To most beauty pageants may seems like a waste of time and it may seem to be another way to make women feel inferior to one another. I, however, have come to find that this is one of the many myths which surround such an advantageous opportunity. Young women learn many valuable lessons which help them throughout their entire life. These lessons could range from such a variety of things, from being able to overcome shyness to raising awareness on a certain issue through a platform to also even possibly winning scholarships. One of the most prominent and well known pageants, Miss America, is responsible for providing more than $45 million dollars in scholarship money. This money is open to all young women who are willing to put in the hard work and have the perseverance to try to succeed. To some, this may be a leading factor in deciding to enter a pageant, especially for those who have few options for their education. However, most seem to think that only the winners in pageants can win these scholarships, that of course is not true. Other scholarships may be based on the co...
American beauty pageants got their start in the 1920’s in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was a kind of tourist attraction created by business owners to keep the tourist in town past Labor Day. Not surprisingly, the first competition consisted of only a swimsuit portion. Eventually as pageants grew more popular, more categories were added. It didn’t take long for pageants to gain popularity, the first Miss America Pageant was held in 1921. Pageants grew bigger still with television in the 1950’s, as it allowed mass amounts of people to watch at once. It wasn’t until the The Feminist Act in the 1970’s that people starting viewing pageants as bad (Goldstein). Some people suggest that beauty pageants really hammer the idea that beauty is the most importa...
Rapport, Lisa J. "Child Beauty Pageants: The Real Story Behind the Glitz." Child Beauty Pageants: The Real Story Behind the Glitz. N.p., 30 May 2011. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
Beauty Pageants.” Journal of Law & Policy 18.2 (2010): 739-774. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19. Mar. 2014.
The main reason being participating in beauty pageants builds children's confidence and public speaking skills. Building confidence is not always the case often times children are discouraged and it ruins there body image in the long run. Contestants can earn money for college, it's not always the case though because what happens when children aren't winning, they then are earning money they are just losing self confidence. Also, many pageant parents say that participating in pageants is the same as playing a sport, which playing a sport requires time and money and puts intense pressure on them. Young athletes learn discipline, feel great pride in their accomplishments, and form lasting friendships which also happens in the pageant
...as Miss USA and Miss Universe are competitions intended for mature, self-assured women who are capable of making their own decisions. Child beauty pageants, however, ruin childhoods and force them to grow up believing in their looks, rather than in themselves. It is no surprise, that emotional distress plagues the contestants that participate in beauty long after stepping off of the stage; subjecting young girls of any age to judgment and ridicule is not only humiliating but horrific to think that we are sitting back being entertained by their competitive nature. Rather than raising strong, confident girls who want to achieve the best in life; the parents and the hosts of these competitions provide a platform on which little girls are dressed up as skimpy Barbie dolls and paraded around, trying to achieve some form of perfection that shouldn’t exist in little girls.
Since the Miss America Pageant was established in 1921, conceptions of the beauty of American women have been based, in part, on the winner of this pageant. Sarah Banet-Weiser writes in her book, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, that “the woman selected as Miss America apparently 'represents' the nation” (Banet-Weiser 56). As a result of representing the American nation, the winner of the Miss America pageant is looked up to as a model for style and beauty among women. Since its inception, the Miss America pageant has come under attack from feminist organizations for exploiting women's bodies despite the fact that it is a scholarship program; the pageant rewards contestants a scholarship for continuing education based on their responses in the interview and the talent portions of the pageant as well as their performance in the swimsuit competition. A beauty pageant, such as the Miss USA pageant, is strictly concerned with a woman's outer beauty and does not include the talent or interview portions.
Beauty pageants are no help to the cause either. Miss America has become a job for women that represent their country from the way their face looks, rather than their ideas and vocal capabilities. We have become a nation centered around beauty and appearance and this annual television show has followed in this trend’s wake.
Recent female contestants they will understand the dangers of pageants and become more aware of what they need to do to protect themselves. Some will not care and believe it will not happen to them, that they are the one who can survive in the game. Economic classes are spoken to; upper class all they see is the glitter and trophies so they go to the extreme to go for the prizes of thousands of dollars and don’t care about what they need to do in order to get it. “Parents, many of whom have only modest incomes, pay for high-glitz coaches ($50 to $100 an hour), high-glitz photographers ($300 per session, with $150 for retouching), high-glitz wig makers ($150 to $175 a pop), and high-glitz spray tanners ($25 per pageant)”(Hollandsworth). Middle class they don’t see it as you have to have money to do it they can do just as good as those who have lots of money and do it better. Fans who support the pageant will consider how they perceive the girl as the model and perform their talents on
Beauty pageants have caused an increase in mental and physical issues in young girls who participate. Participation and competition for a beauty prize where infants and girls are objectified and judged against sexualized ideals can have significant mental health and developmental consequences that impact detrimentally on identity, self-esteem, and body perception ("We must protect our kids from the catwalk of shame."). If young girls don't win, they might take it personally and get hurt feelings. The child might end up feeling unattractive or inadequate ("Child Beauty Pageants Pros and Cons.") which can lead to the development of disorders such as bulimia or anorexia. ("How Do Child Beauty Pageants Affect a Child's Development?") These are both eating disorders girls develop to lose weight excessively. Furthermore, the average BMI of a beauty pageant contestant as of 2010 is 18.3 (Beauty Pageant Statistics), which is classified as underweight...
Issues regarding the purpose of beauty pageants alarm women since majority of the beauty pageants are for them. Let us look at the good side of beauty pageants. First, allows the use...
...le do thing that they do is a good way to prepare for such a career.” In the end, pageants have their good ways and their bad ways. Some parents put their kids in pageants to prove that they are better than others, but other parents do it for their kids to make lifelong friends. (Cromie, 2000)
Modern beauty contests started in the United States of America in 1880 with the first Miss United States bathing beauty contest held at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Since then, beauty pageants had been popular in many parts of the world. Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International, participated in every year by more than fifty countries, ceaselessly attracts huge audiences and supporters. The biggest, the Miss World competition, had been running annually since 1951, and although it is less popular in the UK now than it was in 1968, when it attracted 27.5 million TV viewers, it still attracts an enormous worldwide audience of up to 3 billion viewers in 120 countries. [1] Although the main purpose of these pageants are to empower women, the crowned winners are also traveling around the world in order to support causes like HIV/AIDS and children's charity organizations. [2] Due to the success of these internationally produced pageants, various beauty contests for different classes of age, sex and sexuality stemmed up. However, even with the huge diversity, the content of each pageants have almost always been the same: all of them are comprised of the mainstream categories like swimwear portion and evening gown portion. With these content, beauty pageants gives out strong messages regarding what the ideal type of woman is, hence undermining the purpose of a beauty pageant: to empower women. Thus, although beauty pageants contribute to the entertainment of the masses, it promotes an ideal of female beauty that only a minority of women can realistically aspire, objectifies women, further advances cultural insensitivity among its candidates and uses up too much resources which is why it should be banned.
Beauty pageants have long been a form of entertainment, exhibiting beautiful women with ideal bodies competing with their talent and their looks. Many pageant moms involve their daughters in children’s pageants to help them improve their social skills, exercise their talents, and boost their self-esteem. Although the pageants may seem like harmless competition with benefits, research shows that they may be doing the young beauty queens more harm than good. “...the girls are receiving conflicting messages: In order to win, the girls must show a unique personality, but they must also act and dress in a hyper feminine manner and conform to the pageant world 's ideal standard of beauty and narrow set of conventions.” (University of Kansas,
...e becoming available for women. Women are now using their platforms in their pageants and making them now careers. Some beauty contest winners are looking into careers in politics as well as mentoring positions for younger women. Even though some feel that the pageant industry is devaluing children and their self esteem, hindering their development, and expensive, some feel that the pageant industry is now becoming a center for bonding and creating lifelong relationships. Some may even feel that social media is also a source for the negative effects of the pageant industry. America can now see how the simple things like beauty contest could affect a whole nation and change the way the people of society view one another, and we also see how positive the changes have our nation become stronger and created new extracurricular activities for the average American child.
...nd do not take it farther than they have. (Palmero). Winners of pageants go on a year long parade, showing of the title they so proudly won, along the way they show the confidence, recognition and communication skills they gained. The purpose of beauty pageants is to find ones personality, their own strengths and weakness as a person, gain confidence and raise their self-esteem, and prove to people that it is not impossible to have beauty and brains.