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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Baby beauty contests |
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| mujaahid |
| 05/29/02 at 14:45:22 |
| Assalaamu-alaikum I read this on my beauty topic, by Mike and dawn, and it reminded me of something.... "I don't know, my 15 month old could give them some competition! We haven't seen anything finer, but then we are quite biased!" "i didn't think i was being biased." .....it reminded me of those American parents who enter thier kids into beauty contests, contests, which i feel are organised and run, and almost cetainly heavily observed, by paedophiles. Anyway, what do the Mama's and Pappa's on this board feel about such contests and would you enter your babies into them? Personally, i feel its sad and pathetic that paents compete over who has the most beautiful babies. I have never seen an "Ugly" baby, so whats the point of it all? Is it because the parents feel inferior in some way and want to have the best of everything, including the "prettiest" babies? Such a contest would be a paedophiles heaven!!! So why are such contests allowed to go ahead? ??? Whats the point of it? What does it achieve? Wasalaam Mujaahid |
| Re: Baby beauty contests |
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| Dawn |
| 05/29/02 at 15:03:51 |
| [quote author=mujaahid link=board=bebzi;num=1022697923;start=0#0 date=05/29/02 at 14:45:22] Anyway, what do the Mama's and Pappa's on this board feel about such contests and would you enter your babies into them? [/quote] Absolutely not, never, no way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enough said. As for why they are still allowed to go ahead, and why parents enter their kids in them? Actually, I think that most of the parents that do enter their kids in such things are simply trying to earn a little extra money, which they usually claim will be reserved to pay for college. What the winners actually do with the money though, I don't know. |
| Re: Baby beauty contests |
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| mwishka |
| 05/29/02 at 16:50:05 |
| mujaahid, can't you guess why these contests thrive? it's very obvious - some people make their animals (supposedly their friend animals) continually produce offspring so they can sell them, some people will use their children's inherent looks and talents to supplement their income. i've seen at least two television programs investigate these contests. they represent big bucks to the parents. the money comes from selling their children out as "models" when they're really small, and then they talk as if it's normal to be using their children's success in the contests as a business plan for them to win future "beauty contests" where the prize money is much more substantial. and you should hear the way these parents talk about their children - mostly daughters, but not all - in terms like, oh, you can never quite tell how they'll turn out as they get older. one girl can be a "stunning beauty" up to 7, and then she just "loses her looks" - but what can you do? at least you're lucky if you have "another one", and we're lucky, we have "two more". (this is a very loosely recalled fake conversation, but i think it's close to what i remember hearing...) what's also bizarre is that these families (who are not necessarily bad people, by the way, but very very mixed-up and confused, and negligently by their lack of good sense or direction in the world causing harm to their children) complain about the "cost" of putting their children in these shows. they spend what for some people is a year's income on a single dress. for a child. to be worn only once. i specifically remember a dress that cost $16,000. (ok, maybe a lot of you make a lot more than that - but that's well above poverty level in the US, and even above what's called a living wage. i myself get somewhat more than that for my stipend. i'd call it a huge amount of money.) they go into debt and then joke to their children about - ok, i'd have to call this evil - how they better win the contest, cause they don't want mommy and daddy to lose the house, right? the children have pressure put on them equivalent to being owners of businesses. if the family income suffers, it's the child's fault for messing up one note of a song, or not doing the proper little turn right, or not showing off the accessories of their outfit right or not smiling at the strategic judges adequately or being a little too stiff or scared and letting it show on their face ( < what kind of way is that for a child to act, anyway??). why, these are all reasonable requests to make of your children/servants/employees -- right?? hey, mujaahid, know what i think of these contests yet?? ;) once my sister told me she'd entered her older daughter, who was about, um 2 or 3 then, in one of these at the mall. i asked her, really carefully and kindly - though she trusts me - why she did. she had just thought it was an experience that april could have doing something in public. my sister and i are kind of shy (i admit it) so she wanted to help her daughter do something a little scary in a very safe environment - meaning she would be right there with her. that was her whole thinking on this. and april loves to dance around and sing for people she meets, even though she is shy, so my sister thought maybe she might even turn out to have fun doing it. april ended up hating it because of a bunch of things, one being that strangely all the other tiny children seemed to know each other, and seemed to know exactly what to do and were practicing smiling and other weird things. she got upset when she got out to the end of the, um, runway, and wanted to get off. (no doubt! i would have wanted to, too!) once i asked that question, though, the whole story of my sister's shock and bewilderment at the contest came out. most of the other children in the contest were "professionals". my sister couldn't at first understand quite what was going on (hee heee -- we're both often oblivious to many aspects of modern culture and find them baffling...) -- why did the girls have on such fancy-looking obviously terribly expensive clothes??? april had on her "good" dress and shoes. she started telling me about it, relieved that i understood what she was talking about. and it was exactly like what i described above. these kids are transported around on a schedule to every possible such event the "professional" parents can find. there were other mothers like my sister there, they as a group eventually realized something was up, and kind of migrated to one area and kind of started expressing their confusion to each other, hesitantly at first - not knowing who these weird people around them were. you know, to me it sounds a lot like the people i mentioned in the beginning who subject their animals to profit-making baby production - these children might just as well travel on the road in horse-trailers (hey cara j - no offense meant - ok? please??) to these shows. i mean, what a weird thing - a local mall decides to have a local little thing (ignoring the type of event for the moment), and carloads of professionals rush in to win all the prizes. ok. enough about this bizarre thing...... mwishka |
| Re: Baby beauty contests |
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| Kathy |
| 05/29/02 at 19:57:27 |
| [slm] [quote]Such a contest would be a paedophiles heaven!!! [/quote] Unfortunately they are. there is currently a pending murder mystery case here in America. A young beauty pageant child was brutaly violated and killed- her name is Jon Benet Ramsey. As a mom, we are constantly on the look out for these kind of perverts. Before you start saying america, america, america- there is a one - not american- in our town- covicted and tried and found guilty. Our state has a Megan Law in which there is a central data base in which we can look up our city and see where they live- as they have to register. |
| 05/29/02 at 20:00:42 |
| Kathy |
| Re: Baby beauty contests |
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| UmmWafi |
| 05/29/02 at 23:10:43 |
| [slm] My son Wafi was, Alhamdulillah, an extremely beautiful baby (ok ok so I am biased :-/). Almost everyone I met, regardless of race and nationalities, would start pinching his cheeks and say how beautiful he is. They are absolutely obsessed with his two deep dimples and plus he was a happy gurgling child. Everytime there was a baby contest, there would be people to ask me to enter him cos "he will surely win". I always calmly tell them this. "I want my son to win a place for himself in Jannah and a baby contest will not help his chances". Usually they leave me alone after that. As for the non Muslims, I just tell them that I think ANY contest that is based purely on looks and body is in bad taste. My son is now 6yrs old with a missing upper tooth (from a rowdy football match) and a soon-to-be-missing lower tooth. He still has the deep dimples, but more importantly, he has a loving heart. He did not win any single contest but he wins my heart every time he shyly leans close and whispers "I love u Ummi". For those mothers who chose money over that, my sincerest condolences. Wassalam |
| Re: Baby beauty contests |
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| M.F. |
| 05/30/02 at 05:41:14 |
| Mwishka, what you described is SO sad :( It's so hard for me to believe that parents could be so cruel. Putting children of a certain age in any kind of contest could change their whole lives, let alone a beauty contest where there whole self image could be ruined for ever. It's also cruel for the family to put all these expectations on a kid and expect them to do everything absolutely perfectly :( It's just a different type of child labor, except this type could ruin not only their childhood but their self esteem for the rest of their lives :( |
| Re: Baby beauty contests |
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| nisa |
| 05/30/02 at 06:58:59 |
| [slm] We should remember that our children are a blessing for us in this world and we willl not gain anything by 'showing then off'. As Allah says: [color=Green][/color] "Know ye (all), that the life of this world is but play and pastime, adornment and mutual boasting and multiplying, (in rivalry) among yourselves, riches and children. Here is a similitude: how rain and the growth which it brings forth, delight (the hearts of) the tillers; soon it withers; thou wilt see it grow yellow; then it becomes dry and crumbles away. But in the Hereafter is a Chastisement severe (for the devotees of wrong)." [Al Hadid: 20] [color=Black][/color] and also [color=Green][/color] "Of no profit to you will be your relatives and your children on the Day of Judgment: He will judge between you: for Allah sees well all that ye do." [Al Mumtahan: 03] [color=Black][/color] And Allah knows best. nisa. |
| Re: Baby beauty contests |
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| BroHanif |
| 05/30/02 at 16:29:00 |
| [slm], Sorry to hear about your story mwishka, your story reminds me of a programme where it showed parents going out of their way to support the social and curricular activities of the little ones. What scared me most when observing this was at what extremes the paretns would go to in order to see happiness for the little ones. There was one couple who bought a horse for thier daughter, because she liked riding, the dad had to get up everyday at 5 in the morning and perform horse chores (I guess Caraj would know more about this) and the expense of running this horse was astronomical. The bizzare thing was that this couple were happy to undergo debt for thier child. I mean sure spend money on your kids, but going into debt ?? Man thats a tough one... Would you go into debt to see your kids smile or perhaps pursue a dream that they want ??? As for the photos of kids,well I adivse anyone not to take em in a photo comp or if you do know of a school that has a website & they have photos of kids from their pictorial album or any photos of young kids, ask em to remove it. Man its sick... Salaams Hanif |
| Re: Baby beauty contests |
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| Aabidah |
| 06/01/02 at 22:13:26 |
| [slm] I agree with bro mujaahid. Baby beauty contests are just torture for the babies, they aren't allowed to enjoy their babyhood. The same thing with junior beauty pageants, little girls are entered into pageants just to win some trophies. SubhanAllah if you were to see how much make-up they wear, it's unbelievable, and the clothes too :o :o [wlm] Betul |
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