Yogurt: A Barrier to Women's Success - Raritan Valley Community ...

33that they both are concerned with the way American society affects parent’sdecisions, and the “added pressures and increasing demands placed onchildren”(Sandel 271).Pageant mothers are an interesting group of people. They spendthousands of dollars buying their daughters intricate dresses, props forcompetition stages, shoes, hair, makeup and more. In this episode, as wellas many other episodes, these mothers are represented as prize hungry,controlling tyrants who will not stop until they win. They can choose toenhance their child’s appearance however they want, even without theirconsent. Take for example the mother that dressed her child up as aprostitute. That was completely her doing, and it was her money that sheput into her daughter’s costume. Pageant parents seem like they would loveto be able to choose their children, but as Sandel asserted, “…we do notchoose our children”(269). Sandel really emphasizes that children shouldcome into this world as gifts, and should not be hand-picked. Some pageantmoms admit that they know that all of their decisions and actions arescrutinized by the public, but for some moms, none of that matters. Theirviews oppose Sandel’s in that being able to enhance their child benefitsthem greatly, in terms of climbing the social ladder and increasing theireconomic status. In the same episode, one mom enhanced her child bygiving her fake breasts and butt pads--- talk about crazy. It mattered morethat they, or rather, she won because the money was important. Oneshould question the ethics of these beauty pageants. The fears that Sandelvoiced in his argument were clearly demonstrated by these beauty pageantmoms.Social enhancement of a child “disfigures the relation between parentand child, and deprives the parent of the humility and enlarged humansympathies that an openness to the unbidden can cultivate” (Sandel 269).What Sandel is saying here is that trying to control things that shouldn’t be