Is beauty an image or lifestyle that we feed or we formulate based on one’s perception of beauty? A beauty pageant is a competition that is based solely on physical attributes but often includes talent, personality, and question and answers portions. Most beauty pageants are made for women especially young girls at the age of five. Although beauty pageants are widely seen as reputable events a better and a complete understanding of this topic would be to recognize it as the silent killers of our nation ladies. I believe that beauty pageants are fake programs that are causing mental and physical disasters in our girls, such as anorexia and a false sense of beauty. Child beauty pageants are abusive, pressurizing children to adopt semi-sexualized adult mannerisms that they do not fully understand, and enforcing the message that physical appearance is all that is important. However, beauty pageants are seen by others as an avenue of developing one’s self-esteem, making contestants more popular as well as creating connections for them, to get future jobs with companies through promotion. In that, these pageants have misled girls and younger females as to what is beautiful and this may affect their outlook on life.
To begin with, most beauty pageants are for women and are a competition on physical appearance. Often times this is misrepresented because there is a different perspective for beauty when it comes to beauty contests. When we consider who is beautiful in society, we not only look at the outer beauty of people but also on the inner beauty. However, in the world of beauty pageants, what is important is your outer beauty. In addition, these annual pageants judge ladies based on how they look in dresses, and how well they can carry themselves. This can be depressing for most young girls wanting to become a pageant queen because this requirement is discriminatory to others. Apart from the outward appearance of “beauty,” there are other requirements, such as height, weight, and a beautiful face. This is also another form of discrimination as not all females who wish to be in pageants will meet the required height in certain cases. Thus, this can shatter young ladies as well as children's’ dreams of being able to feel happy about themselves.
Consequently, persons in social blogs, as well as my peers, believe that nothing is wrong with pageants. This is because they see pageants as being all about looking the best and being someone that the world wants you to be and look like. They also say that it would be unfair for someone with masculine looks to be a Ms. World or pageant queen as that is not appealing to males or even females. In addition, males view beauty queens as trophy women who can gain the attention just by stepping into an event without uttering a word. Furthermore, some of the student populous believes that physical appearance is what pageants should be based on, as she should represent the image that most females should look like, being classified as a public figure. If this is what we want beauty to be, we won’t have a future of healthy females, due to the tremendous sacrifices to be made to fit this criterion of beauty.
Moreover, since the inception of children's pageants there have been great pressures on children across the globe, in that, children who are anticipating the title of beauty queens tend to be pressured by their parents. According to the article entitled, “The Child Beauty-pageant Queens Who Grew Up” (2008), “mothers hire make-up artists just to apply make-up on their daughter’s faces. And these girls cannot do anything about it because it is their parent’s will.” Another article addresses this intensive pressure on females ,“During these events, young girls are criticized by judges as they get on stage wearing skimpy clothes, shaking their butts while making kissy faces(Frazier, 2009) .Another problem is that, rather than basing their judgments on the girl’s capabilities, they value more what the girls look like. In the long run, this will damage their mindset as these girls’ will start judging each others. What could be much worse than to have little girls considering themselves objects who are often being judged by their personality or what they wear?
On the other hand, some persons may think it’s the norm as we are in a fast pace world and nothing is wrong with these girls dressing up as well as being pretty occasionally for these beauty pageants. This is so as many mothers encourage and sometimes force their girls as young as five years old to join beauty pageants. Evidence of this is seen in America, where they hosted National American Miss Pageant and the parents were elated to see their children going out in long extensions, fake eyelashes, and some half naked costumes. The parents see this as means of their children expressing themselves and feeling good about themselves. In addition, this transcends into their lifestyle as parents allow them to feel comfortable to wear these clothes from that tender age. However, this may have an effect on how they will perceive other people, in that, the change in the definition of beauty will discard their notion of beauty coming from the inside and judging or perceiving persons being beautiful based on media outlook.
Furthermore, persons in society, especially mothers, encourage their children to join pageants as an avenue to build their confidence through performing. This is to some extent so they get to learn a lot more about their society and the world, through one of the enlisted requirements of the pageant. This requirement helps contest to know about global current affairs as well as past events. As a result, contestants can become more rounded as well as confident and socially comfortable. Some girls would not enter pageants because they are in total fear of being losers. However, when asked, some who entered beauty pageant expressed it was a very hard decision but after entering, even if they did not win, the contest sparked their self-confidence and allowed them to see that these activities are not bad after all, as they build your intellectual capacity.
However, this can be very pressuring as children, as well as adolescents, are focused on studying large numbers of documents, which can lead to them not being able to answer a question effectively. As a result, they may lose the pageant and this can affect their self-esteem as some may feel they are not good enough, and this can damage their mindset in regard to self-worth. For example, the Miss Festival Queen event is annually held in Jamaica. Most girls enter with the hope of winning the competition, but the reality is there can only be one winner. With that in mind, most girls defeat themselves by saying, “I will never win this contest because I am not educated or I am not pretty enough.” This thought should not be at the forefront of anyone’s mind entering a competition. As such, there is an overwhelming pressure placed on these individuals to retain material and look their very best at these events.
These pageants these days are embracing unrealistic body images that have caused several health issues surfacing in our females. This is caused by the outlined beauty figure seen in pageants, as well as the promotional activities that have reflected on pageant queens, which in most cases are very thin. However, this is a disaster on most societies, because ladies feel that their body is not perfect. In addition, girls in the pageants will do anything to get to the perfect size. This reflected in them starving themselves which, results in eating disorders, such as bulimia and anorexia. According to Mr. Pinsofa, a clinical psychologist, “children's beauty pageants can indeed cause eating disorders” (Nussbaum). This authority figure has seen the detrimental effect it has on our nation’s youths and deems it be in need of correction before it’s too late. Children in the pageants are fully persuaded to think that appearance is everything and forget that beauty is from the inside out, not vice versa.
On the other hand, some see the body image as an ideal as they believe that the physical appearance is the only way to win a pageant. In addition, this is also seen as a way to combat plus-size girls from entering the competition, as they won’t be able to fit in the wardrobe collection made by the pageant's organizers. This is also seen as a means of judging physical prowess as this is a requirement of the competition. To most persons, this seems fair to the world as a mark of quality in every sense of the word, because these ladies are to fit the ideal media image of beauty. However, if a drastic 30 pounds have to be lost to fit in a pageant dress, is that harmful or helpful, as this individual can damage herself and is automatically withdrawn from this competition.
Some persons view pageants as fair these days, as ladies are judged not only on their physical beauty but sometimes on talent and personality. I have watched pageants both children and the Miss World, and, I strongly believe that the look perceived at the competition has a lot to do with your rank in the competition. In the recently held Ms. World, the ladies that made it to the Top 10 are beautiful, but some of them never answered their questions sufficiently, for a Ms. World Contestant. As such, this had led me to delve into the reality that they look at the contestants as one that looks only at your outfits and the media beauty image. In addition, some of those contestants had to go through rigorous sacrifices to make it on the world stage and represent their country but this also affects some of the females as they are intellectual enough to know what is right and wrong in terms of fairness.
On the other hand, persons believe that pageants like Ms. World have given ladies a medium to show their talents, and that is a part of the criterion to enter the competition. This is indeed true, but based on the judgments passed; most girls have seen discrimination, due to their cultural background. For instance, the preliminary rounds allowed contestants to go on adventures, showcase their talents, as well as build on their intellect. In addition, these girls are required to formulate plans for project to be carried out in a country of choice to build awareness as well as bring them to the status of being a humanitarian, so that they can be seen as ladies who care about the nation’s people and not only being a beauty queen. Thus, most persons believe that the shift in rules has garnered more out of beauty pageant queens in the 19th and 20th century.
Regardless of the data presented, according to parents, as well as they wider society, there are still going to host as well as enter global beauty pageants. This is indeed true, but the question is, will our girls and ladies be led to the media ideology of beauty and face the detrimental consequences, or are we willing to let them grow to love themselves and reject beauty pageants? Beauty pageants can boost one’s self-esteem and knowledge but can be disastrous as well because contestants often starve themselves to look thin. Also, contestants can face discrimination as their body does not replicate the media image of beauty. Though there is no is solution to the horror of beauty pageants, the world needs to look into this issue and change the rules or shut down this idea or industry.
