The Importance Of Beauty Pages In Miss America

Sweat, anxiety, and expensive hairspray filled the room as Miss California’s Crystal Lee and Miss New York’s Nina Davuluri stood hand in hand for the announcement of who would be the lucky winner of Miss America 2014. The rapid beating of thousands of hearts was the only noise that filled the room as soon as the host uttered the words, “Ladies and Gentleman, your new Miss America is...MISS NEW YORK!” People everywhere burst into screams, whoops and hollers, all around the world, all for different reasons. Nina threw her head backwards and stood there practically hyperventilating from disbelief that she won the title of Miss America. This happy moment briefly went away as the nasty, ignorant, and racist comments on the internet started rolling

Just to clarify what exactly is feminism, the Oxford Dictionaries defines feminism as being, “the advocacy of women’s rights in the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men,” something beauty pageants completely go against. “Women are being made into jokes---pure entertainment of men (and women). It is damaging to present woman as mentally inadequate, and this further enforces the assumption that women are just pretty things to look at,” (“NGAI: Time for beauty pageants to bow out”). Beauty pageants encourage people to view women as puppets; and people know that these contestants will say and do anything so that they can win, so of course people will take advantage of them. “To earn the judges votes in pageants featured on Toddlers and Tiaras, little girls have turned into mini Hollywood sex symbols such as Daisy Duke, Vivian Wars, and Dolly Parton” (“Child Beauty Pageants” ). It is sick that people would even take advantage of little girls and make them dress up as age-inappropriate women just for laughs and giggles. And of course, most people who participate in these pageants are women. Men beauty pageants scarcely exist, but the ones that do are usually, “…bodybuilding where the masculinity and the “machoism” of men in society are reinforced” (Kpodo). But despite the fact that beauty pageants

Supporters of beauty pageants claim that, “Pageants improve participants’ self-esteem by encouraging intellectual and personal growth. Ideals personified by pageants create positive messages for young women in general” (“Beauty Pageants”). The only way one’s self-esteem would be boosted from beauty pageants is if they are already perceived as the perfect, stereotypical woman. Then of course this would boost anyone’s self-esteem if they are already deemed as being perfect. But what happens if an average looking girl participated in a beauty pageant? More than likely they would be shunned and barely acknowledged. Someone that has zits, that is overweight, and that talks with a lisp would be the laughing stalk of any beauty contest and society in