Saturday, March 21, 2009

little boy and girl pageants

I've watched the commercials, etc. about little girl and boy beauty pageants.

OMG!

At first I tried to justify the parents and their motivation to the fact that I competed in rodeo and 4-H livestock events as a child.

However, after watching one show, it is not the same thing. These parents are possessed!

As a kid who grew up around cows, horses, sheep, pigs, dogs, cats and so on, rodeo, 4-H market sheep, steers, heifers, breeding heifers, were a natural part of our life style. I also competed in 4-H in sewing, cooking and photography.

4-H was a great experience, we learned about animals, breeding, the best critter to select, to get the best cuts of meat, in sewing, we learned about sewing and about modeling and fashion tips, in cooking, we learned about gardening, presentation, taste, value, canning, freezing, economy, photography was fun, but it also taught graphic design, (in the 70's, OMG).

We also did demonstrations and judging. When you do judging in 4-H, you go to a competition and you judge someone else's work. Then you have the privilege of getting up before a professional and giving them your reasons why you judged the items the way you did.

Great public speaking and reasoning experience.

On the whole sewing experience, I have to mention, I love to sew and still do it, but when I went to work at the veterinary hospital, I was watching as the vet was sewing up an injured dog, and he was explaining to me the stitch he was using, I had to snicker and told him that if he were sewing we called it a running stitch. Same stitch, different purpose, different name.

Anyway, back to the pageant thing. I do not think these kids are learning anything from this. Little girls as young as 3 years old, wearing a buttload of make up, shaving their legs, primping, on diets to stay thin, this is not a good thing.

These little girls look like a pedophiles fantasy. And the only thing they have learned is make it on your looks baby! Your looks is all that counts.

It is so sad.

At least with rodeo, we learn to work with someone else, even if it is an animal, and looks don't matter, it's all about hard work, practice and working with someone besides yourself. Rodeo is a team sport.

The biggest thing I learned is, no matter how hard you work, some days everything goes like clockwork and you kick ass, the next day, you might be sucking hind titty, but that's just the way it goes.

From what I'm seeing as I watch a kiddy beauty pageant, we have a bunch of fat ass moms, living through their little girls. Mom, if you want to be a beauty queen, go on a diet, get a face and boob lift, don't force your kid to be what you wish you were. Your kid is not you! give your gid a break, let them be a kid.

None of us are perfect. I'll take rodeo any day over being a beauty queen.

My parents never forced me to do the 4-H market steer, breeding heifer, cooking, sewing, photography, best halter mare/gelding/foal, market sheep, I did it because I enjoyed it. As I got older I dropped some of the projects and only did the horse/market beef and creative sewing, because that is what I wanted to do.

I did win 2 trips to our state fair in judging competitions. I went to the state fair, did my judigng, gave the person juding me my reasons for why I placed things the way I did. One year I won a blue ribbon, pretty good, on year I got a green participation ribbon. That's ok .It was a good experience, and I didn't have to look like a child molesters fantasy to compete.

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