Miss Universe

I know who wins Thanks TV1!

Young girls who starve themselves are a minority and are likely to do so anyway regardless of whether they watch Miss Universe.

It annoys me that being skinny nowadays is seen as a negative, as if the only way you can be slim is if you are sticking your head down the toilet every day. For the majority of slim women it takes hard work and discipline to look the way they do which makes them good role models for young women. Sure, not all women can have the same body shape as the Miss Universe contestants but this is an example of "parental guidance is recommended" in order to have that sort of discussion.

Im actually amused that CJ is the only person who thinks the pagaents may send a bad body image to our young girls...

I have no problems with them myself but I am in no way going to deny the fact that many young girls WILL compare themselves to these women and will think its a natural body type.

These women dont just eat well and exercise to look the way the do.. sure some may but a lot of them do eat crazy diets leading up to the contests and that is not healthy.

That said, watching pageants alone is not going to create a negative view of ones body...

I think also the term "skinny" conjurs different images for people.. I picture an underwight and unhealthy person whereas "slim" conjurs the image of someone who looks after themselves and has a good body.

melnel wrote: Im actually amused that CJ is the only person who thinks the pagaents may send a bad body image to our young girls...

She's not!!!  It's not the slim/skinny thing that I find sad about them...it's that at the end of the day the contest is about how the women look and young girls like it or not, measure themselves far too frequently on that basis. I find that sad and disturbing. The beauty shown on contests like this is very generic as well... but like everyone says, each to their own adn absolutely parental guidence needed. That's exactly why my daughter won't be watching crap like that

melnel wrote: Im actually amused that CJ is the only person who thinks the pagaents may send a bad body image to our young girls...

nope I said I the same thing over the page too

Having a teenager of my own I have seen how much peer pressure, and media influence how our kids view themselves... Eating disorders may not occur in the majority of children but they are highly prevalent and although it is thought these people have a predisposition to them outside influences (such as media) appear to also play a causal role from what I understand... surely a competition based purely on looks is not the best influence for our teenagers....

and Mel I agree skinny to me sounds like an underweight waife, whereas slim sounds healthy

Kiwi2- true re E channel lol...but I'm not sure if that's a good basis of comparison! 

It must be so, so hard to keep your teen away from stuff like that too . I'm hoping by then we won't have a tv...but they get it from their peers and movies etc too I guess

I didnt realise it was still going either lol, not something I'd watch but it doesnt bother me, I might feel differently about it though if I had daughters!

Oops sorry Freckle, missed that LOL

some do , some don't .
It really depends on the child , as I said on the previous page, my cousin has no interest in her looks at all ,shes more likely to feel inadequate against contestants on "university challenge "
I know plenty of other teenage girls like that too .
C doesn't feel any comparison to girls on TV (helps that I tell her all the time how much makeup they wear ) she feels more comparison to kids at school .

melnel wrote: Im actually amused that CJ is the only person who thinks the pagaents may send a bad body image to our young girls...

Not the only one

As I said on the previous page. I don't like pageants at all. To elaborate - I think they are a sexist and outdated competition, celebrating only one type of beauty. Quite a bit of it is fake beauty at that.

Sure, home environment has a lot to do with how children perceive themselves. Sure, you compare yourselves to immediate peers.

In the end though, in this day and age, there is no getting away from the media. It's everywhere.

You can't ban everything that objectifies women (or men for that matter) but I really don't think beauty pageants are necessary or helpful in improving the self-images of impressionable women or the images of what impressionable men think women should look like. (I did have the word young before impressionable but really, we are all rather impressionable - It depends on whether we are able to rationalise those impressions or not.)

P.S. Though this has more to do with adverts and airbrushing than pageants - I thought this video was rather interesting.

ETA - I wouldn't go as far to say they should ban beauty pageants, but I DO say they should ban CHILD beauty pageants. Those I do use the word "disgusting" to describe.

Also, I've never heard anyone blame the entertainment industry for everything that is wrong with society (if people actually do, it's rather naive of them to think that) but I do think it's fair to say that it does have it's fair share of influence.

Edited by Delli