Definition Essay: A Brief History Of Pageants

“It's 6:30 on a Saturday morning at the Southfork Hotel in Plano, TX, just north of Dallas, and in Room 326, 6-year-old Eden Wood is perched on a stool, quietly staring at herself in a lighted mirror, waiting for the transformation to begin. First, a stylist applies layers of foundation, blush, eye shadow, mascara, lip liner, and hot-pink lipstick. Then,” according to Skip Hollandsworth in Good Housekeeping, “she turns to Eden's hair — except it's not Eden's hair. A long blond fall, full of curly ringlets, is attached to the back of the little girl's head, and using a brush and curling iron, the stylist teases all the hair, real and synthetic, until it looks as if it's going to float away. Finally, she runs a cloth over Eden's already manicured

Likewise, the Meriam-Webster Dictionary defines pageantry as, “a mere show or presentation,” (“Pageantry” np). In the early 1900’s, Louis Napoleon Parker brought the “modern pageant” to England (Yoshino 49). This pageant represents more theatrical aspects of the definition. Directors brought the history of Virginia Woolf’s most political novels, Between the Acts, to the stage (Yoshino 49). These types of pageants are present all over the nation. However, the pageants discussed within this paper are not merely historical spectacles, presentations, or theatrical performances. In a way, one can compare a beauty pageant to a historical pageant. However, a beauty pageant is a presentation of beauty and elegance, not a historical play. One cannot confuse or mistake a beauty pageant with common definitions and forms of pageantry. These pageants’ sole purpose is not to display history or recall events in dramatic form, but rather, to express and uplift participants in finding elegance, class, and their own personalities in events. Judges score participants accordingly for an accumulative score and a crowning of a winner in concluding