SHOULD BEAUTY CONTESTS BE ENCOURAGED AT SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
“Who’s the loveliest of them all, who’s the prettiest of them all?” — Of course, that young, skinny girl with a flawless complexion, pink lips, and beautiful hair.
Even in 2020, beauty pageants, with their centuries-old traditions, have managed to maintain their status. Why are these competitions so enticing? According to Gal Gadot and Aishwarya Rai, millions of girls compete in beauty pageants in the hopes of winning the golden ticket to a career in show business. The promise of fame and recognition is what makes these beauty pageants so appealing.
These competitions give candidates a tremendous platform to present themselves to the world and help them become tomorrow’s leaders, yet they cause more harm than good. These competitions can propagate prejudices and set unreasonable beauty standards for women. Many women who aim to compete in and win beauty pageants starve themselves every day in order to become skinny and attractive like their ideals who have won the competition. Eating disorders such as bulimia are becoming increasingly widespread. These competitions contain age, marriage, and pregnancy limitations.
Are married women, mothers, and women who are in their early twenties not beautiful enough? Not to mention the bar that these competitions have established. What is a 5'8" woman doing in an international beauty pageant representing India, where the average height of a woman is 5 feet?
Miss sparkling eyes,’ miss the gorgeous smile,’ and miss perfect skin’ are all titles that describe how each physical attribute should appear. Because of these nonsensical quests to pedestalize a certain body type, a large percentage of women acquire low self-esteem, stop liking themselves, and even become victims of body shaming, which leads to poor mental health.
Not only that, but these competitions unwittingly promote classism. People who cannot afford these luxuries often wonder if beauty is only for the wealthy because natural, god-given bodies are rarely appreciated. Top aspirants work out day and night with personal trainers, nutritionists, and other diet experts, spend hours in the gym and have expensive skin-care routines.
Professionals from Eduminatti says people are brainwashed with beauty stereotypes from a very sensitive age, with beauty contests being presented at the level of children as well. It’s difficult to deal with rejection at such a young age. Adults can choose to stroll about on stage in a swimsuit, ‘displaying’ their confidence and wearing false tans, but children are too young to make these decisions for themselves. Unhealthy competition and a beauty ideal that devalues intelligence are encouraged. Some pageants contain one or two rounds of questioning, however, this does not take into account a person’s intelligence. As if that weren’t enough, there are schools and institutes dedicated to preparing men, women, and children for pageants. People are taught to act a specific way and look a certain way in order to fit into the beautiful frame that these pageants have created.
These pageants can sometimes appear to be nothing more than a show of goodwill. When participants are asked, “What do you desire most in the world?” they frequently respond with something positive, such as world peace. With the exception of a few, these same, nice beauty queens can later be found attempting to make it big in the glamour industry rather than working for a cause they were so enthusiastic about. Where did all of that kindness vanish?
Who really gains from these beauty pageants? Certainly not the general public. For the organizers, beauty contests are money-making machines. Candidates’ endorsements are used to promote high-end fashion labels and make-up businesses. Nobody cares about the native beauty; the masses are simply considered a large market for international firms to sell their wares to in exchange for a title given to a woman who fulfills their ideals and makes their products appear desirable after winning.
According to the Schools in Delhi and Schools in Mumbai we still have a long way to go, despite the fact that beauty pageants are increasingly changing their course and racial diversity is steadily becoming a part of mainstream beauty. The inclusion of Justine Clarke, a beauty queen competing in the pageant while in a wheelchair, was favorably received. Children’s beauty pageants should be abolished; instead, we should allow them to mature into adults and decide for themselves whether or not they wish to participate in such competitions.
We don’t need females starving themselves to get into size zero dresses to look beautiful; redefining beauty is the need of the hour. It would be a revolutionary step forward in society if beauty pageants became more accepting of people of all sizes. Finally, we must remember that beauty is for everyone, not simply a specific race, social status, or body type. For a happy and healthy society, beauty, as one of the most important determinants of self-worth, should not be limited and should be more inclusive.