
oh, do you think it's possiblethat we should? We could make it
look different? I was talking aboutthat at the beginning of this conversation,
right, like, still do thepageant if you want to do that.
But do we have to make themlook like twenty year olds? Can we?
Can? We make them just wehave to put all the makeup on,
we have to do stame with thegymnastics. I mean, I stayed

(07:19):
at a hotel years ago and therewas some either a dance or a gymnastics
thing on, and there were oldmen lurking around. I oh, like,
this is disgusting to me. Yeah, that's a whole other issue.
Absolutely, Yes, Yes, they'reout there. These people are out there

(07:42):
and they want to pray on ourchildren, and it's unfair to them,
and it's really unfair to society toallow that to continue. Honestly, Mary,
we're so glad you called. Thanksfor giving voice to some of that,
because I think it's all true.And how how can we change it
or address it? And I'm notsure I don't have the answers, but

(08:09):
you know, it's it's part ofthe escalation of everything. And like you
can Peggy back that off of whatthey're doing with the NC double A and
the portal and all that. So, I mean, you can just watch
the whole flow, and it's allabout money. Not that I'm not a
capitalist, but at some point it'sgot to slow down. We have to

(08:35):
we have to look to core valuesmore than we do. Mary. We're
right right in there with you.We agree let kids be kids for as
long as they can be. Ohmy goodness. When that age of innisence
is gone, I can't get no, it's over. Mary. Thank you
for your call. You're welcome.Have a good day, Dick. Do

(08:56):
you have a thought on this?Hi? Guys, how are you today?
Great? Do you have a thoughton this situation? Yeah? Yeah,
you know something you were talking aboutkids. I go up to McDonald's
on Tuesdays and they have a littlegathering that I play. But one thing
that disturbs the parents let those kids. I was at odd Lots today and

(09:20):
kids were crying and yelling down.I think the parents need to control these
kids more, you know what Imean, Like they go to a restaurant.
Well, this little girl looks likeshe has it together that we're talking
about here right now, Like shedoes not look like she she is volunteering
in her community, Dick. She'sdoing all the good things at five years

(09:41):
old. I mean, what,Oh that's great and so good. But
she's being a role model in thatregards. In some ways, I love
that part of this story. Yeah. Well, if I don't talk to
you guys next week, I justwanted to tell you a couple of weeks,
I'll call you my birthdays on Aprilfourteenth. I got a call,
did call us? Then? Yeah, I'll back and Kayleb will sing Happy
Birthday because she's got a really goodvoice. If I sing Happy Birthady,

(10:03):
you, we won't have any morelisteners. Dick, have a great Sunday.
Good to talk to you, buddy. Always a pleasure. You know,
some people are commenting in our groupabout this story, you know,
and Leslie said exactly what you said, Mindy. Let little girls be little
girls. There's plenty of time intheir future as teens and young adults for

(10:24):
pageants. Just my opinion, zeroshaming for those who want to partake in
their small children entering into pageants.And then someone wasn't very happy or it
was sad to see us open upto comments on this and this little one
who I hope their dreams come true. You know, whatever people want to
do, it's none of our business, which I think Minny and I agree,

(10:46):
like you've got to live your life, do your life. People should
spend more time doing something positive thanjudging other people's decisions. We agree with
you, Kathy, We're there.But you were always going to open up
conversations topics of to our listeners andde voice opinions about them. I mean,
that's the beauty of this show,and that's a beauty about life.
You can agree to disagree, butit sometimes istering interesting to hear other people's

(11:09):
perspective as well. Yeah, Brendawould agree with Mary, who just got
off the phone. That's a littlebit ago. I don't know this child
or her parents, but I say, when you dress children to look like
adults, they're exporting these children.And so I think, you know,
middy, And we're not at allsaying don't do this. We're just saying
it's a heavy look. It's aheavy look for a five year old child,

(11:33):
and to put that on display thatjust seemed like a lot like she's
doing it for like in her heart, she's doing it for all the right
reasons. But it does remind youof Jean Benet. Yeah it does.
And I didn't think maybe that wasas popular as it was back in the
mid nineties for little girls. Maybemaybe I'm wrong. Let kids be kids,
and you have a daughter, lether play softball so we'll turn out
really good. I mean, andif she's in pageant, she'll be great

(11:56):
too. But just be thoughtful,like, let's try to keep these kids
as long as they can be kids. I think that's the whole point of
this. No matter what they do, no matter what they take that sports
avenue, it's not going to it'sit's a good idea, and it's a
good idea, all right. SoMindy and I, because of something last
week and texting back and forth afterthe show, we decided to do something

(12:18):
a little different this week, andwe're going to do for the first time,
What's on Your Feed? Because wewere discussing how algorithms can totally change
the perspective in your life and feedyou the same kind of stuff all the
time. So we're going to takea look at Twitter feeds. Come along
with us, and if you wantto share what's on your Twitter feed,
give us a call. Eight twoone nine eight eight six eight two one,
WTVN. This is What Matters onsix' ten WTVN.