Beauty Pageants: Empowering or Degrading?


Beauty Pageants: Empowering or Degrading?



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Beauty Pageants are something that have existed in the society for quite a long time now. Years after years women, men and even children nowadays are subjected to superficial standards of beauty according to the society. Beauty Pageants are places where people are judged based on their physical appearances. It is something that sets up the so called ‘ideal’ standards of beauty. Yes, they may have a round or two of questioning, but that isn’t enough to know someone’s intelligence. They put standards to everything from Miss/Mr. Beautiful Eyes to Miss/Mr. World.

They empower women as they help them to overcome their stage fright as well as help them to learn to face people at a larger platform. It opens a lot of opportunities for them and also helps in gaining some financial help through scholarships and various other means. It gives them a platform to showcase their talent and views. It also helps in developing one’s self esteem and self-confidence. It may also help a person in having mass appeal and in raising funds for charity events. Women get a platform to present their views without any fear. They even get to meet a lot of new people hence helping them in socialising and getting a new perspective towards the world. They provide them with an opportunity of being self-independent.  In a society where women are actually valued on their looks beauty contest somehow gives them an opportunity to get noticed and improve their situations. There have been many actresses who would not have had the opportunity to showcase their acting skills without winning such a contest.

Since all good things come with a price, there is a hidden price here as well. Definitely such competition might help to develop a competitive spirit amongst people, but that competition turns out to be unhealthy as well. In 2015, the Runner-up of Miss Amazonas pageant, Sheislane Hayalla snatched the crown off the winner to express her disapproval. They might also help in increasing the self-confidence of a person, but in many cases it has also been a reason for why a person is depressed. To relate beauty contests to success is a huge blunder, though in some cases it might have helped to provide an opportunity to people but to completely relate it with success is wrong. There is ample amount of hard work that one needs to put in.  Most successful women like Angela Merkel, Theresa May, Indra Nooyi, Anne Frank and others did not win any beauty pageant to be successful. In some of the peasants the standards set are even higher. For one to be Miss Universe they should never have been married or pregnant. Even in order to demonstrate their intelligence on such a platform one should have a certain level of beauty.

One might say that it’s one’s personal choice to take part in such competitions. They are not obligated to do anything, but due to their peer pressure as well as the societal pressure they have to do certain things which they don’t support in order to win. Yes, it might be one’s choice to take part in such competitions but the things they are subjected to after taking part is in one or the other way forced upon them. There are some swimsuits rounds in which it doesn’t even matter if one knows how to swim or not.

Beauty Pageants are somehow a thing of the past and shouldn’t be promoted. They are basically meant for those slim women and handsome men who know how to carry themselves and not those who are intelligent. Somehow it ends up body shaming people, in an age where body positivity is being promoted. According to various studies it has been found that beauty pageants have resulted in eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa. People purposely remain hungry to maintain their figure in order to win. It damages one’s self-assurance, by not only making them feel horrible about themselves but also by making the winner feel more boastful about herself. They fail to challenge the situations to which the women are subjected to. The main aim of a beauty pageant should be focusing at a woman who has brains and who can step forward to change the situations to which women are subjected nowadays. These contests do not do anything to help in the liberation of people. By subjecting looks as the basis they somehow show this beauty of theirs to be the most important feminine quality of a women. Similarly, in Mr. World men are subjected to laid standards of masculinity.

Beauty pageants should be such where people of all size and shapes are respected and given an opportunity to present themselves. It should not have any fixed standards laid and should give every person an equal opportunity to present their talents. It is something that should respect the intelligence of a person rather than the way they carry themselves. It should just promote a healthy and a friendly competition and not force anyone to starve or to maintain a perfect figure. More of questioning should be included to know more about the persons views. Beauty is something which is inherited while intelligence is something which a person gets over time. So the main focus of a beauty pageant should be the intelligence level rather than the physical attributes of a person.

Being in the 21st century people still glorify beauty with the laid standards of such contests. But beauty is something that your heart possesses rather than the physical appearances. Even if such contests take place the way of judgement should be more inclusive and less shallow. Such peasants should be dealt with a more intelligent approach and should help one in finding their hidden talents. The ideology of these contests should be changed in order to make it more compatible with the present situation of the world. They should be held for a more meaningful purpose rather than the aim of objectifying beauty. Afterall “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”.




AKANKSHA GOEL
RAJIV GANDHI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LAW, PATIALA


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