Child Beauty Pageants: Fun or Fiendish?

Pageants Can Provide a lot of Fun for Kids, but Critics See Them as Potential Havens for Pedophiles.

Child beauty pageants are alive and well, with more than a quarter million kids competing each year. But with renewed focus on the murder of pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey and the growth of the pageant industry, critics wonder if pageants may be attracting unsavory elements.

When the Ramsey story first broke 12 years ago, it was fueled in no small measure by the pictures of 6-year-old JonBenet in makeup and Las Vegas showgirl outfits. Many were repulsed, saying pageants sexualized little girls. But some parents apparently liked what they saw.

Mark Gado, a police detective in New Rochelle, N.Y. has investigated pedophile cases for 10 years and has just written a book about a pedophile priest. He says there's no proof that pedophiles use these events to find children to assault.

"Parents, I believe, have nothing to fear putting their children in these types of child pageants," says Gado. The larger question for parents may be whether these contests help or hurt a child's self-esteem.

The movie "Little Miss Sunshine," about a family whose daughter gets into a child beauty pageant, pokes fun at this subculture. Many, if not most, parenting experts say these contests can be emotionally damaging for kids.

But Thumper Gosney, a former Little Miss Texas who was in many pageants alongside JonBenet Ramsey, remembers her time as a child beauty queen fondly.
"We were 5 years old. We just competed together. It was great."

REST IN PEACE SWEET ANGEL

A special little girl was made, by GOD one lovely day.

He made her very special in every kind of way. Spun threads of the purest gold, he used to make her hair,put two emralds in her eyes and bade them sparkle there.

Petal cheeks and lily skin, made her face complete. He made her sound of body, purest heart and mind,innocence and joyfulness was carfully entwined. He made her cute, and clever, to sing and then to dance, He gave her natural beauty, no make-up could enhance. Then He found a place on earth for her to live and play, and creed then, that this little girl's name be 'Jonbenet'.

Unknown to this world of ours the devil went to work, and found a monster in some slime where only demons lurk.To be more foul and twisted, more cruel than we could know, with features mind and body, where hate alone could grow. He showed It how to murder, cheat, to use his devil horns, to hide it's lies behind it's eyes, to take on human forms. He showed it how to tear appart, leave innocence defiled, and set it on the Earth that day, to desecrate a child.

It crawled out of the gutter shying from the light. For Chrismas cheer and blessings, filled that very night. But as the snow lay on the ground after christmas day, It must of heard her singing, for it found our 'Jonbenet' Then cloaked in utter darkness that wretched fiened so dead.

Manifest beside that child, and dragged her from her bed.

Her beauty terrified it, her youth did make it weak. It felt she must be trodden on, her detruction made complete. It took her to the cellar, and drank her life away

The evil bubbled from him, to where her body lay.

It walked away and left her, like a broken spell.... and vanished back into the night, to go back down to hell. Looking back on these events, no one understands, Is why this strength of evil had to tie her little hands.

Now GOD looked up in wonder as she came running through his door, and threw her arm around his neck and wept a little more,Oh! FATHER it was awful, I could'nt even scream....... please hold me tight, I'm filled with fright, after this awful dream.

The LORD took her gently to him, and wiped her tears away..... she had forgotten all that passed, before the end of day. Oh! The earth and all within so hard to comprehend.... but Jonbenet, your memories stay, and will never have an end.