Beauty Pageants - History of Beauty Pageants Origin Is Traceable to the Miss American Pageant

Beauty Pageants

"Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical." - Sophia Loren (Italian film Actress, b. 1934). Beauty contests promote an idea of female beauty to which only a minority (group of) of women can realistically aspire, but which adds to the pressure on all women to conform to it. This can be harmful to women by encouraging dieting, eating disorders and cosmetic surgery, or simply by making they feel inadequate and ugly, etc. Also, women in beauty contests are judged on their physical appearance rather than any other qualities they may possess. Judging women, but not men, primarily on their looks contributes to the subjugation of women because other qualities, such as intelligence, are not seen as part of ideal femininity. Secondly, beauty contests promote the idea that the appearance is the most important part of women. They lead women and girls, to believe that they are ugly and should be more beautiful. Also, that kind of idea makes people want to have cosmetic surgeries or could be a cause of bullying in schools. (Dalbey 37) Therefore, contestants entering beauty pageants is damaging to their well-being because it leads them to the conclusion that physical beauty is the primary judge of their character, and that they are not beautiful without extensive use of cosmetics and clothing, etc.

History of beauty pageants origin is traceable to the Miss American pageant,

which was first held in Atlantic City in 1920's, under the title "Inter-City Beauty Contest." Also during the same decade when the celebrity culture of movie stars and movies, magazines fully blossomed, was no coincidence. The Miss America Pageant eventually included preliminary eliminations, an evening gown competition, musical variety shows, and judging by panel still, the contest was at first shunned by middle-class society. Pageants did not become respectable until World War II, when "beauty queens" were recruited to sell bonds and to entertain troops. Scholarships and talent competitions evoked even closer scrutiny of contestants' morals and backgrounds. (Matthews 2)

Beauty Competitions, otherwise known as Beauty Contests or Beauty Pageants degrade women to mere objects. Such as competition is the exploitation of women by men and other women. In the case of a beauty competition, no skill or ability is involved. Beauty is supposed to be the criteria for such a competition. The question is: how can beauty compete? Beauty is a quality that is in the one who is seeing what he or she might say to be beautiful. A woman considered to be beautiful by one person may not be so to another. One man may like a woman with an hour-glass figure, or another man likes a plump woman. One may find long hair beautiful while another may like hair to that of an ugly witch. Beauty is purely subjective. No two persons can agree on what beauty is, yet there are beauty competitions. How can a group of men and women watch the parade of a group of half-naked girls pronounce one to be the most beautiful? These young mostly naïve girls, because they cannot show any skill or ability, having to flaunt their bodies in public in front of an audience of lusty and leering old men. It is degrading to see these young girls with perpetual smiles pouting their lips and wiggling their bottoms just to gain some marks from some judges. Every woman is beautiful, if she is herself. The moment she flaunts herself, she becomes an object to be degraded and exploited by those who will cash in on her assets. Thus, she becomes a sex-object. Perhaps women will realize her own beauty and not have to exhibit it in front of dirty old men pretending to be appreciative.

"Although beauty pageants have changed since the first demonstrations against them in the 1960s-placing more emphasis on scholarships-they are still symbols of the exploitation of women. Beauty pageants are becoming less popular but not, unfortunately, because women have no need to rely on their looks to get ahead; rather, the waning interest appears to be because the pageants are not sexy enough. Beauty pageants perpetuate many of the unrealistic beauty standards that make women insecure; causing them to seek out expensive beauty treatments and surgeons (Filipovic 29)

Are beauty pageant winner's good role models? Although beauty pageant winners are often deemed to be good role models for young girls, they rarely live up to the myth. In reality, there is a long history of beauty queens who got in trouble for bad behavior as varied as posing nude, public drunkenness, and fighting. Beauty pageants are outdated and serve no positive social role, it is time that they come to an end. Another, reason why the outdated beauty pageants should be cancelled; besides being shallow and sexist, it's a sham to pop up the image of a beauty queen as the most wholesome