tipper said:
In one of her movies Shirley Temple dressed as Marlene Dietrich and Mae West. Would you be happier if she had dressed as one of them or Clara Bow or Judy Garland?
But didn't Shirley Temple later as an adult complain about how she was used as a child, and saw her childhood career very critically? I remember reading about this somewhere.
You do know she only did something like 12 or 13 pageants in all? That's over a two and a half year span.
12 to 13 pageants in two and half years is an awful lot. For children don't just perform in these pageants for two hours, and that's it. They have to prepare intensively for each pageant a long time before, do rehearsals, see dressmakers, make-up artists, hairdressers, etc. in order to deliver a perfect perfomance later.
Nedra was generally considered a character. Patsy and Pam didn't start in pageants until they were teenagers so clearly Nedra knows one doesn't have to start young to avoid falling miserably behind
But these were Nedra's own words. Maybe that's the conclusion she drew because her own daughters hadn't made it to Miss America - so better start her granddaughter JonBenet young at the age of four so that she should not fall behind when it would get to the real big contests?
Although pageants aren't my cup of tea I don't think they are inherently evil.
There may be pageants which are harmless, but imo pageants where the children have to wear sexy clothes and are taught to perform seductively are not harmless at all.
I guess Lolita is in the eye of the beholder.
If it is only in the eye of the beholder, a question: would you want your daughter to be dressed up sexy like some of these pageant kids? If not, why not?