About us...
Pull the Pin is an independent, grassroots campaign (with no party political or religious interests).
We believe that pitting young children against each other in a competition based on physical beauty instils harmful messages in children, including that their looks are their currency and that it's ok to judge on physical appearance. To trivialise the significance of this issue is to trivialise the myriad of mental health issues surrounding young girls that stem from compare and despair games. We feel that child beauty pageants are exploitative and not in the best interests of the child, but the commercial and vested interests of pageant promoters and parents living vicariously through their children. We believe that there are plenty of alternative performance based activities for children to showcase/compete with their talents that don't involve beauty competition. We believe that beauty competition culture impacts on the status of women in general.
We are also concerned about parents engaging their young children in adult cosmetic procedures such as waxing and spray tanning, and believe that children should be allowed to develop at their own pace without being adultified and/or sexualised and judged by an adult defined, narrow beauty ideal (or any beauty 'ideal'!).
We would like to see age restrictions applied (16+) to beauty pageants so that the decision to compete against their peers in a beauty contest is made with full consent, and when their emotional development better enables them to fully comprehend and handle the potential negative self esteem impacts.
We believe that pitting young children against each other in a competition based on physical beauty instils harmful messages in children, including that their looks are their currency and that it's ok to judge on physical appearance. To trivialise the significance of this issue is to trivialise the myriad of mental health issues surrounding young girls that stem from compare and despair games. We feel that child beauty pageants are exploitative and not in the best interests of the child, but the commercial and vested interests of pageant promoters and parents living vicariously through their children. We believe that there are plenty of alternative performance based activities for children to showcase/compete with their talents that don't involve beauty competition. We believe that beauty competition culture impacts on the status of women in general.
We are also concerned about parents engaging their young children in adult cosmetic procedures such as waxing and spray tanning, and believe that children should be allowed to develop at their own pace without being adultified and/or sexualised and judged by an adult defined, narrow beauty ideal (or any beauty 'ideal'!).
We would like to see age restrictions applied (16+) to beauty pageants so that the decision to compete against their peers in a beauty contest is made with full consent, and when their emotional development better enables them to fully comprehend and handle the potential negative self esteem impacts.
Our team...
Catherine Manning is the Founder and Coordinator of the Pull the Pin campaign. Catherine is the Victorian Program Manager/Presenter with Enlighten Education delivering in-schools worshops for teen girls on body image, self-esteem and media literacy, and the director of children's advocacy group Say No 4 Kids.
Contact Catherine
Contact Catherine
in NZ...
Rachel Hansen is Co-administrator of Pull the Pin New Zealand. Rachel is the owner and director of 'Good Talks' providing in-schools sexuality education across New Zealand and the National Program Manager for Enlighten Education NZ.
Contact Rachel
Contact Rachel
